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Another Observer Hall of Fame season is in the books and after all the debate, podcasts and people on group chats pointing out why Gran Hamada is actually a Hall of Famer, we got some results and unlike last year, people were actually satisfied on the whole with what came out. Well, on the most part.
Without wanting to moralise on the house fire that is Twitter and the declining IQ of the wrestling opinion bubble, when Observer HOF results day hit, the general consensus in the circles of wrestling social media was “brace yourselves”. But when you look at the results and you do research, bar one induction, which was a pleasant surprise there was nothing to be actually upset about. Any case to get slightly annoyed might be down to deep rooted problems that have nothing to do with wrestling or you’re a person who writes about the Hall of Fame in detail for Pro Wrestling Musings (or Voices of Wrestling) So let's look at the inductees, the highest risers and fallers, the guys on the periphery of the 60% threshold and what CM Punk rising from 44% to 52 says about the HOF electorate
The Inductees
Roman Reigns ended up as the person with the highest percentage and while I don’t believe that Roman is an Observer Hall of Famer, enough people did to get Roman above the threshold of 60%. So what was it that did it? Simply put, Wrestlemania XL
Even if Roman was the Robin to Rock’s Batman during the “Road to Wrestlemania” that Sunday night that made Samantha Irvin cry, Bruce Prichard get an appearance on television that doesn’t totally embarrass him and made Jimmy Traina get that funny feeling he only gets when he interviews Mad Dog Russo on his podcast and the numbers it did on Peacock and at the box office fitted the voting criteria set by Dave Meltzer and then some
With a reduced schedule and no real good matches (unless you actually liked the Sunday main event at XL), the financial success of XL is the primary factor of Roman Reigns being inducted. The reason this conclusion is the conclusion to make is that the other primary figures of the Bloodline saga which helped turn business around for WWE that were also on the ballot and in their first year on said ballot all finished with a voteshare of less than 10% despite having a body of work that has many positives away from the main story of WWE of the last 2 and a half years.
The Usos have a claim to be the best working regular tag team in WWE history especially over the Hart Foundation (22% in 2024) Sami Zayn was the rocket booster to the Bloodline story when he entered the Anoa’iVerse in the summer of 2022 and El Generico was the best worker in North America in 2010-12 and Kevin Owens might have been the biggest case of the 3 acts to be demoted this year but as Generico’s biggest rival in the early noughties, the case for Zayn deserves to be associated with KO
When Dave tweeted this on Saturday 9th November
Discussion in HOF discussion circles got buzzing on who would get in, with the no new surprises line (he obviously forgot about CIMA which he clarified in a Observer radio episode later in the week) the five acts in the “fifties club” was a given with a lot of people thinking Cody was in (more on him later) with Shingo Takagi also being a popular prediction. The reason for that and it’s correct nature is not just because Shingo is awesome but because Shingo was in a Japan section that was light on names. One of the reasons Roman and The Bucks are the first wrestlers to get inducted from the Modern US/Canada section since AJ Styles was that the amount of names in that bucket meant clutter was always going to happen and the same can be said for Historical US/Canada and its 20+ names in that bucket. The less number of names in a section, the more chance of an induction from that category and the more chance of huge hikes for unlikely names (just did a foreshadowing)
I decided to group Paul Orndorff/Bobby Davis together because a) I want this article to be 5,000 words or less and b) these two are linked through the fact that they should have gotten in years ago.
Both cases got enhanced after their deaths, both cases were justifiable cases to be in Dave Meltzer’s handpicked inaugural class in 1996 (Dave has said in recent times that he should have picked Bobby that year) and in 2024 when doing the research on them Paul and Bobby are guys that significant people in the history of wrestling.
Jesse Collings piece on Davis on the Voices of Wrestling site is a must read to why Bobby should have been inducted ages ago and I have bored people senseless in telling them how Bobby Davis is an important figure in wrestling history and Paul Orndorff’s box office numbers make him one of the top drawers of the 80’s. In a thing that tells you about the history of professional wrestling, the inclusion of Orndorff and Davis in the Observer Hall of Fame is a necessity that should have happened years ago.
Johnny Rougeau getting included must have made Patrick Laparde very happy.
To those that subscribe to the Wrestling Observer, Montreal Wrestling historian Patrick’s piece in the latest edition that focuses on the Hall of Fame is must read.
