11/30/2025

© AEW / WWE / TNA

Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame 2025

Peter Edge takes a look at the newest inductees into the WON Hall of Fame

It’s the most magical time of the year! Well, it’s the most magical time of the year if you’re a wrestling history nerd like me. It’s the time of year where the Wrestling Observer (and in particular, Dave Meltzer) post out ballots for people in the industry – journalists, historians, podcasters and talents whether it be current or past – and debate intensifies about who is an Observer Hall of Famer and who isn’t.

To go into a bit of Peter lore, writings on the Observer Hall of Fame have got me recognition from certain quarters. When writing for the Pro Wrestling Musings website, my HOF ballot previews got attention from sites such as Voices of Wrestling, and historians such as John Lister and Ethan Tyler, as well as Dave Meltzer, who has used my research into candidates (basically Young Bucks propaganda) on Wrestling Observer Radio and quote tweeted stuff I’ve written about the HOF with praise for my pieces (yes, I marked out).

But as we head out of Hall of Fame season and the results are published and the vote count is more stressful than Florida in the year 2000, I thought that with one of my new homes of writing and a new demographic of readers that I’m writing for, I would explain why this concept is important (and not just to me) and what we can learn about the Hall of Fame and what the results say about the wrestling landscape and the world in 2025.

What is the Observer Hall of Fame?

The Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame was dreamt up by Dave Meltzer in 1996 on a flight back to the Bay Area from Tokyo where he took in the G1 Climax. 123 names were put into the HOF by Dave and it was basically a Dave Meltzer’s Greatest 100 Wrestlers of All Time list with bells and whistles on.

From then on every year, a panel of people hand selected by Dave himself vote on who gets inducted. Dave, in consultation with LA Times sport reporter Houston Mitchell, used the Baseball Hall of Fame as a reference point for building out the WON HOF. Presented with a list of names from 6 buckets (Modern US/Canada, Historical US/Canada, Mexico, Japan, Rest of the World and Non Wrestlers), voters are asked to put a maximum amount of names per bucket which pertains to a third of the names in a bucket (for example, this year Japan has 11 names in its region, meaning only 3 names can be selected by voters).

Eligibility for being added onto the ballot comes for a wrestler after 15 years of an active career, or 10 active years if you are over 35 (that means Will Ospreay enters the ballot next year, for anyone counting on their fingers). Induction to the HOF comes if someone gets 60% or over of the voteshare for the region they are in. If an act gets less than 10% of the voteshare, they are eliminated from the ballot (why is everyone looking at Drew McIntyre?); and if you’ve been on the ballot for 15 years, you need 50% of the voteshare to stay on it (unless you are Adam Copeland because reasons), something that will be important with one potential inductee this year.

Ballots are sent out to wrestlers past and present, reporters and historians with Dave asking in the email sent out to voters that the following criteria be adhered to when looking at candidates:

• Length of career
• Historical significance (influence)
• Ability to attract viewers (drawing)
• Wrestling ability (work rate)

So why is the Observer Hall of Fame important?

If you don’t know by now, I’m into my wrestling history and nothing is a perfect gateway into someone learning about the history of a sport/industry than its Hall of Fame, and even if wrestling doesn’t have a physical monument to its greatest of the great, like Cooperstown for Baseball and Canton for pro football, it at least has a list of that is easily researchable and names that can be looked at.

But why this particular HOF over others? Because it’s the best one, point blank. WWE’s Hall of Fame is something at the whim of one particular person, the Thesz/Gragos HOF lost credibility when it inducted Jake Hager (seriously, look it up); and while the Observer Hall of Fame induction process is not perfect, that process, with its 60% vote share ceiling for inductees, limit of years on the ballot and the need to get more the 10% vote share to stay on the ballot, makes it the most faithful document to history that wrestling greatness has.

So who got in and who did not?

© WWE

CM Punk

It happened, didn’t it?

CM Punk was the headline coming out of the results of the 2025 Observer HOF. His gradual rise and lack of “punishment” from voters for antics detrimental to a wrestling company in 2022 and 2023 means this day was coming. So, how did this happen?

Seriously, how did this happen?

Whether people want to hear or not, it is reality that a HOF reflects the social values of the voter base. The Steiner Brothers should be Hall of Famers but they aren’t and probably never will be because Rick is a transphobe and after that incident at Wrestlecon with Gisele Shaw, a near-certain 2023 induction after the 2022 percentage of 52% fell to 25% the next year. Dick Murdoch’s unashamed views on minorities was probably the barrier to induction for someone who was always on the bubble to get in throughout his time on the ballot.

