WON HOF 2017

[cheapshot]

Just got my ballot, here it is in full.

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It's time for the 2017 Hall of Fame elections.

This ballot is being sent out to major wrestling stars, past and present, major management figures in the industry, writers and historians.

If you are getting this, you are being asked your opinion on who should be inducted into this year's Hall of Fame class. The criteria for the Hall of Fame is a combination of drawing power, being a great in-ring performer or excelling in ones field in pro wrestling, as well as having historical significance in a positive manner. A candidate should either have something to offer in all three categories, or be someone so outstanding in one or two of those categories that they deserve inclusion.

The names listed below are those under consideration for this year. To be eligible, a performer must have reached their 35th birthday and completed ten years since their debut as a full-time performer, or be someone who has been a full-time pro wrestler for at least 15 years.

Longevity should be a prime consideration rather than a hot two or three year run, unless someone is so significant as a trend-setter or a historical figure in the business, or valuable to the industry, that they need to be included. However, just longevity without being either a long-term main eventer, a top draw and/or a top caliber in-ring performer should be seen as relatively meaningless.

The election is broken down into a number of categories. You should check each category for wrestlers that you feel you are familiar enough with based on geography that you've either traveled or are familiar with, and based on the time you have followed pro wrestling. You do not have to vote for a wrestler in every category you've checked.

The ballot is also broken down to wrestlers and those who are not pro wrestlers but have been valuable parts of the industry.

The maximum number of wrestlers that you can vote for all the categories is ten. You can pick as few as zero if you don't believe anyone on this list deserves inclusion.

For wrestling executives, managers, announcers and other outside the ring performers, you can vote for them and they are not counted against the ten. You can vote for as many as five of them.

All responses are confidential. There is nothing to worry about politically about any involvement in this process. Your selections will not be revealed unless you choose to do so yourself.

Anyone who receives mention on 60% of the ballots from the geographical region and time frame (broken down as Continental United States & Canada; Mexico; Japan; and the rest of the world) will be added to the Hall of Fame in the class of 2017.

If you are unfamiliar with any of the candidates due to geography of having never seen them, that is fine. Ballots are sent to many people from all over the world and from different wrestling cultures so that everyone has as fair a shot at possible.

The breakdown for modern and historical performers is 30 years ago, or 1987. So if the last year the person was a headliner, or was a key figure in the industry, was prior to 1987, they would be in the historical class.

All performers who receive mention on 10% to 59.9% of the ballots from their geographical region or era will remain on the ballot for consideration next year. All those who receive less than 10% of the vote will be dropped from next year's ballot. They can return in two years based on if there is significant feedback from voters who say they will vote for them. This is mostly for wrestlers who are still active who may improve their career legacy, but can be for retired wrestlers if voters believe they should be put on or returned to the ballot.

In addition, in following the lead of the baseball Hall of Fame, which is the model here, starting this year we have a 15-year-rule. The following candidates have been on the ballot since 2003. In baseball, this would be their last year of eligibility. Here, if they don't get at least 50% of the votes in this year's election they will be removed from the ballot. If they are modern candidates, they can be brought back in the historical performers era in two years if it is more than 30 years since their career as a Hall Fame level performer is up:

The following candidates will be dropped from next year's ballot unless they are elected in or garner 50% of the vote:

Curt Hennig

Yuji Nagata

Don Owen

Tim Woods

Please return this ballot by November 1st. You can e-mail the ballot back to [email protected] or fax it to 408-244-3402 or mail (please do so by November 1st) to Wrestling Observer, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228.

Please check by every category you are familiar with

I FOLLOWED THE HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA CANDIDATES

Red Bastien

June Byers

Wild Bull Curry

Cowboy Bob Ellis

Don Fargo

Pepper Gomez

Archie "Mongolian Stomper" Gouldie

Chavo Guerrero Sr.