It reinforces the thought that Rougeau is an great HOF case and you learn some cool things about Johnny
Born Jean Rougeau on June 9, 1929, Johnny Rougeau started his wrestling career in 1951. He was proud of his convictions, and when he was given convincing arguments, he could get involved in multiple projects, as demonstrated by the numerous careers he juggled.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that he decided to help create the first trade union at Coca-Cola in the 1950s.
Anyone who is pro-union is cool with me.
With Johnny’s phenomenal record in his heyday in Montreal, Johnny is a natural case for induction and in a class that was short of surprises, Johnny’s induction was a pleasant one.
The story of the Young Bucks induction is similar to their former stablemate Kenny Omega and also tells a story about future inductees and future ballot members.
Like Omega in 2019, the Matt and Nick Jackson were a surprise non-inclusion in their first year on the ballot but with a potential idea that they needed another great year to get in and in 2020, Kenny gave us a MOTY, his fourth in five years (in my opinion) to get his voteshare above 60% at the second time of asking and The Bucks on the back of some great matches like the Sting’s retirement match and the Private Party title change got into the HOF on their second go. But another factor in their case was the renewal of AEW’s TV deal with Warner Bros. Discovery and the factor that the Bucks had in the formation of All Elite Wrestling. When it comes to pioneering acts in Modern US/Canada, only one has a similar answer to the question of who is the most influential wrestler in the Modern US/Canada bucket.
Also, the induction of the Bucks and the formation and success of AEW has to ask the question in 2034 when he is eligible to be on the ballot, is Tony Khan an Observer Hall of Famer?
Just 10 years to go until that clusterfuck of a debate? Hopefully Twitter will be dead by then
For the seventh successive year, Mexico has entered someone into the HOF. Los Hermanos Dinamita are the twelfth act from Mexico in that period to get inducted and while the mention of the Mexican Block doing Mexican Block things and me pointing out why it’s a good thing is as frequent with my writings as a Simpsons/Friends reference, it’s a case with Los Hermanos and maybe voters writing the wrong of Cien Caras not being inducted into the HOF making him one of a select few to not get in despite not getting into the fifties in percentile during their time on the ballot their induction as to why it wasn’t a surprise but also with it’s small amount of acts in the Mexico bucket in the ballot like Japan.
In the big shock of the class of 2024 that Dave teased on his WOR show, CIMA rose from 23% to above the induction line, getting in by one vote making him the person with the lowest number the previous year to induction the next that wasn't from the Mexico section because of the Mexico Block doing Mexican Block things.
For context, Eddie Guerrero was the previous holder of that record with a leap from 34% to induction and that was off a death bounce after Eddie’s passing in 2005 which makes CIMA’s leap more outstanding.
Despite Dave Meltzer appearing to think that CIMA has retired in his write up, CIMA is still going, wrestling for GLEAT, the company that hasn't understood what Inoki-ism actually was and making stopovers at AAA and DDT in 2024.
The case of The Young Bucks and CIMA is actually very similar until they became very different. While the two acts changed the business in everything they did in the years up to 2019, the last 5 years has seen the Bucks cement their legacy and CIMA in that time period has turned in a very weird last half decade so how the heck did CIMA shoot up to being a Hall of Famer.
A case made by Dave Meltzer for how CIMA made the leap to induction was that voters researching and typing Shingo Takagi into their voting forms also put CIMA onto their forms because they were a large share of the responsibility of Dragon Gate becoming the Number Two promotion in Japan in the early 10’s but also in my opinion, the rise of HOF discussion content has helped CIMA enormously and others too as we will get into later. Case, a prominent Lucharesu historian and co-host of Voices of Wrestling’s Dragon Gate podcast has banged the drum for CIMA and gave justifiable reasons and without the percussion sound of those reasons ringing in the years of voters listening to VOW’s Hall of Fame content, CIMA doesn't get in and as further examples down this article show, it means that we will see names that might have struggled to get in a decade ago looking likely to get in.
A victory for Active Wrestlers, Johnny Saint’s induction comes after Top 10 placings in the Active Performers category every year since 2018 with Reporters joining the party in the years after with Retired Wrestlers voting for Saint on mass this year with a tied 7th placing. I’m guessing Retired Wrestlers remembered that Johnny Saint was employed by WWE for a couple of years even if he spent his time there standing as a statue or that ex-WWE wrestler Scotty Goldman finally got a vote.
The fact that Johnny was in peril of exclusion under the 15 year/50% rule helped garner attention for Saint and his case as par the course with historical precedent like Sgt. Slaughter last year. But this induction is another Brit to go in from International, the third consecutive year a British citizen has broken the 60% threshold.
