Five new entrants, led by Eddy Guerrero, are in the class of 2006 of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.
Guerrero heads a field that also includes one of the most influential promoters in history, Paul Bowser of Boston, as an overlooked historical figure. Also voted in this year were three modern Japanese wrestling stars, current politician Senator Hiroshi Hase, shoot pioneer Masakatsu Funaki and one of the top woman wrestling heels of all-time, Aja Kong.
Once again we had a wide open field with no real favorites or shoo-ins to make it. Guerrero, who passed away in November, doubled from 34% to 69% from last year’s balloting, and would have gone higher, as several voters remarked to me they were not going to vote for him until 2007 because they didn’t want his induction tinged with the idea it was a sympathy vote. He was named on 143 of the 207 ballots covering North America, with more than 80% support among active wrestlers and reporters, and strong support among retired wrestlers.
Welcome to the second installment of my annual Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame ballot discussion — one of my most popular shows of the year.
Check out part one and then delve into this episodes where I continue to discuss nominees like Roman Reigns, the Young Bucks, Rocca and Perez, Sgt. Slaughter, Big Daddy, Roy Welch, Bob Armstrong, Mongolian Stomper, the Von Erichs, the British Bulldogs, the Hart Foundation, and many more.
Do the Young Bucks have a shot in getting inducted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame?
Dave Meltzer, John Pollock of Post Wrestling, Paul Fontaine, and Garrett Gonzales discussed The Young Bucks candidacy on Wrestling Observer Radio Friday afternoon. Meltzer indicated the panel discussion came about by a discussion in Las Vegas where Fontaine thought they had a really strong case, whereas Meltzer thought they wouldn’t get in when their name comes up on the ballot later this year.
Meltzer pointed out they were a focal point in the foundation of AEW, a company that completely changed the wrestling business.
“There would be no AEW. AEW changed the entire business completely. Everyone’s making more money because of AEW, there’s way more wrestling on television, there’s way more jobs, and they were a key to that,” Meltzer said.
“All the Elite, including Cody [Rhodes] and Tony Khan, to me are like no-brainers,” Fontaine said.
Meltzer thought that it may be too early to determine Hall of Fame success based on AEW’s success at four years, and that at the ten year mark, we’d have a better assessment.
John Pollock said that the Bucks’ road to the Hall of Fame began in 2014 when they joined New Japan, citing NJPW’s success in the US once they joined the Bullet Club which led to the formation of independent wrestling merchandise stores such as Pro Wrestling Tees.
“They popularized that service for a lot of people, and that’s before getting into AEW,” he said.
Dave Meltzer and I are back on Wrestling Observer Radio going over the 2022 class of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. John Muse joins us to go over the full class, the acts who were close, and next year’s new candidates.
After that, we talked about all the recent news. Topics include:
John Cena on SmackDown and if he will be at WrestleMania
The Rock and WWE’s decision
Barry Windham
Sasha Banks at WrestleKingdom
Ticket sales for AEW Revolution so far
MJF at UFC 282
ROH, NXT, & UFC shows tomorrow
Tony Khan’s ROH press conference
Vince McMahon documentary
Dana White’s Slap League
Miro’s current situation
The video version of this show is available for video subscribers at video.f4wonline.com.
The 2022 class of the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame has eight new entrants.
Voted by our panel into the Hall of Fame were All Japan tag team stars Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada, CMLL star Mistico, New Japan stars Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito, Los Villanos from Mexico and Rollerball Mark Rocco, a star who changed the in-ring style in the U.K. and was part of the junior heavyweight boom in Japan as the original Black Tiger, a top rival for the first Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama.
Also added to the Hall of Fame this year were two of the leading promoters of all time, Lou Daro and Johnny Doyle.
We have an extensive story on Daro in this week’s issue and will have another on Doyle in the upcoming weeks. The Daro story is a fascinating look at the world of wrestling during a very different time and place, and the man who put pro wrestling in Los Angeles on the map. Daro was a very controversial figure subject to numerous investigations, alliances, and switching of loyalties that made his era of the 1920s and 1930s and what went on behind the scenes as the foundation of the territorial business was being built amazingly fascinating.