Many people thought Punk and Saudi Arabia reflected badly on him. After that response to The Miz on Twitter in early 2020, which had homophobic undertones to it, the time Punk would enter Saudi Arabia would start a storm but it wasn’t enough of one to cause Punk to lose votes, and at the end, Punk gained enough to get over the 60% threshold. Unfortunately, in 2025, voters are ambivalent to the sportswashing that is connected to the House of Saudi, like a lot of sports fans are worldwide. Voters instead looked at what Punk did in the ring. Did the Hell In The Cell match against Drew McIntyre that happened in the voting season of the previous HOF in ‘24, which capped the winner of Feud of the Year, play into Punk’s induction? There was no stand out match in 2025 that did (is this the point when I say that CM Punk has only had one placing in the Top 10 of either Best Technical, Best Brawler or Best Flying in the history of the Wrestling Observer Awards?). As one of the faces of “Monday Night RAW”, Netflix’s disappointing numbers since its debut show is a case to add that Punk, besides “All Out” 2021, isn’t the draw his fans claim he is (this is the point where I point out that “Summerslam” 2011, which saw the title vs title match against John Cena that was seen as the end of the “Summer of Punk II” was the lowest “Summerslam” PPV buyrate before the Network became a thing).

Yes, I’m not a Punk fan but I’m not exactly a Cody Rhodes fan either; but Cody, who also got in this year, has a significantly more substantive case for induction than Punk.

At least The Young Bucks got in before Punk, I guess.

© WWE

Cody Rhodes

Cody, like Punk, was always destined to get in with his starting percentage number of 48% last year. Only the British Bulldogs, Hayabusa, Ted Turner (still on the ballot), Dick Murdoch and Kiyoshi Tamura (not everyone in the voting base is a shootstyle boi nerd) have had a freshman year on the ballot at 48% or over and not gone in. Cody also has the advantage over the first three in that he is still building a case. Whether or not that case saw 2025 help his candidacy is very much up in the air, with people starting to notice that ticket sales are softening; it was the events before the calendar struck 2025 that saw Cody join his father in the Observer HOF.

Cody was one half of a “WrestleMania XL” main event that drew more money than a Dr. Evil ultimatum, in which his “finish the story” mantra was the driving force behind that “WrestleMania” season; and while his time as champ in the months after disappointed, Cody is just another statistic in the “chase enthralled fans more than the time on top” column. He was the featured attraction of “All In” 2018 with his chase for the NWA Title being the biggest story in kayfabe of an event that outperformed 99% of TNA PPV numbers in its history, and as the last remaining original EVP of AEW to get inducted Cody was always getting in and rightfully so.

What’s interesting is that, according to Dave Meltzer, a high percentage of ballots had Punk and Cody together (along with Sabu), which calls to the belief of many a voter that to get inducted the “if you make it New York, you can make it anywhere” mantra applies to the Observer HOF.

Spyros Arion

With 78%, the 11th highest percentage in HOF history, in a year that Arion needed to get more than 50% because of the 15 years/50% rule, Spyros is the second inductee to be born outside of the USA, Mexico, Canada, Japan or the UK, with Konnan being the first in 2009.

The Egyptian-born Spyros was one of, if not the, best drawing rivals of Bruno Sammartino, regarded by many as the king of wrestling in Madison Square Garden, with the three matches the pair had in MSG after Arion turned heel being some of the hottest tickets in wrestling history. Also a big attraction in Australia in Jim Barnett’s WCW (not that one) during the late 60’s, Arion’s case to be inducted was a very good one but it’s a case that seemed to have more urgency once everyone realised that the 15/50 rule was about to take Spyros off the ballot, especially since he hadn’t even threatened to hit 50% his entire time on the ballot.

Dorrell Dixon

In the most Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame thing, Dorrell is just the eighth black person to get inducted into the HOF, and second since 2007 (which was The Rock), but he only gets in because of the Mexican Block doing Mexican Block things (if you get this, I appreciate that you’re reading my stuff from years gone by).

Since 2019, 14 acts from Mexico have been inducted with one getting in from the Mexico bucket every year since 2018. Anecdotally, the HOFers from south of the border come from votes from Mexican wrestling historians, wrestlers and personalities, which definitely is not a bad thing, when you consider the lack of historical footage from Mexico compared to other countries, and lack of records as well. When you hear voters say that they don’t feel comfortable for anyone from Mexico because of a lack of knowledge it’s good that that knowledge can be replaced.

