This makes three!
Two days after the WWE announced that Bull Nakano would be entering the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2024 as their second entrant, a third, former WWE Tag Team Champions, The U.S. Express (Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo) will also be enshrined.
Windham and Rotundo first teamed in Championship Wrestling from Florida, winning the United States Tag Team Titles multiple times. They went to the then-named WWF in late 1984 and were now named the U.S. Express. Within months of their debut, they defeated Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch to win the WWF World Tag Team Titles. They competed at the first Wrestlemania, losing the titles to The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff. They won it back but would lose them to Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and Brutus Beefcake. Windham, who was burnt out, left the company shortly after the loss of the titles. Windham had far greater success in the NWA/WCW, where he was a member of the Four Horsemen and an NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He would return twice, once briefly in 1989 and in the Attitude era, in a mid-card run, first as the Stalker and then one-half of the New Blackjacks.
Rotundo also had success in the NWA, winning the Television Title and leading the Varsity Club stable. He returned in 1991 and had a four-year run as Irwin R. Schyster (I.R.S), where he won the World Tag Team Titles with Ted DiBIase and competed in multiple main events. He returned to WCW, though in a reduced role, and later served in various capacities in the WWE.
Notably, Rotunda (his real name) is the father of Bo Dallas and the late Bray Wyatt.
Rotundo was ranked #42 on our Notinhalloffame list of those to consider for the WWE Hall of Fame. Windham was unranked, as he is already in with the Four Horsemen. Notably, we will work to revise that list following Wrestlemania, and Rotundo will be one of the names removed.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Bull Nakano for her impending honor.
Goran Dragic, hailing from Slovenia, caught the attention of NBA scouts when he led his club team, Union Olimpija, to the 2008 league championship and earned the Finals MVP recognition. The Phoenix Suns picked him in the Second Round of that year's draft, and he made his way to the United States.
However, Dragic didn't get much playing time during his two-and-a-half seasons with the Suns, averaging less than 20 minutes per game. He only got his chance to start when he was traded to the Rockets.
In 2012, Dragic became a free agent, and the Suns re-signed him to be their starting point guard. He had his most successful season in the NBA in 2013-14, where he won the Most Improved Player award, was named to the Third Team All-Star, and averaged 20.3 points per game with a career-high PER of 21.3.
The Suns later traded Dragic to the Miami Heat, where he continued to perform well as a point guard. He was named to his only All-Star game in 2018, but a few years later, his age became a factor, and he was relegated back to the bench. He ended his career with stints in Toronto, Brooklyn, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
If Dragic were to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, his best chance would be through the International Committee, thanks to his outstanding performances representing Slovenia in the 2017 EuroBasket and the Slovenian League.
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out, and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post-2023 revision of our top 50 Seattle Mariners.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball, we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in Major League Baseball.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.
Last year, Seattle was unable to make the playoffs despite having built a lot of momentum from the previous year. Nevertheless, there was one major new entrant and a couple of rank alterations.
As always, we present our top five, which saw no changes:
3. Ichiro Suzuki
You can find the entire list here.
J.P. Crawford had a nice gain, going to #31 from #45.
2022 American League Rookie of the Year, Julio Rodriguez, explodes on the list at #35.
Pitcher Marco Gonzalez, who is now with Pittsburgh, fell a spot to #36 based on a poor 2023.
We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.
1957 SEMI-FINAL RESULTS:
Thank you for all of your participation in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project. If you are unaware of what that is, simply, we acted as if the PFHOF had its first class in January 1946.
We have completed the years up to 1956.
For “1957,” a Preliminary Vote with over 130 players whose playing career ended by 1951. We are also following the structure in that players have 20 years of eligibility, and if they do not make it into the Hall, they are relegated to the Senior Pool.
Each voter was asked to select 25 names from the preliminary list, and the top 25 vote-getters were named Semi-Finalists.
A week later, the voters were asked to pick 15 names from the 25 Semi-Finalists, and next week, they will pick five from the remaining 15. We will continue this process weekly until we catch up to the current year.
30 Votes took place, with the top five advancing.
This is for the “Modern Era”
Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals:
|
Player |
Year of Eligibility |
Vote Total |
|
Steve Van Buren HB |
1 |
30 |
|
Kenny Washington FB |
4 |
21 |
|
Steve Owen T-G |
19 |
20 |
|
Beattie Feathers HB-WB |
12 |
20 |
|
Riley Matheson G |
4 |
20 |
|
Al Wistert T |
1 |
20 |
|
Whizzer White TB-HB |
11 |
18 |
|
Wayne Millner E-DE |
7 |
18 |
|
Ward Cuff WB-QB-HB |
5 |
16 |
|
Bill Osmanski FB |
5 |
15 |
|
Marshall Goldberg T |
4 |
15 |
|
Buckets Goldenberg G-BB |
7 |
13 |
|
Ken Kavanaugh E |
2 |
13 |
|
Woody Strode E |
3 |
11 |
|
Ace Gutkowski FB-TB |
13 |
10 |
|
George Sevendsen C |
11 |
10 |
|
Jug Earp C-T-G |
20 |
9 |
|
George Wilson E |
6 |
9 |
|
Lou Rymkus T |
1 |
9 |
|
Glenn Presnell T-B |
16 |
8 |
|
George Christensen G-T |
13 |
6 |
|
Gaynell Tinsley E |
12 |
4 |
|
Frank Cope T |
5 |
4 |
|
Charley Brock C-HB-FB |
5 |
3 |
|
Spec Sanders TB |
2 |
2 |
Notably, there was a tie, meaning that 16 men advanced to the Finals, as opposed to 15.
This is for the “Senior Era”
*Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals:
|
Swede Youngstrom |
5 |
23 |
|
Hunk Anderson |
7 |
15 |
|
Tony Latone |
2 |
14 |
|
Al Nesser |
2 |
11 |
|
Cub Buck |
7 |
7 |
We also had a run-off vote to break a tie on Senior Candidate Parameters, in which you voted 18-12 to keep it as is. This means that for the next three years until another vote, the top vote-getter MUST gain 50% of the vote.
Next Saturday, we will be posting the Class of the 1957 Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project.
Thank you to all who contributed, and if you want to be a part of this project, please let us know!