It’s Observer Hall of Fame season, and you know what that means: With Kris having to take the week off, David figured this would be a good week of a HOF show, so he’s joined here by our dear friend John Pollock of POST Wrestling to go over the ballot! The focus is on new/returning candidates and our ballot shortlists for the most part to keep our sanity, but there’s a ton of ground covered, with topics including:

• David’s new research into the Von Erichs and how it affects their candidacy as a group.
• Decoding the criteria as it applies to teams vs. singles acts.
• The underrepresentation of historically marginalized groups in the HOF.
• Junkyard Dog getting unfairly made out to be a far inferior candidate than he actually is in a lot of HOF discussions.
• Sabu’s case coming into focus in the aftermath of his death.
• What’s the threshold for high level in-ring longevity candidates like the Briscoes, Masaaki Mochizuki, and Meiko Satomura?
• Between last year’s inductions of CIMA and Shingo Takagi and this year’s addition of Mochizuki to the ballot, is it time to put a lot more focus on Dragongate candidates, whether individually or as groups?
• Is Becky Lynch’s candidacy losing stream?
• Did CM Punk deliberately sabotage AEW, and if so, how does that reflect on his otherwise strong case for induction?
• The Randy Orton problem: Right now, it’s easy to make the case for why he’s a weak candidate. Will voters lost sight of that years down the line?
• Batista needing reconsideration under the current rule set when he’s a far superior candidate to almost everyone else on the modern U.S./Canada ballot.
• Did Cody Rhodes’ pec injury rob him of the credit he deserves for being the catalyst for the 2020s WWE boom period?
• Aew we overvaluing in-ring work when it comes to candidates like Tiger Jeet Singh?
• Trying to figure out the areas where the WON HOF should be more like the Rock ’n’ Roll HOF than sports halls of fame, including whether or not feuds should be considered as much of an “act” as tag teams are since it’s all a work.
• The problem with candidates like Zane Bresloff and Rossy Ogawa where we’re largely relying on a friend or two to make the case for them.
• The glut of candidates like Morris Sigel, Bobby Bruns, and Roy Welch that arguably shouldn’t be up to a vote in the first place.
• The rise of “non-standard” candidates like Jim Johnson and Reggie Parks.
• Mike Tenay arguably having much more actual stylistic influence on the style taken up by successor announcers than Jesse Ventura did.
• Dave Brown being unfairly punished for being the sidekick of the GOAT, Lance Russell despite being an HOF-level announcer himself and fans in the Memphis territory tending to put them over as a team.

…and much more. Enjoy!

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