Dick Hutton

Rocky Johnson

Sputnik Monroe

Pedro Morales

Blackjack Mulligan

George Steele

John Tolos

Enrique Torres

Von Brauners & Saul Weingeroff

Johnny "Mr. Wrestling II" Walker

Tim "Mr. Wrestling" Woods

Bearcat Wright

I FOLLOWED THE MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA CANDIDATES

Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson w/J.J. Dillon

Junkyard Dog

Edge

Bill Goldberg

Curt Hennig

Randy Orton

C.M. Punk

Sgt. Slaughter

Trish Stratus

A.J. Styles

Kerry Von Erich

Ultimate Warrior

I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN JAPAN CANDIDATES

Jun Akiyama

Cima

Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Hayabusa

Kota Ibushi

Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Yuji Nagata

Tetsuya Naito

Mike & Ben Sharpe

Minoru Suzuki

Kiyoshi Tamura

Akira Taue

I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN MEXICO CANDIDATES

Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata & El Brazo

Caristico/Mistico

Sangre Chicana

Cien Caras

Ultimo Guerrero

Ruben Juarez

Karloff Lagarde

Blue Panther

L.A. Park

Huracan Ramirez

El Signo & El Texano & Negro Navarro

Vampiro

Villano III

Dr. Wagner Jr.

I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND/PACIFIC ISLANDS/AFRICA CANDIDATES

Spyros Arion

Johnny Barend

Domenic DeNucci

Killer Karl Kox

Mark Lewin

Mario Milano

Steve Rickard

I FOLLOWED WRESTLING IN EUROPE

Big Daddy

Horst Hoffman

Billy Joyce

Kendo Nagasaki

Jackie Pallo

Rollerball Mark Rocco

Johny Saint

Ricky Starr

Otto Wanz

NON-WRESTLERS

Bill Apter

Lord James Blears

Dave Brown

Chyna

Jim Crockett Jr.

Jim Crockett Sr.

Gary Hart

Jimmy Hart

Howard Finkel

Ed Francis

Jerry Jarrett

Larry Matysik

Don Owen

George Scott

Stanley Weston

[Robert S]

Naito and Ibushi are already eligible? It's getting more ridiculous every year.

[NintendoLogic]

Putting Chyna in the non-wrestler category is a rather curious decision.

 

Have Arn and Tully ever been on the ballot as a tag team before? It's probably the closest we'll come to having the Four Horsemen on the ballot, so they should get in.

[elliott]

Sputnik Monroe making the ballot is awesome. Hopefully he gets support. Cool that Sangre Chicana is on as well, although that just adds to the madness of the Lucha region. Also, who is Ruben Juarez?

[Dylan Waco]

Arn and Tully with JJ is honestly one of the weaker candidates to ever come on to the ballot.

 

Dave seems to have removed Jim Breaks himself

[Loss]

My God, go away, Curt Hennig.

[Cox]

Arn and Tully with JJ is honestly one of the weaker candidates to ever come on to the ballot.

 

That doesn't necessarily preclude them from being voted in, as last year demonstrated clearly.

[goc]

If I had a ballot the only person in the Modern category I'd DEFINITELY vote for is Junkyard Dog. I could maybe be swayed to vote Kerry Von Erich but that's it. For the non-wrestlers I feel like Jimmy Hart and Jerry Jarrett both should have gone in a long time ago.

[Al]

Not pimping him for the HOF, but I'm curious to see what the last 18 months have done for AJ Styles' candidacy.

[El Boricua]

I still believe that you could do a Pacific others group (which is what we currently have other than Africa) and an Atlantic others group.

 

Hopefully someone from Mexico makes it in (if more than one even better).

 

Interested in seeing how the Japan vote shakes out for purely perverse entertainment reasons. I'm already mentally preparing for no one from Mexico making it while Ibushi and Naito go sailing in.

 

What's the cutoff for inclusion in modern US? We're already at 25 years since you could say JYD, Slaughter and Kerry were any sort of relevant drawing card. Tully and Arn as a tag team as well. Heck, we're about 5 months away from it being 25 years since Kerry von Erich passed away.

 

At the same time, historical looks a bit bloated, may be due to the addition of those that have passed.

[Robert S]

Arn and Tully with JJ is honestly one of the weaker candidates to ever come on to the ballot.

