NintendoLogic

I disagree. I think he gets in easily every year from the point he first becomes eligible with the possible exception of the period he was self-destructing in TNA. No offense, but this board is really on an island when it comes to Angle. Just about any other place that discusses wrestling, he's held in near-universal reverence as one of the all-time greats. That doesn't mean they're right and we're wrong, mind you, but it's important to keep the broader consensus in mind when evaluating someone's candidacy.

Dave has repeatedly said that wrestlers need to be evaluated as close to their primes as possible because the further away from someone's peak you are, the more perceptions become clouded by nostalgia and reputation. He always points to Kiyoshi Tamura as the quintessential example of a guy who was screwed by the fact that the style he was arguably the best ever at died and the companies he worked for went out of business, which killed his legacy for newer voters. Raising the age floor is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. None of the wrestlers voted in before the age of 40 were anything less than very strong candidates, and the vast majority were absolute no-brainers. In other news, the Holy Demon Army goes on the ballot next year. That means Taue is being removed as a singles candidate, which is unfortunate, but anything that increases the likelihood of him taking his rightful place in the Hall is a plus in my book.

The issue's out. Okada, Los Brazos, Jim Crockett Jr., and Don Owen got in. Mistico, Sgt. Slaughter, and Mark Rocco were the biggest near-misses.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Punk reinventing himself as a Bret Hart tribute act has been the best recent development in wrestling.

Speaking of January 6th... I suppose he can always go back to Parler.

One of the foundational notions of AEW's booking is the idea of wins and losses mattering, which is why every wrestler's W-L record is displayed before each match. Having someone lose a bunch of high-profile matches prior to getting a title shot would make a mockery of that notion. Really though, how about we let the company's world champion and hottest act manage a few successful title defenses before we start fantasy booking ways to get the belt off him?

I never saw him wrestle in NXT. Was he any good?

Bryan and AJ are two of the greatest wrestlers who have ever lived. So yes, you can overcome height bias in WWE if you're a GOAT-level talent. It seems premature to presume this Hayes fella is on that level.

God damn, that was a killshot on par with the 1999 Rock/Billy Gunn promo. I don't know how Lashley recovers.

I think it's clearly the opposite. Going into Wednesday's match, Danielson had been positioned as an unbeatable wrestler with a million different ways to finish a match. Hangman kicked out of or escaped all of them before winning with a single buckshot lariat. You don't give someone that kind of Superman push unless you have him penciled in for a lengthy reign. At the very least, he's being positioned at least a level above the Pillars. If MJF does beat him for the title, I doubt it'll be more than a quickie transitional reign.

Is the opportunity to do forward rolls for Lord Tensai really that much more appealing for an NCAA athlete without any passion for the business? It seems to me that high-level athletes who are used to being coddled are a lot less likely to subject themselves to a bunch of Power Plant bullshit than experienced workers whose lifelong dream is to be a WWE Superstar. Who do they even have left to teach the actual basics of wrestling?

https://www.cagesideseats.com/aew/2022/1/5/22868556/cody-rhodes-regrets-anthony-ogogo-angle-race-relations-american-dream-promo Cody recently admitted that the Ogogo feud was a failure on just about every level. That would seem to poke a hole in arguments that he's supposed to be getting booed and the angles and promos that caused crowds to turn on him were galaxy brain 11th dimensional chess moves to make him a heel who thinks he's a babyface.

Made my first #1 pick for 2022, one that'll be hard to top.

OK, I watched Hangman/Danielson Part Deux. I don't want to jump the gun, and I need to watch it again to fully process it, but my initial reaction is to call it the greatest match in AEW history. It's as if Danielson was a PWO lurker and worked the match specifically for me after reading my comments about the first match. And yes, his jumping jacks continue to infuriate me.

Meltzer is reporting that Shibata legitimately went off-script when he changed the rules of his match and everyone backstage was freaking out when it happened. So there you go. I suppose it could be an elaborate WCW-esque attempt to work the boys, but I doubt it. By the way, for you all you GWE voters, Dick Togo being the driving force behind the House of Torture surely has to be a black mark on his candidacy if not an outright disqualifier.

It looks like the conversation was started by someone blaming Ospreay for the dropoff in attendance between nights 1 and 2, which is silly because that happens every year. I can't speak to his drawing power on the UK indies, but he appears to have been responsible for a significant increase in NJPW World subscriptions in the UK a few years ago. He does seem to have cooled off quite a bit since turning heel, though. Between that and Becky Lynch's current run, it's pretty clear that wrestlers doing bad Conor McGregor impressions is not what fans want to see.

A bunch of HHH guys got released the day after Bron Breakker won the NXT title while destroying the old NXT logo as part of his ring entrance. Not too hard to read between the lines here.

Coach Tony K said in a recent interview that a "dream singing" was coming in "pretty soon." The last time he hyped up someone like that, it ended up being Christian (who in fairness has been a tremendous asset to the company), so he has a history of overpromising and underdelivering in that area. He said it was someone in North America, so that rules out someone like Ibushi. However, let's not forget that Mexico is part of North America. It could be someone like Bandido or Hijo del Vikingo.

Looks like somebody at Channel Seven is an AEW fan.

Not nearly as bad as Arn Anderson spending his career pretending he was from Minnesota when he was clearly from well south of the Mason-Dixon line.

SRS pretty much confirms that AEW decided not to renew Swole's contract but allowed her to present it as a mutual parting to preserve her dignity. In her podcast, she said several times that she had left of her own volition when in fact she was let go. Given that she lied about the circumstances of her departure, none of what she said about AEW can be taken at face value.

It wouldn't be the first time a wrestler went into business for himself at WK. At WK7, Low Ki dressed up as Agent 47 for his IWGP junior title match without clearing it with the company beforehand and got fired as a result.

If you want to talk about toxic Twitter behavior, look at all the people calling Britt Baker a racist because she RTed Tony's tweet. Speaking of Britt, let's remember that Swole beat her on PPV. It obviously would have been a much better look if the POC on the roster had trumpeted the company's track record on diversity and inclusion while Tony remained silent. Still, I can't blame him for feeling burned if they reached an agreement with Swole to paint letting her go as her own decision only for her to throw the company under the bus. She had plenty of opportunities to get over and just couldn't deliver the goods.