A interesting piece of trivia is that the last man from the UK, US/Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Japan to be inducted from the voting base and not put in by Meltzer on his own under posthumous rule and not a second induction as part of a tag team was Konnan in 2000, who was born in Cuba. He is also the only one.
The Fiftees Club
Why does the Fiftees club matter?
First off, only 10 people who have got 50%+ of a voteshare have ended up not being inducted, falling off the ballot in the process.
56 acts who ended up with the 50%+ number got the required 60% the next year. That makes the chances of induction are very likely when you get 50% or more of the voteshare.
So let’s see who got into the Fifties Club.
We’re getting there folks. Bobby Bruns, a man who helped make wrestling in Japan as massive as it is, is at 56% and just a few votes off that 60% line.
The highest placed person that didn’t get voted in has been inducted the following year 8 times in the last 15 years and even then Rollerball Rocco (2020), Don Owen (2019) Misionaios de la Muerte (2017) Carlos Colon (2013) got over the threshold two years later and The Assassins after being the highest placed non-inductee twice in 2011 and 2009 went in in the year 2015 (Cien Caras in 2016 with 58% is the only one not to be inducted and even then he got in with Los Hermanos Dinamita this year) and with a section that will be similar in size next year and with momentum on his side, Bruns is a heavy favourite to get in and will make this Brummie very happy.
With the induction of Tomohiro Ishii, it was thought that with the metrics associated with drawing records changing in modern day wrestling that work rate would get more merit stuck to it over what wrestlers have accomplished at the box office. Well, with Roman Reigns induction and Junkyard Dog’s rise, that theory might be out of the water.
JYD’s influence as an African American who proved that black wrestlers could main event big shows in an era where people in the NFL were doubting if black men could succeed in the Quarterback position should on its own be a induction worthy case but JYD’s rep as a bad worker overshadowed said case in the same way that it did for Big Daddy but Big Daddy’s case is more nuanced. The Junkyard Dog was a case of could you ignore the bad wrestling and focus on the fact that thousands of people paid money to watch Dog wrestle? and with a rise of 13% to 53% it looks like more people are.
If JYD gets in, I hope Dave gets nostalgic and calls him Junkfood Dog in the bio section of the results.
On the same percentage as his fellow countryman CIMA last year, Hayabusa came up short this time around but there were a few reasons why Hayabusa rose so sharply being the biggest riser in percentage of votes. Like CIMA, Hayabusa has an influence case, workrate and pound for pound, his box office numbers are impressive but the fear that his work like CIMA’s was on the majority part for a company that wasn't on the S Tier on the pecking order of promotions in Japan meant that Busa’s case would be futile but with the reasons mentioned in the CIMA section, there is hope yet for Hayabusa to join Atushi Onita as FMW alumni in the Observer HOF.
With the more likely than not induction of Los Hermanos Dinamita coming to fruition, the question would end up being, who is the guy The Mexican Block would anoint as the next Lucha guy to get in after and it looks like it's Dorrell Dixon.
To be honest, there's nothing extra to write about Dixon from my case about him last year and I've used up my Mexican Block doing Mexican Block things quota, so here is what I wrote about him last year
Ted Turner’s rise into the fifties club probably comes from the Death of WCW series that was released on Vice earlier in 2024. Whether or not My Name is Ted helps Turner next year, we'll have to wait and see and while I've yet to see the docuseries as it hasn't come out yet on Sky Documentaries which is the UK home to HBO documentaries, if it's anything like the book it is adapted from there probably won't be a mention of the company Ted loved so much that he refused to let it die while he was in charge of Time Warner.
A beneficiary of social media endorsements with people publishing the box office records of June Byers, her rise of 17% is the biggest she has ever had. In a debate season where people have talked about influence of the Four Horsewomen and Becky Lynch especially, June’s story is more influential than many in women’s wrestling today. While Fabulous Moolah’s effect on women’s wrestling would cause repercussions for decades after in a negative light, before Moolah, women’s wrestling was a high drawing enterprise and the era June Byers was involved in was a peak period of that time and with the Mildred Burke movie coming out next year a further rise seems likely which should mean induction for June making her the 12th woman to be inducted into the Observer HOF.
While the combatants of the Mania XL main event got positive results, those that commentated on the Scratched Big Gold Belt match that weekend didn’t.