Dorrell is a genuine case for being the greatest extranjero to wrestle in Mexico. Jamaica’s greatest wrestler (making him the now the third inductee to be born outside of the USA, Mexico, Canada, Japan or the UK) would pop houses when in EMLL and UWA; but also in the days before he moved south of the border, Dixon would do good business teaming with HOF’er Bobo Brazil and as an opponent against Buddy Rogers when he was in his pomp but there is a case that Dory is the weakest inductee in the eight consecutive years someone from the Mexico section has been inducted. Some will tell you Ultimo Guerrero but he did the “head nod” greeting with me at Fantastica Mania UK, so we’re officially best mates so he’s 100% a legit HOFer.

© WWE

Sabu

In one of the two latest “death bounce” inductions, Sabu got in with 64.1% of the vote. A number of inductees have got in the year of their death (e.g. Perro Aguayo) and Sabu might not have been the most obvious one in this year’s ballot, but since his death in April, a lot of compelling cases have been made for the ECW star. He was perhaps the last true great outlaw wrestler, and his success as the man who single-handedly kept the US indie scene alive in the early/mid 1990s to the point that he almost won the Wrestler of the Year award in the Observer Awards of 1994. (He actually got the most first-choice votes that year, while finishing in second place in Most Outstanding Wrestler that year behind Kenta Kobashi.) To quote Taz in his glowing tribute to his former rival, whose match with Sabu was the major selling point of an ECW PPV which did 45,000 buys despite a huge amount of markets not airing the show because of past controversies involving the company, Sabu had aura before “aura” became trendy to say.

Sabu’s last match was an occasion that brought many eyeballs to a screen and was as compelling and controversial as Sabu’s career was.

Gran Hamada

Speaking of death bounces…after a reintroduction to the ballot last year that saw Hamada get 43%, upon hearing the news of his death on February 15th of this year, my second thought was “that’s him in the Hall of Fame.” If you think I’m an uncaring bastard for that, my ex-girlfriend agrees with you.

The top vote-getter among Reporters (I presume those who cover lucha and those that REALLLLLLLY like Dragon Gate), Hamada always felt like a slam dunk to get in. He was a pioneer in merging the Lucha style that he learnt in his many times spent in Mexico and puro style, known as lucharesu. Hamada paid it forward by training Ultimo Dragon who started Toruymon, of which the Unique Selling Point was the lucharesu style that Dragon Gate took on in the aftermath of Toruymon’s failure in business and made them a beloved company by many and Taka Michinoku, whose promotion Michinoku Pro Wrestling was also a gamechanger. Hamada’s historical relevance was as massive as anyone on the ballot and was the biggest reason for induction.

Bobby Bruns

Cue the Michael Scott “Thank You!!!”.GIF.

After a car crash with NWA Worlds Champion Orville Brown that would end his full-time in-ring career, Bobby went to Japan and found the gap in the market that many businessmen crave to find. With his protégé, Rikidozan, Bobby would promote tours of Japan, bringing wrestling to the masses of Japan and starting a style of wrestling that decades later would resonate with so many around the world.

Without Bobby Bruns we don’t get to walk down the Kings Road, The Three Musketeers never happen, and The Five Star era doesn’t happen, because Bobby Bruns was the guy who set up the first wrestling enterprise in Japan, discovering Rikidozan and setting up a chain of events in which we now see the influence of puro reshaping wrestling in America and the rest of the world.

For some, the most notable moment of his wrestling career was being in the same car as Orville Brown, the then NWA Worlds Champion when he was in an automobile accident that cut short both their careers, but Bobby had successful runs promoting in St. Louis in the 60s.

Additionally, as he essentially was the father of Japanese wrestling and given the role the Wrestling Observer played of raising awareness in the boom periods of Japan in the 90s and 2010s, the Observer should have had Bruns in their Hall of Fame a long time ago, but sometimes to paraphrase Vanessa Williams “you have save the best to later than planned” (doesn’t have the same ring to it as the actual song, does it?).

The Fifties Club

When someone hits 50%+ it usually means induction is happening.

