Five WWE Hall of Fame members who were previously blacklisted by WWE

Kicking off the list is WWE's 2018 hell-freezes-over moment: Jeff Jarrett somehow overcame years of being persona non grata within the company to become an inductee into the Hall of Fame.

Jarrett left the company on very bad terms in 1999, following Vince Russo to WCW with promises of a big push there. Jarrett was Intercontinental champion at the time of his departure, feuding with Chyna — who would be even more shocking if she was ever inducted — in a "man vs. woman" war that was surprisingly effective in making Jarrett into a bigger star.

However, just as he was hitting his stroke as champion, his contract expired and head of talent relations Jim Ross reportedly forgot to renew it amidst the turmoil of Russo's departure. Jarrett signed a big deal with WCW, and then demanded a payout of the PPV money owed to him by Vince McMahon before he would drop the IC title to Chyna.

McMahon reluctantly paid the money, but held a grudge for years afterwards, most notably by firing Jarrett on live TV on the famous "RAW"-"Nitro" simulcast episode in 2001. From there, Jarrett started TNA, the only opposition McMahon had since 2002, so that didn't make him particularly welcome back in WWE, either.

But time (and money) heals all wounds, and with Jarrett's 2017 expulsion from TNA, McMahon must have felt there was money to made from him again. Hey, stranger things have happened, as we'll soon see.

"I will never do business with that man again" were the words reportedly spoken by Vince McMahon in late 1999, when someone in the company asked him about bringing Randy Savage back for another run.

Savage and McMahon had a contentious-but-good relationship leading up to his 1994 departure from the WWF, with Savage leaving for WCW. McMahon had phased him from wrestler to announcer and vetoed all of "Macho Man's" ideas for a comeback run, and reportedly felt that Savage was too old for the role of top wrestler. WCW saw money in having Savage reunited with Hulk Hogan again.

By 1996, after multiple runs as WCW World Champion — and turning into a top star again — McMahon attempted to sign him back again one last time, but Savage stayed with the guaranteed money of WCW. Then, by 2001, the company was dead and bought by WWE, and Savage was suddenly no longer welcome for reasons that are mysterious and plagued with rumors to this day. Regardless, he was not mentioned or celebrated on WWE TV until his sudden death in 2011, when fans began chanting his name and top guys like CM Punk started paying tribute to him with flying elbows.

A few years later, more unthinkable reconciliation occurred when a DVD set of Savage's life was released, finally giving him the due he had been lacking for years in the modern era. Then, in 2015, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, five years after his death. Suddenly you could talk about him on WWE TV, with everyone who was influenced by him — which is a lot of people — free to talk about it again.

Why did McMahon bar him from the company in the first place? Why did he suddenly change his mind more than a decade later? We'll never know for sure.

Part of what has seemingly become the "Triple H Reconciliation Tour," Warrior was one of the most surprising additions to the Hall of Fame given his history with Vince McMahon — and with Triple H, for that matter. At one point, the relationship between the two parties was so terrible that WWE actually produced an entire DVD dedicated to making fun of him and burying him as a terrible wrestler.

Warrior quit several times, with each breakup becoming more acrimonious than the last, until finally things had fallen apart to the point where it seemed unlikely he would ever be back on good graces with McMahon again.

After leaving wrestling, Warrior had became an increasingly crazed public speaker who gave extreme right-wing speeches about rejecting homosexuals and he was seemingly losing touch with reality on a daily basis. However, having a child seemingly changed him and brought him back to reality again, leading to Triple H brokering a deal via the WWE 2K video game to bring him back for one last time in 2014.

They made a documentary for the WWE Network chronicling Warrior reconciling with Triple H, McMahon and Hulk Hogan, and Warrior appeared on "RAW" to give a speech after being inducted. After the plane ride back to Phoenix, Warrior tragically died of a heart attack, and now he's celebrated as a saint and a pioneer of wrestling on WWE's broadcasts whenever mentioned. It's a strange business, indeed. 

I think this one is fairly self-explanatory.

Back in 1997 there was a little incident called "The Montreal Screwjob" that you may have heard about before, and Bret Hart left for WCW with a very bad relationship with McMahon — he literally punched Vince in the face on the way out of the company, and it was only threat of a counter-suit from McMahon that kept Hart from suing for breach of contract before he left.

Hart was unfortunately forced into retirement before WCW came to an end in 2001, but he spent years trashing Vince McMahon and WWE to anyone who would listen.

Once again proving that time heals all wounds, he returned in 2006, actually working a match with McMahon at Wrestlemania. The match was terrible, but he apparently mended fences with Shawn Michaels and everyone else, and is now a happy member of the WWE family again, working for them under a Legends deal and occasionally appearing on TV, even winning the U.S. title from the Miz in 2010.

Finally, the most unlikely induction of all, Bruno Sammartino.

Sammartino was the second — really, the first — WWF champion, holding the title for more than seven years, a record reign which will likely never be broken or even sniffed. He was the face of the company not only for the '60s, but then for a second title reign in the '70s where he continued to sell out Madison Square Garden multiple times, making millions for Vince McMahon Sr. and then moving into a role of color commentator on the syndicated TV shows in the '80s as a "Living Legend."

However, the relationship fell apart after WrestleMania 2, and Sammartino was at odds with McMahon ever since then. He famously left the company after a dramatic legal battle with McMahon over money and perceived misuse of his son, David. 

Bruno spent decades bashing the McMahons in the media, claiming that everyone in the company were drug and steroid users and not real wrestlers, saying over and over that he would never return or work with McMahon ever again. Then, after years of gentle negotiations, Triple H somehow managed to convince him to come back into the fold, bypassing McMahon completely and talking him into coming back for induction into the Hall of Fame. Most of us never thought he'd see the day, but here we are.