Eastern Lariat Special: 2023 Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame Show (w/Gerard Di Trolio)

This year we see the return of our coverage of the Hall of Fame, said by many experts to be among the most "legit" hall of fames among wrestlers themselves as well as historians and journalists. But more importantly than the inner workings of the Hall of Fame, we're here to discuss the candidates up and down and top to bottom and talk about these historical legends in wrestling. (And sometimes not legends)

 

Joining Dylan once again is the Emerald FlowShow's Gerard Di Trolio, an active voter in the HOF itself. We end up running down every candidate as well as who he ultimately voted for with some back and forths on a number of people in these regions, which feature the following candidates up for induction:

 

HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA (eight maximum)

 

Ole Anderson

Bob Armstrong

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

Jack & Jerry Brisco

British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith)

June Byers

Wild Bull Curry

Junkyard Dog

Cowboy Bob Ellis

Pampero Firpo

Black Gordman & Great Goliath

Archie "Mongolian Stomper" Gouldie

Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart)

Sputnik Monroe

Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch

Argentina Rocca & Miguel Perez

Johnny Rougeau

Iron Sheik

Tiger Jeet Singh

Sgt. Slaughter

Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood

Mad Dog & Butcher Vachon

Von Brauners & Saul Weingeroff

Kevin & Kerry & David Von Erich

 

 

MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA (five maximum)

 

Mark & Jay Briscoe

Young Bucks

Edge

Bill Goldberg

Matt & Jeff Hardy

Becky Lynch

Jon Moxley

Kevin Nash & Scott Hall

Paul Orndorff

Randy Orton

Seth Rollins

C.M. Punk

Roman Reigns

Trish Stratus

Rick & Scott Steiner

 

JAPAN (three maximum)

 

The Beauty Pair (Jackie Sato & Maki Ueda)

Cima

Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Hayabusa

Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi

Tomohiro Ishii

Meiko Satomura

Shingo Takagi

Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada

 

MEXICO (three maximum)

 

Angel Blanco & Dr.Wagner

Sangre Chicana

Los Hermanos Dinamita (Cien Caras & Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo 2000)

Dorrell Dixon

Pirata Morgan

Blue Panther

El Hijo del Santo & Octagon

La Parka AAA

Huracan Ramirez

 

EUROPE/AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND/PACIFIC ISLANDS/AFRICA (four maximum)

 

Spyros Arion

Big Daddy

Dominic DeNucci

Billy Joyce

George Kidd

Killer Karl Kox

Mike Marino

Kendo Nagasaki

Jackie Pallo

The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner)

Johnny Saint

Adrian Street

Jose Tarres

Otto Wanz

 

NON-WRESTLERS (six maximum)

 

Dave Brown (U.S. & Canada modern)

Bobby Bruns (Japan)

Bob Caudle (U.S. & Canada historical)

Bobby Davis (U.S. & Canada historical)

Joe Higuchi (Japan)

Jim Johnston (U.S. & Canada modern)

Larry Matysik (U.S.& Canada historical)

Rossy Ogawa (Japan)

Reggie Parks (U.S. & Canada modern)

Morris Sigel (U.S. & Canada historical)

Tony Schiavone (U.S. & Canada modern)

George Scott (U.S. & Canada historical)

Sanshiro Takagi (Japan)

Mike Tenay (U.S. & Canada modern)

Ted Turner (U.S. & Canada modern)

Roy Welch (U.S. & Canada historical)

Stanley Weston (U.S. & Canada historical)

Grand Wizard (U.S & Canada historical)

James Melby (U.S & Canada historical)

 

And we finish off by going over the people that have been talked about and we suggested ourselves to be put on the ballot on 2024!

 

For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well: patreon.com/easternlariat 

 

Follow us on Twitter/X:  

 

https://www.twitter.com/easternlariat 

 

https://www.twitter.com/strigga

 

https://www.twitter.com/viva_zero

 

Check out Gerard as well and give a listen to his show, the Emerald FlowShow!

 

https://www.twitter.com/GerardDiTrolio

 

https://www.twitter.com/EmeraldFlowShow

 

Special thanks to Souichi Sakagami & Mikado Miyabi for the OFFICIAL Eastern Lariat theme song: "Rainy Day" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3yWeS1ILdE