One of the things I like to do is look at trends in the voting when it comes to analysing the Observer Hall of Fame. Erratic isn’t a word you can associate with the results of the Hall of Fame ballots over the last 10 years. Every year for the last 10, a minimum of 2 people have gone past the threshold of 60%, when their previous year’s percentage was in the 50%-59% range. In 2025, there were 3 people inducted who were in the “50% club.”

The fact that, of the 40 acts that were in the Fifties Club from 2015-2024, just 6 didn’t get inducted (The Steiners, Enrique Torres, Akira Taue, Edge/Adam Copeland, Cien Caras and Volk Han – though Taue and Caras ended up getting in in tag teams with Holy Demon Army and Los Hermanos Dinamatas, respectively) tells you that the chances are high that all of the eight acts listed above are likely to become Observer Hall of Famers.

Hayabusa is historically significant with his style being so influential to the generations that came after him, plus he drew well in FMW after Atsushi Onita had the first of his multitude of retirements – which for comparison, is like a football manager following a manager who had won the league title at the club he just joined the year before.

Junkyard Dog’s increase of 14% in 2024 was a surprise to many because of the lack of momentum he had in the years before in voting, having been stuck in the 29%-40% range in the previous four years after getting 45% in 2019. But being just four votes short this year tells you that induction in 2026 should be a thing.

His less than impressive in-ring work and lack of longevity of sustained Box Office greatness has been the barrier to induction for many over the years, but as he enters his 13th year on the ballot (making him one of 14 up for votes to have double digit consecutive years), people have seen one of the criteria, Historical Significance, and correctly applied it to JYD.

Junkyard Dog ran so Ron Simmons, Kofi Kingston and Swerve Strickland could fly and be World Champions. In a time where lazy stereotypes were put upon black athletes and African-Americans who wished to be CEOs of businesses, JYD showed he could be responsible for a thriving business in NOLA.

Mid-South Wrestling was one of the premiere territories in American wrestling before Vince McMahon and WWF took a flamethrower to the territorial system in the mid-80s. The promotion would regularly pull up big attendances at the New Orleans Superdome in their prime with JYD as their biggest star. Junkyard Dog would draw a combined number of 293,000 people at the Dome in his four years in Mid-South in feuds with Butch Reed, The Fabulous Freebirds and Ted Dibiase. Before Hulk Hogan became Hulk Hogan, JYD was arguably the No.1 babyface in American wrestling with only Dusty Rhodes and Jerry Lawler in the conversation.

The Junkyard Dog meant more than a spike in ratings and attendance numbers. JYD was a gamechanger in this business that should be honored and JYD should be the ninth black wrestler to be inducted (P.S. – Getting Rich Latta a ballot would also be a great idea).

There was a time when women’s wrestling was a great draw with the likes of Mildred Burke and June Byers – and June was the last great women’s wrestler before The Fabulous Moolah ruined women’s wrestling for everyone. After the events as shown in Queen of the Ring, Byers would actually be awarded the NWA Women’s Title, travelling around the country as champion. Byers’s athleticism and technical skills would lead people to say that she was the greatest woman of all time to wrestle, even if her reputation of being too physical in the ring was lived up to on more than one occasion, with matches often making Athena vs Jody Threat look like the opening minute of an Orange Cassidy match. In what is now a crowded field just below the 60% induction threshold, Byers’ time on the ballot could be in jeopardy as a result of the 15/50 rule, where she joins Killer Karl Kox and Dominic DeNucci in peril of elimination. In turn, this could see extra focus on her case next year.

Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura are one of the most enjoyable pairs to do commentary in wrestling. Jesse Ventura is still on my Rushmore for heel announcers. He is the template for how to be a heel announcer. Never OTT like Jerry Lawler, never someone to find the one-liner like Bobby Heenan, Jesse talked like he knew the truth, and eventually you had to say that he had a point and you were annoyed that he was right, but still he had a charm to him that heel announcers today are nowhere near.

Gorilla Monsoon was seen by people who were “smart” as being a bad announcer, with Gorilla winning the Worst Announcer Award six times in the Observer Awards, making him the joint most prolific winner of that award with Michael Cole – who also won it 6 times – but unlike Cole, there is fondness for Gorilla through podcasts from fans that lived through the time to the point that Gorilla actually topped Active Professionals.

I wrote this in my Ballot Preview piece that didn’t get to be published because of logistical reasons and personal life shit (apparently the nurses in ICU where my dad had an unscheduled stay last month aren’t as interested in Mike Tenay’s pros and cons on the ballot as I am): 

Turns out, they were adjudicated together.

