- Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame ("WON HOF" for short) is a professional wrestling hall of fame that exists only on paper.
The WON began in 1996, when "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" editor
Dave Meltzer chose a large class of initial "inductees". Unlike other forms of sports such asbaseball andbasketball , professional wrestling did not at that time have a Hall of Fame voted on by a panel of experts who are independent of any of the sport's governing organizations.Fact|date=July 2008 The WON HOF was intended to fill this need.Since 1996, the newsletter, regarded as the premier source of "inside" wrestling information, has inducted a new class of inductees yearly, based on a poll of insiders and pro wrestlers chosen by Meltzer. The mechanism of the voting is designed to ensure that wrestling personalities from the
United States ,Japan ,Mexico , and elsewhere will all receive fair representation.Fact|date=July 2008List of members of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame
1996 inductees
1997 inductees
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Édouard Carpentier
*El Hijo del Santo (Jorge Guzmán)
*Toshiaki Kawada
*Jimmy Lennon
*William Muldoon
*Chigusa Nagayo 1998 inductee(s)
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Dos Caras 1999 inductees
*Lioness Asuka (Tomoko Kitamura)
*Jushin Liger (Keichi Yamada)
*Keiji Mutoh
*Jim Ross 2000 inductees
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Stone Cold Steve Austin
*Mick Foley
*Shinya Hashimoto
*Akira Hokuto (Hisako Uno Sasaki)
*Bill Longson
*Frank Sexton
*Sandor Szabo 2001 inductees
*Black Shadow (Alejandro Cruz)
*Diablo Velasco (Cuahutémoc Velasco)
*Lizmark
*Bull Nakano (Keiko Nakano)
*Satánico2002 inductees
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Martin Burns
*Jack Curley
*Kenta Kobashi small|(Garnering 81 of 83 votes, Kobashi had the highest percentage of any inductee (98%) since the system was implemented in 1997.)
*Wahoo McDaniel (Ed McDaniel)
*Manami Toyota 2003 inductees
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Chris Benoit * small|(Underwent a recall election in 2008 due to the double murder-suicide of his wife and son that was supported by a majority of 53.6% of voters, but was below the 60% threshold necessary to remove him.)
*Earl Caddock
*Francisco Flores
*Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom)2004 inductees
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Kurt Angle
*Bob Backlund
*Masahiro Chono
*Carlos "Tarzán" Lόpez
*Kazushi Sakuraba
*Último Dragón (Yoshihiro Asai)
*The Undertaker (Mark Calaway)2005 inductees
*The Fabulous Freebirds small|(Michael Hayes (Michael Seitz),
Terry Gordy , and Buddy Roberts (Dale Hey))
*Paul Heyman
*Triple H (Paul Levesque)2006 inductees
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Paul Bowser
*Eddie Guerrero
*Hiroshi Hase
*Masakatsu Funaki
*Aja Kong (Erika Shishido)2007 inductees
*Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
*Evan "Strangler" Lewis
*Tom Packs 2008 inductees
*Paco Alonso (Francisco Alonso)
*Martín Karadagian Potential inductees
The list of potential inductees is limited to those listed on the ballot sheets. To be eligible for the ballot, wrestlers must be 35 years old with 10 years of "major league wrestling experience," or have 15 years since their major league debut as a full-time wrestler. Any person on the ballot who does not receive 10% of the vote is removed until such a time as enough people ask for them to be returned to the ballot.
Based on those who were not eliminated due to the 10% rule and the 2009 additions to the ballot of Edge and
Dr. Wagner, Jr. , the ballot for 2009 includes the following:ee also
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Dave Meltzer
*Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
*WCW Hall of Fame
*WWE Hall of Fame
*NWA Hall of Fame External links
* [http://www.pwi-online.com/pages/hallofame.html Online listing of the WON Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.wwe-zone.com/other/observer/observer_hof/index.htm WON Hall Of Fame at Pro-Wrestling Edge]
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