Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame & WWE's Influence on Pro-Wrestling Pundits

[RyanClingman]

With the recent inductions of Brock Lesnar, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Sting to the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame I saw this December as a good time to reflect on the reasons behind these inductions, the possibility of a modern bias within both the voting system and electorate, and perhaps most importantly the influence of the WWE historical hype machine on voting patterns.

 

In the article we discuss the cases of Lesnar and Volk Han in particular, as well as general biases and external influences through the lenses of Sting, Nakamura, CM Punk, and others.

 

 

As always any feedback positive or negative would be very much appreciated!

 

ARTICLE LINK

[Tim Cooke]

Enjoyed reading this.

 

RINGS was essentially the minor league feeding system to PRIDE, the most successful MMA company in Japan and around the world that is NOT UFC.

 

If Han had stopped working when they went completely legit, I could see RINGS not being something that favors Han. But he did participate and took arguably a top 4 heavyweight fighter in Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, who was in his prime, to a judges decision at the age of 40.

 

So if Sakuraba gets him based on his PRIDE work (which is a totally different topic), Han's RINGS work, both work and shoot, should have been a crucial factor in voters minds.

[cpst]

RINGS was essentially the minor league feeding system to PRIDE, the most successful MMA company in Japan and around the world that is NOT UFC.

 

…

 

So if Sakuraba gets him based on his PRIDE work (which is a totally different topic), Han's RINGS work, both work and shoot, should have been a crucial factor in voters minds.

I don't really have any horse in this race, but if RINGS was the minor league to PRIDE then why do you think it should count the same for a hall of fame? If anything, shouldn't that answer the question as to why they are treated differently?

[RyanClingman]

Enjoyed reading this.

 

RINGS was essentially the minor league feeding system to PRIDE, the most successful MMA company in Japan and around the world that is NOT UFC.

 

If Han had stopped working when they went completely legit, I could see RINGS not being something that favors Han. But he did participate and took arguably a top 4 heavyweight fighter in Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, who was in his prime, to a judges decision at the age of 40.

 

So if Sakuraba gets him based on his PRIDE work (which is a totally different topic), Han's RINGS work, both work and shoot, should have been a crucial factor in voters minds.

 

Thanks, Tim -- I'm glad that you enjoyed the article. I pretty much agree with most of this, However, I think that Han would still have a strong case even if he had stopped working after RINGS switched to almost all shoot fights. As a professional wrestler in his style I personally think that he was Hall of Fame tier, but even neglecting that, he drew as second from the top from 1992 to the switch to full shoot in the very late 1990s/very early 2000s. This was when RINGS was drawing as well on a monthly basis as any company in Japan is at the moment. I make the comparison to modern Japanese companies because both Tanahashi and Nakamura made it in on their drawing credentials in this context as well as their working ability.

[RyanClingman]

 

RINGS was essentially the minor league feeding system to PRIDE, the most successful MMA company in Japan and around the world that is NOT UFC.

 

…

 

So if Sakuraba gets him based on his PRIDE work (which is a totally different topic), Han's RINGS work, both work and shoot, should have been a crucial factor in voters minds.

I don't really have any horse in this race, but if RINGS was the minor league to PRIDE then why do you think it should count the same for a hall of fame? If anything, shouldn't that answer the question as to why they are treated differently?

 

 

I think that they definitely should be treated differently, at least to some extent. RINGS was a worked promotion for the majority of its lifetime whilst PRIDE was not, at least in the traditional sense anyway. However, fans in Japan, by most accounts, saw PRIDE as more of a pro-wrestling promotion than an MMA one (there was no MMA concept in Japan at the time as far as I know)