Ok that was a little bit of a cheap shot on CM Punk but in a year where people who have been presented as an attraction who don’t wrestle full-time got a jump in the teens numbers that got them inducted, Punk got a 8% bump but without the historic numbers Reigns had to his name this year unless you count an occasional spike in quarters in RAW TV ratings.
A question to ask is did the HIAC match against Drew McIntyre during voting season give a boost to Punk’s percentile similar to a boxer winning a round with a rally in the final 20 seconds of said round? But as I’ve read some voters say that Punk trying to destroy a company for no justifiable reasons tainted his resume, Punk might end up having to have an exceptional year to get him over the line while he is active but it feels like he will eventually get in even if its in a retirement bounce.
After the induction of 3 of the 5 star era of NJPW (Ibushi, Naito, Ishii) Japan not only was small in the size of its category but light on those that have been lifers in any of the three organisations that at one time or another was the leading promotion in Japan (NJPW, AJPW, NOAH) and this yearHayabusa, the main guy in FMW and Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada who were stars in AJW were some of the highest risers.
Toyota and Yamada had 121 matches together according to Cagematch with 99 of them in the June 1991 to February 1995 period before their break up from full time teaming up. It seems that the voters are definitely taking the quality of matches such as the trilogy of matches against Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki over their longevity and their drawing power as they were probably the 4th biggest draw in their period of peak activity.
With Spiros Arion’s fifteenth year on the ballot coming next year, it seems quite a few people are taking the incentive and voting for Spiros from 29% to 46%. Maybe those people thought they couldn’t get Spiros to be inducted from the twenties.
With a drawing in Australia that voters should be aware and previous precedent with the Mark Lewin induction in 2017 says that they are and if you use other previous precedent of voting in people for things achieved in other territories away from their voting bucket, then his vastly underrated run as a rival of Bruno Sammartino in 70’s WWWF which was the third highest grossing Bruno feud behind Larry Zbyszko and Superstar Billy Graham could be a deal breaker for Spiros
Morris Sigel would be another big riser in the results. With an increase of 17% from last year. The first thing I thought of when I saw the number of 48% was that this was a success story of the evolution of Hall of Fame discussion that I mentioned earlier Ethan Tyler spreading the word on Morris.
With a Houston promotion that did strong business on both sides of World War 2, Sigel might be the best promoter that people don't talk about. But thanks to the increased volume of discussion each year and podcasts like ones VOW put out on their Patreon, cases like Morris get more exposure which is a great thing in this discourse.
One thing I learnt was how ruthless and strong handed Morris was. When you hear stories of Morris and the means that he took to keep his power and keep his spot as one of the top promoters in wrestling. It shows that scumbaggery in wrestling wasn't invented by people in the 80s. Especially when you hear about Sigel giving orders on having rivals houses becoming victims of arson (allegedly)
Hey, that means Sigel has a great influence case after what Hangman did to Swerve’s house
The theme with the highest fallers this year is that no-one really fell that badly in the voting with only Jimmie Johnston falling in double figures percentage. Compare that to 2023 when 5 (including CIMA) suffered double digit falls, 9 in 2022, 6 in 2021, 9 in 2020 and 3 in 2019 and in a ballot that the word cluttered has been used in descriptions of it, 24 of the 32 names in the 11-29% range that weren’t new names in the ballot had rise or falls in the 5% range and the average amount of years those 32 names have been on the ballot is 6.5 years. You can’t get rid of clutter if it just sits there.
Was it the worst group of first/returnee year ballot members in HOF history?
In my HOF ballot review for this year, i ask if this year’s group of first year ballot members was the worst in HOF history and after the results the answer is……
Yes and No.
While my prediction that 50% of the 23 strong newbies group was incorrect with 8 of the 23 finishing under 10%, this year was the first year that all the under 10% placings were newbies or returnees. It’s also the first time since 2018 that a first year guy hasn’t been inducted.
Of the ones that are demoted, five of them are acts that are associated with modern day WWE but the starting number of the other modern day WWE wrestler that debuted on the ballot is of significant interest.
Cody Rhodes starting number of 48% is a sign from voters that while he was half of the Mania XL main event that drew more money than a Dr.Evil ultimatum, he was part of the reason that All In happened and why it was so successful and was a founding father of AEW, voters are asking for that little bit more from Cody.
As a starting number 48% is very good especially from a Modern US/Canada member with the attitude from voters being that wrestlers that are currently active need to show a bit more to get above the 60% line which he will do.
