These are the seven entrants who reached 60% and over of the votes in this year’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. Were you satisfied with the results?
| L.A. PARK | 74% | |
|---|---|---|
| JERRY JARRETT | 73% | |
| JIMMY HART | 71% | |
| BILL APTER | 68% | |
| HOWARD FINKEL | 66% | |
| GARY HART | 61% | |
| YUJI NAGATA | 60% |
No showstoppers, but a solid list of contributors. The only one I struggle with is Bill Apter. He’s one of the major reasons why wrestling journalism is still considered to be nothing more than “the dirt sheets” by many.
But my general feeling on these things is that if 60 percent of voters are OK with it, I suppose I am too. It’s not like the Baseball Hall of Fame where there are legit stats to compare, so I’m pretty much in favor with anybody (within reason) who dedicated his or her adult years to pro wrestling being inducted into any Hall of Fame there is.
Apter was generally respected by the performers and bookers in his time mostly because while he was a reporter, he never tried to expose the business like Meltzer did later on. He was pretty much publishing what the bookers wanted him to published and he respected that. The apter mags was a big part of keeping the illusion that pro wrestling was a real sport and I’m surprise it took that long for him to get into the WOHOF as he’s was the last real wrestling journalist before it became cool to expose the business.
I would say that all are more than deserving to go into the Hall of Fame.
Not knocking Apter’s contributions - a lot of fans learned about other territories from his magazines at a time on when that was pretty much the only way to do it - but the description above isn’t journalism.
The editors just made shit up and the promoters and wrestlers didn’t care until it impacted their money making abilities.
Apter says this, and every old guy I hear said it also.
Apparently Big Daddy Crabtree was left out because of his drawing power…same HOF that has Bryan Danielson in before the whole Yes thing.
Wait! Jun Akiyama or Hayabusa is still not in the WOHOF?
Not even HAYABUSA!?
Akiyama was very very close, with 55% of the vote which is a huge jump from 47% last year. He might have a chance of getting in next year. Hayabusa, unfortunately, has been falling off for the past few years, some of his supporters were a part of a small, niche group.