Gorilla arguably has more of a case than Jesse thanks to multiple years as a Top 10 box office draw as a rival of Bruno and the fact that Monsoon was the most frequent challenger to Bruno’s WWWF Title, his biggest claim to fame as a wrestler. With a biography about Gorilla coming out in the fall, Gorilla’s backing was good enough to have a good restart number after coming off the ballot thanks to the 15/50 rule and people may read the book during the next year to validate his case and see Gorilla past 60%.

Jesse’s in-ring career was not as prolific as his commentary career and his life post-wrestling, where he was Governor of Minnesota representing (Ross Perot’s) Reform Party, which is also something Jesse is more known for in the mainstream, as well as his absurd conspiracy theories about 9/11. Whether or not Jesse’s unceremonious removal from the new and unimproved Saturday Night’s Main Event commentary team, with it’s move to Peacock plays into his balloting next year, we’ll have to see.

Jose Tarres is a name so nondescript, the Voices of Wrestling Discord WON HOF channel hadn’t mentioned Tarres in the four months prior to the voting period in what is an active channel (even out of season) and hardly mentioned him during the voting period. It was pointed out there that it was hard to research him and they’re right. There’s little footage of him out in the aether except from two YouTube channels, one of them Matt D’s from Segunda Caida, and the first page of a Google search of Tarres springs up more links to pages about an artist of the same name – who apparently restored the Jewish quarter of Girona and to be honest, considering I have a friend who grew up in Girona, I’d have more info on the artist than the wrestler, but a 31% rise in three years means that we have to talk about Jose Tarres the wrestler. Problem is, with a miniscule Cagematch, no Wikipedia and when you Google Jose Tarres Hall of Fame into your Google search engine, the first two links are of articles of the Hall of Fame I did for Musings (that was a brag, wasn’t it?), it’s hard to have that conversation about Tarres. But what I know is that Tarres headlined 30+ bullring shows in his home country of Spain with numbers so good that he is considered one of the premiere draws in mainland Europe history and that he’s getting closer to induction.

The CV of Ted Turner in regards to the Wrestling Observer HOF is the fact that he was the owner of TV stations that aired wrestling for 2 decades. My main question is, if Turner is on the ballot, why not Bonnie Hammer, the longtime USA Network executive who was WWE’s biggest advocate in a time where Vince McMahon had few friends in the hierarchy of USA? The main argument for Ted Turner was that he was the owner of the company that was the only wrestling company to overtake WWE as the No.1 in the world, no matter how temporary it was. The main argument against is that the only person who thinks Ted had any say in the running of WCW was Vince McMahon, judging by the McMahon documentary on Netflix. Truth is, Ted had more say in what footage played on CNN in any potential case of the world ending than he did any decision in WCW, bar the commissioning of “Monday Nitro”. (To be fair, Ted would have booked WCW 2000 way better than Vince Russo.) If you are selecting people based on the effect they had on professional wrestling, Ted Turner is an interesting case, as the world of professional wrestling without Ted Turner is very different, but if you are selecting people out of the Non-Wrestlers section based on hands-on influence, Ted Turner should be nowhere near the HOF. If no one who was making decisions on the wrestling product of WCW in the second half of the 90s is in the Hall of Fame (and Eric Bischoff was kicked off the ballot under the less than 10% rule), then Ted should not be a HOFer.

David, Kerry and Kevin Von Erich are getting closer to that 60% ceiling with a fourth consecutive rise in voteshare, with 2025 seeing a single digit rise again like the previous three. The magic of World Class Championship Wrestling in 1982-1984 with its era-defining feud between the brothers and The Fabulous Freebirds was adapted for the cinema with The Iron Claw, even though the movie concentrated on the tragedy more than the triumph of the Von Erichs. We could soon see the three most famous brothers of the siblings join their father as the seventh family to see two generations inducted (Rhodes, Santos, Funks, Mendozas, Villanos, Harts and Aguayos).