Every act bar one under the age of the 40 that got a voteshare over 40% in their first year on the ballot has been inducted with that one being Kiyoshi Tamura whose case is the most unique in Observer HOF history except maybe bar Volk Han.
Is “Retired Wrestlers” still rubbish?
In my We Need To Talk About the Observer Hall of Fame feedback, the main takeaway was “Damn right about Retired Wrestlers” with my evidence on weird patterns in their voting causing further debate in HOF discussion circles. So in 2024 what did the Retired Wrestlers block produce for us.
Of course Randy Orton finished second.
But of the Top 10 placings in Retired Wrestlers, six were acts that made their name outside the USA and seven if you believe Adrian Street made his name in the UK more than he did in Alabama.
Hang on a second, Bobby Bruns got into the Top 10 of Retired? In a world of chaos, this might is a sign that we might be saved from catastrophe after all.
In all 17 of 30 acts in the Top 30 of Retired were guys who made their name outside the States which is up from 10 last year and the 4 placed in that category in 2021 and while the pro-WWE feeling from Retired Wrestlers still circulates with the lack of Young Bucks in the 30 with RW being the only category they didn’t place and Adam Copeland dropping places in his first year on the ballot after spending a full year wrestling away from WWE and Bobby Davis going from 9th last year to unplaced this year in RW being a very Retired Wrestlers thing to do it was a lack of another placer from last year that caused a stir in CM Punk.
Considering Punk’s addiction to thumping people backstage would be less disdained by Retired Wrestlers from a bygone era and Punk returning to Sports Entertainment after retiring from that industry in 2014, Retired Wrestlers felt like an obvious placing but Punk didn’t place whatsoever. It’s almost as if professional wrestlers didn’t like the fact that someone tried to blow up a wrestling company for no justifiable reason.
Funny thing is, had Punk placed in the Top 15 considering his 17th place in Retired last year, he would have gone in my calculations.
Any other lessons to be learnt?
Kento Miyahara finishing under 10%, shows that anyone from Japan who in the last 5-10 years had wrested for a promotion in Japan full-time that wasn’t NJPW is really going to struggle
A 3% fall for Stanley Weston means that voters really believe that we should call his wrestling magazine empire as the “Apter Mags”
Dave Meltzer guys will always get a leg up in the cases of Mike Tenay (41%) and Koichi Yoshizawa (36%) and that Zane Bresloff not being eliminated at 11%
If 2025 sees AEW’s line go up, as the positive numbers for World’s End’s tickets sales show, then Jon Moxley’s case becomes very hard to argue against after his vote share doubled to 26% and his total votes almost tripled this year
A lot of people really did doubt El Dandy (18%)
Had 5 less people voted for Trish Stratus, she would have been off the ballot. I blame John LaRocca
Next year
After every College Football or Basketball season, you see the likes of ESPN do a Way Too Early Top 25 for the next season and while the idea of doing a Way Too Early seems like doing content for doing content sakes, I thought why not look at who seems likely to get in next year and see what the list of Newbies/Returnees will bring us for the HOF Ballot next year.
Japan with 11 people in its bucket next year will probably see at least one if not two get inducted, if you take into consideration that everyone in that bucket went up by a sizable number except Joe Higuchi who was static and with not many Hall of Famer calibre wrestlers in the modern day era to come in especially when you look at the Miyahara result, Japan becomes a wildly unpredictable bucket going forward just like Mexico.
Dorrell Dixon looks like being the next Chosen One from Mexico to get in unless the debuting Los Infernales cause a stir next year.
Jesse Ventura, who is one of the limited number who got into the fifties and fell off the ballot, is back on and feels like a candidate that might get into the Hall 11 years after falling victim to the 15/50 rule.
His commentary partner during the Hulkamania period Gorilla Monsoon, also returns after a 17 year stint in the US/Canada section. Would a move to Non-Wrestlers change his fortunes.
Voting in Steve Gray, who was a regular tag team partner of Big Daddy's would be incredible bants.
Drew McIntyre being added shows that we padding the ballot with names that don’t deserve to be there. Drew McIntyre being on the ballot now makes Trish Stratus the least worthy person on the ballot now. Does that mean John LaRocca is voting for Drew as well?
So that's another Hall of Fame season in the books. I can now see my girlfriend again. Now we just have get through the tedious Christmas period before the fun of Voices of Wrestling Match of The Year Poll and The Observer Awards.