December 12, 2022 Observer Newsletter: 2022 Hall of Fame issue

The 2022 class of the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame has eight new entrants.

Voted by our panel into the Hall of Fame were All Japan tag team stars Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada, CMLL star Mistico, New Japan stars Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito, Los Villanos from Mexico and Rollerball Mark Rocco, a star who changed the in-ring style in the U.K. and was part of the junior heavyweight boom in Japan as the original Black Tiger, a top rival for the first Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama.

Also added to the Hall of Fame this year were two of the leading promoters of all time, Lou Daro and Johnny Doyle.

We have an extensive story on Daro in this week’s issue and will have another on Doyle in the upcoming weeks. The Daro story is a fascinating look at the world of wrestling during a very different time and place, and the man who put pro wrestling in Los Angeles on the map. Daro was a very controversial figure subject to numerous investigations, alliances, and switching of loyalties that made his era of the 1920s and 1930s and what went on behind the scenes as the foundation of the territorial business was being built amazingly fascinating.

Subscribers can click here to read this week’s issue.