Ups and Downs

Zack Sabre Jr.’s massive jump is inexplicable to explain. There is no way I can use any other words for it. I’m a massive ZSJ fan. So is my dad. He was the only person who watched Goto vs Sabre Jr. and was annoyed that Goto won. The Zack love is deep in the (non-Copeland) Edge household but the idea that Zack Sabre Jr. is higher in the ballot standings than Jon Moxley is just stupid. NJPW is in a massive slump. The reason depends on who you believe. The hardcore NJPW fans that frequent certain discords blame Tony Khan. Tony Khan may also be responsible for the Kennedy assassination, chemtrails, Florida going for George Bush in the 2000 Presidential Election, etc. Tony is also the guy who is going round graffiting everything on sight in The Radleys area of Birmingham insisting that we see the words RIP Tomo even though he died 18 months ago. The actual grown ups say that the long term impacts of Covid are part of the reasons. The economy being rubbish worldwide is also a big part in NJPW’s troubles recently and Gedo doing Memphis booking, without knowing what Memphis booking actually is, isn’t helping, in addition to his sudden loss of memory as to how to push young wrestlers. While Zack being the champ on top is well down the list of reasons why Mexico and CMLL has overtaken Japan and NJPW in the relevancy stakes, the fact that Hirooki Goto popped business the way he did when he won the IWGP is an indication of how bad Zack did business wise while on top.

The Briscoes bump up was good to see with people looking to how important they were to the independent scene and ROH especially, but Otto Wanz, Samoa Joe, Matt and Jeff Hardy’s rises were equal in its mystifying. While I’m a Joe guy, his rise does go against what you see from people that are still active and still full time. Joe’s last 12 months have been fun (to be fair every 12 month period associated with Joe is always fun) but nothing to see a double digit increase justified.

But at least his past, which at times was revolutionary, like his RoH World Title run and 2005-06 can be a talking point to why a HoF induction could happen for Samoa Joe. The Hardys and Otto Wanz don’t deserve that much credit for their past and in the former the last 12 months show nothing as to why Matt and Jeff are Hall of Famers.

There is nothing in the double digit decreases on the ballot that is shocking. Adrian Street, Ole Anderson, The Royal Brothers and Kevin Sullivan were the biggest four fallers in the ballot that are still on the ballot. The Royals are victims of the UK portion of the International section being weak in star power, especially with the famous renowned of the UK guys, Les Kellett, being one of four being relegated. The other three of the four in bold above were stalwarts of the territory era, and in the cases of Ole and Kevin, it was their failures at the national level that went against them, with Ole and Kevin’s time with the pencil in WCW in 1990 and 1995 going against them, perhaps ignoring the good work they published in years before.

El Hijo Del Santo & Octagon probably should never have been on the ballot as a team in the first place. In 2022, there was a deluge of tag teams added to the ballot, as part of some reforms to the voting process that was as welcome as well, the Reform Party is to normal and sensible people. While it did it mean that Akira Taue, the coolest of the AJPW Four Pillars got into the Hall of Fame as part of the Holy Demon Army team with Toshiaki Kawada, it also led to the need to add tag teas to the Mexico section of the ballot. However, given Mexico is not scene known best for tag teams, along with Dr Wagner Jr. and Angel Blanco, the son of El Santo and Octagon were the tag team representatives and both teams have struggled in voting. Santo and Octagon never had a HOF resume in their time as a team and while the match with Los Gringos (Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr) is a memorable match in the wrestling landscape and my favourite lucha match of all time, that is kind of like me saying that Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” is the best country song of all time (actually, it’s Faith Hill’s “There You’ll Be”.)

[1] AJ Styles dropped off the ballot in 2015 before being added in 2017. On re-entering the ballot, he received 63% of the votes.
[2] Jon Moxley first entered the ballot in 2021, dropping off with less than 10% of the vote. He re-entered the 2023 ballot with 13% of the vote and has stayed on the ballot each year since.
[3] Chris Jericho won the Flair/Thesz Award in 2008, so 4 of his 6 years on the ballot before induction were before he won the award.

Any Other Business

Jon Moxley (32%) is now back to being the only Flair/Thesz winner in the Observer awards who is currently on the ballot but has not been elected to the HOF. Cody, the 2024 winner, got inducted this year. Will Ospreay, the 2023 winner, should be added to the ballot in 2027. Mox, who is actually a two time winner of that award, is rising up the ranks and I think at a pace that will see him inducted around 2029/2030 but this the slowest rate a Flair/Thesz winner has gone up the percentages since voting started in 1998.