So are Kojima and Tenzan as a tag team. For both the best claim for the hall of fame are their single runs in AJ and NJ respectively in the mid 2000s, not their tag team run. (even though I would vote for neither)

[Loss]

Arn and Tully were a tag team all in all for two years. They worked on top for one year of that, during a time of decline, and had only one program (Midnights) that could be argued as having drawn decent houses. Even that was second from the top from the red hot Flair-Luger feud. There's just not a case. They were a great team, but no.

[shoe]

Arn and Tully were a tag team all in all for two years. They worked on top for one year of that, during a time of decline, and had only one program (Midnights) that could be argued as having drawn decent houses. Even that was second from the top from the red hot Flair-Luger feud. There's just not a case. They were a great team, but no.

Its just a weird case. Do you count each guys singles accomplishments to it? Other tag work? To me it seems just their teaming together and 2 years is not enough time. Goldberg has a better case.

[cheapshot]

Plug: I made an appearance on 605 Podcast the other week where Brian Last and I discussed if we'd vote for the new candidates on this years ballot. A fun discussion was had: http://605pod.com/2017/09/11/episode-75-brother-midnight/ from 1:39:40.

[MoS]

JYD seems like a sure-fire Hall of Famer to me, but clearly I am in a minority cuz he actually fell off the ballot. He turned a dead city into a wrestling hotbed, made tons of money for Watts, and was arguably the 3rd biggest draw of the 1980s. I guess for many voters it is hard to look past all the Junkfood digs Dave took at him in the late 80s.

[Cox]

Is this the weakest modern US/Canada ballot ever? It feels so depleted that I can see even a bad candidate getting some support because of the lack of competition, and because most of the voting pool are US-based and will want to vote for somebody on that ballot.

[Mr. Lacelle]

I thought Martel was going on the ballot

[Loss]

Is this the weakest modern US/Canada ballot ever? It feels so depleted that I can see even a bad candidate getting some support because of the lack of competition, and because most of the voting pool are US-based and will want to vote for somebody on that ballot.

 

I think the issue is that we've inducted Cena, and we've inducted the anomaly stars from his era that snuck through like Rey and Bryan. We've inducted Lesnar, and long ago, the holdovers from the previous generation that were still around during this time like HHH, Undertaker and Shawn were inducted. Now we're in this weird era where there aren't very many stars. So what do you do? Maybe we really are at a point where moving forward, cases will pretty much have to live and die on work.

 

A much more interesting team to consider than Arn and Tully who I think have a stronger case and that I'd like to see on the ballot is the Hardys.

[Al]

Yeah. Few wrestlers move the needle anymore. But I don't think wrestlers have gotten worse. We may need different metrics to evaluate them.

[cheapshot]

I thought Martel was going on the ballot

 

So did I, I have asked Dave on twitter but don't think I got a response.

[JHawk]

It surprises me that Don Owen is probably falling off the ballot completely. I get Portland was never the top territory, but it had several periods of being really hot and Owen was, next to Jerry Jarrett, the last of the territorial promoters to fold up the tent

[shakla]

 

I thought Martel was going on the ballot

 

So did I, I have asked Dave on twitter but don't think I got a response.

 

 

He was definitely on the "to be added next year" listing in the 2016 results issue. Feel like they did that with Samoa Joe the year prior and he wasn't put on as well.

[goc]

It surprises me that Don Owen is probably falling off the ballot completely. I get Portland was never the top territory, but it had several periods of being really hot and Owen was, next to Jerry Jarrett, the last of the territorial promoters to fold up the tent

It's disappointing how much the smaller territories get written off, by Dave especially, for not drawing huge crowds when they didn't have the population bases to do so anyway. Having a successful money making promotion for decades is impressive even if your biggest arena could only hold 3,000-4,000 instead of 10,000.

[Kadaveri]

Dave's lobbying pretty hard on the board for Big Daddy to not be inducted. Says only North Americans who never saw him in context in Britain think he should be in.

 

I find that very difficult to believe. Big Daddy is the only wrestler I think most people here over the age of 35 have heard of other than Hulk Hogan.

[sek69]

He also mentioned of people on the ballot he sees Minoru Suzuki and Ultimo Guererro as HOF'ers, so process that as you see fit. I don't necessarily disagree but it does kind of come off as the HOF equivalent of the current year argument fallacy.