Join me on this week’s DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show for my final look at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame ballot for 2022.
In this finale, I discuss the Other Countries candidates, the non-wrestler list, and talk about all the new tag teams on the ballot including the Robert Gibson paradox.
Be sure to check out part 1 and part 2 and let me know what you think on Twitter.
The 2022 Hall of Fame ballot is out and this is going to be a very interesting year because of a lot of changes.
As mentioned last year, because of the number of people on the ballot, using the ten-ballot maximum as baseball uses makes no sense for a number of reasons. First, just using this year as an example, baseball had 30 people on the ballot and there was a ten-vote maximum. This Hall of Fame encompasses the world, not just the U.S., and has 85 singles or tag team acts on the regular ballot and another 20 non-wrestlers listed.
Another problem is the old standard of ten maximum actually favors people with less worldwide knowledge. Those who vote for people all over the world can’t vote for as many in an individual category as people who vote in fewer categories.
For this year, we are doing an 18-vote maximum of the wrestlers and five of the non-wrestlers. In future years this will probably revert to 15, but this year we’ve added so many new tag teams, some of whom should be sure things and all others are at least viable candidates. That means there are a few more who should be automatic as compared to other years. There is also a new rule here you can vote for a maximum of five in each specific category except U.S. & Canada Historical, where, because of the addition of so many tag teams to the ballot, you can vote for eight.
Dave Meltzer and I are back on Wrestling Observer Radio to interview the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and new inductee into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame, Kazuchika Okada.
We talk to him about wrestling during the pandemic, great matches, dream opponents, and his historic career.
Click to listen below or watch the video on YouTube.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including updates on Cody Rhodes and Mustafa Ali, AEW and NXT lineups for the week, the Hall of Fame, two big anniversaries, Monday’s WWE Raw report and tons more. A packed show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Cody Rhodes
3:95: AEW Dynamite and NXT lineup, Raw lineup for next week
7:22: Mustafa Ali asks for WWE release, Vince and mutilation
9:50: Jerry McDevitt article, Hall of Fame
13:37: Anniversaries of Ivan Koloff beating Bruno, Ultimate Fighter
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Garrett Gonzalez and I will be talking about the Observer Hall of Fame voting and the latest news for Wrestling Observer Radio later today. Bryan and I will be talking about UFC and the weekend wrestling shows tomorrow night.
The Hall of Fame issue of the Observer, one of the biggest of the year, is now out. We have a huge story on the balloting, including how many votes everyone got this year and last, all the first ballot Hall of Famers in history, the highest voting percentages in history, as well as how the candidates did with historians, reporters, wrestlers and retired wrestlers and industry professionals. We also have the most detailed look at the MLW lawsuit against WWE against WWE. We also look at the plans for WrestleMania and how they have changed, New Japan vs. NOAH, lots of AEW contract updates, the most four-star matches in 2021 and of all-time, a feature on Shozo “Strong” Kobayashi, one of the biggest stars in Japan of the 70s, Is there a WWE succession plan, injury updates and ticket sales.
The 2/19 PPV from Saudi Arabia will be the Elimination Chamber. They have been batting around ideas regarding changing the name. Elimination Chamber and Saudi Arabia kind of opens things up to potential ridicule and at one point today the plan was to call the match WrestleMania Chamber. At this point the name is “The Annual Elimination Chamber.”
Pro Wrestling NOAH announced Kaito Kiyomiya, Yoshinari Ogawa, Junta Miyawaki, Yoshiki Inamura, Kinya Okada, Yasutaka Yano, Super Crazy, Tadasuke, Daiki Inaba and Masato Tanaka are off Sunday’s show in Sendai. The reasons are either having tested positive or being in close contact with someone who did. Kiyomiya said that he tested positive. Tanaka didn’t test positive but was feeling very sick. The Sunday show airs on Wrestle Universe at 1 a.m. Eastern headlined by Katsuhiko Nakajima defending the GHC title against Masa Kitamiya
Smackdown tonight is from Omaha. They have better ticket sales than most shows in recent weeks. Announced is Sami Zayn doing his own stunt show to prove he can do things better than Johnny Knoxville. There will be a Seth Rollins-Roman Reigns face-to-face. Aliyah returns to face Natalya. Lita also returns to television on tonight’s show.