Why is that? Maybe the first half of 2025 in which the Death Riders’ reign on top was getting not exactly rave reviews, which obviously explains the 1% rise in Adam Copeland’s voteshare #sarcasm; but once the end of the arc was coming, Moxley was as good as it comes in American pro wrestling as the dictator in self denial and the subjects were coming for the tower. But more fascinating is seeing how badly Mox has ranked with certain groups of voters, with Mox getting 28th in Historians and Reporters and 30th in Active Professionals and outside the Top 30 in Retired Pros. The truth is many professionals in this business think Jon Moxley being a success in AEW (to the point that the continued existence and success of the company can be attributed to Moxley during Covid and in the months after the company’s darkest day at “All Out” 2022, which were reasons as to why Moxley won Flair/Thesz in 2020 and 2022) actually isn’t success and that because Jon Moxley left WWE, he is a failure as a wrestler. This is a really stupid opinion. All Elite Wrestling is the greatest No.2 US wrestling company of all time in the national era (since 1984) and all the “founding fathers” of AEW are in the HOF; and while events from that historically significant occasion play into their inclusion, the next one down in the importance power rankings is Jon Moxley (if you say Hangman Adam Page, I won’t argue that) and to say that Mox is a failure because he didn’t make it in New York is a negligent opinion. I do think Mox will get in, but when the day comes it’ll be ____ years too late. Tony Khan should be inducted when he gets onto the ballot in 2034 (that will be fun discourse!).

© AEW

Speaking of “not making it in New York”, Mercedes Mone (11%) was a surprisingly low number even equating to the history of the Observer HOF and voting patterns. There are eight black wrestlers in the HOF and seven women in,(with the last voted in being in 2003), which says a lot about long term issues of representation at the very top in wrestling. After leaving a stint in WWE which saw her as part of the “Diva’s Revolution” with ground breaking matches with Bayley that helped alter perceptions about women’s wrestling, in the second phase of her career, the expected boost to AEW business didn’t come (save for a good crowd for her unveiling in AEW in Boston), and it’s too early to judge what she does for the smaller promotions she’s now the women’s champion of. Even though “High Stakes” was a disappointment at the box office for RevPro, that can be attributed to the questionable idea of hosting an event in Doncaster on Easter Sunday. But Mercedes’ work in the UK in 2025 makes her an interesting choice for Europe MVP for this year; however, that’s a debate for another time.

What isn’t for debate is that Mone having 1% more voteshare than Trish Stratus is actually gross. Mercedes has contributed more to the enhancement of women’s wrestling than Trish ever did but with the mindset from voters that also sees pros not voting for Mox, it is something that makes the voting of modern wrestlers getting to the point of farce. Let’s get this straight, she isn’t a Hall of Famer yet and her starting number should have been in the late teens but 11% is absurd for someone with such a historical significance on women’s wrestling.

While not absurd, FTR joining Drew McIntyre, Les Kellett, Bill Mercer, Dusty Rhodes/Dick Murdoch and Los Infernales in getting relegated off the ballot was a massive shock to me. While a Hall of Fame writer told me that it was “too soon” for FTR, one particular statistic tells me that it wasn’t, at least when it came to getting more than 10%.

Only six teams have 5 consecutive years in the Top 10 in the Observer Tag Team of the Year award. The Young Bucks, Road Warriors and Holy Demon Army are in the Hall of Fame. Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Bucanero as a team are not in the Hall but Ultimo’s time as part of the lucha pair his inclusion in 2019. The Steiners would probably get in had Rick not been embroiled in making transphobic statements about Gisele Shaw. So when FTR come onto the ballot this year, with FTR’s style being such fodder for Retired Pros and Historians, I expected FTR to be like The Briscoes, a team they are so associated with after their trilogy in 2022, and have their starting number be in the 30’s and in a year where voters voted people in in duos (Punk/Rhodes, Monsoon/Ventura, Hamada/Dixon) FTR not being in many of the same ballots as The Briscoes was a surprise.

Seth Rollins (10%) not becoming the first person to ever get relegated from the ballot three times was an unfortunate missed opportunity to have a funny moment in these scary times as a society. Seth didn’t become the Norwich City of the Observer Hall of Fame by avoiding demotion by the barest of margins with one less vote meaning Seth going under the margin of demotion. Seth is now officially the Burnley of the Hall of Fame with survival at the third time of asking but both being an abhorrent watch in 2025. Did I just compare Seth Rollins to Scott Parker? (Editor’s Note: There’s always next year for us to enjoy Seth’s third demise.)

NOAH

We take a look at all the happenings in NOAH since our last issue.

CMLL

Dios De Los Muertos at Sold Out Arena Mexico Turns Into A Nightmare