AEW Rampage tonight has Adam Cole vs. Trent Barreta, Andrew Everett vs . Shawn Spears, Leyla Hirsch & Red Velvet & Kris Statlander vs Penelope Ford & The Bunny & Nyla Rose, and Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy defend the tag titles against John Silver & Alex Reynolds. We were told this was great, better than anything on Dynamite.
The state of Yucatan in Mexico announced new restrictions including no massive public events until 2/15. Not sure what that means for the 1/30 tapings in Merida which was to feature FTR defending the AAA tag titles against somebody. It was originally Penta & Fenix but Fenix is injured. The local promoters has said they’ve been told they can still run the show saying the restrictions don’t apply to pro sports events. Penta tabbed it as 99 percent that Fenix won’t be able to wrestle by 1/30. All those in attendance have to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test. A KDNA promotion show in Monterrey tonight was canceled.(thanks to TheCubsFan)
We’re looking for reports this weekend from tonight’s Smackdown tapings in Omaha, tomorrow’s show in Fargo, ND and Sunday in Sioux Falls,SD to [email protected]
Demonic Flamita in his social media indicated he tested positive for COVID.
WWE
WWE will open Raw on Monday with a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. set to John Legend’s “Never Break.”
The Houston Chronicle has a story on independent wrestler Ninja Mack.
A story on J Robinson, the famed University of Minnesota wrestling coach who had Brock Lesnar, Shelton Benjamin and others on his teams over the years. He was also a college roommate of future pro wrestling star Gerald Brisco.
ISPW tonight in Totowa, NJ at the Totowa PAL with Danny Morrison, managed by Maven, against Bull James, plus Jimmy Hart, Matt Sydal, Crowbar, LSG and Cheeseburger appear.
IWA from Saturday night at the Sawtell, Australia RSL Club: Donnie Mako b Kai Drake, Party Juan b Jude London, Kingsley b Jessica Troy, Tree Hugger Luchi & Sam Osborne & Will Kiedis b Larry Kelly & Matt Call way & Phil Woods in an elimination match (thanks to Kirk Beat tie)
NFC on Saturday at 7 p.m. at The District in Atlanta with Shamel Findley vs. Romondo Scott.
Biff Busick, the former Oney Lorcan, returns to Beyond Wrestling on 2/4 at Fete Music in Providence, RI.
Matt Cardona appears for AIW Wrestling on 2/11 at the Odeon Concert Club in Cleveland, OH.
West Coast Pro streams live tonight on IWTV at 10 p.m. Eastern from South San Francisco:
Homicide vs. Jacob Fatu
Nicole Savoy vs. Masha Slamovich
Mike Bailey vs. Aramis vs. Rey Horus
Davey Richards vs.;Kevin Blackwood
AJ Gray vs. Juicy Finau
Bryan Keith vs. Vinnie Massaro
Titus Alexander vs. Adrian Quest vs. Kenny King vs. TJP
Kazuchika Okada, Los Brazos (Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata & El Brazo), along with promoters Jim Crockett Jr. and Don Owen were elected this year into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame.
In something unprecedented, the first three were named on 80 percent or more of the ballots from their region and time frame.
Okada, for obvious reasons, was a given. It could be argued that he was the strongest candidate in many ways at the time he was first put on the ballot since we started doing Hall of Fame voting in 1998. One could argue The Rock because of his record-setting drawing power as the strongest but Okada would be on the very short list.
In baseball, which has similar voting, the top guys get a higher percentage than here but even in that balloting, there was always controversy regarding the absolute no-brainers not getting unanimous treatment. While pure unanimous will never happen because many voters don’t follow Japan, if Okada didn’t get close to unanimous regional, I don’t think it’s possible. I really can’t come up with a reason to vote for a Japanese candidate and not vote for him. But you had people who simply won’t vote for a younger candidate and others who probably figured he’s getting in so let’s use our votes to help out others. This didn’t happen with Kenta Kobashi. Kobashi will likely be the person who historically ends up with the highest percentage in history at a mark that will probably never be broken.
