An Olympian in 1984, Hiroshi Hase would go on the New Japan where he first gained traction as their Junior Heavyweight Champion.  Hase would win that championship twice, but he would move up the ranks to heavyweight where he would be one of the promotion's top tag team wrestler winning the belts on three occasions, two with Kensuke Sasaki and one with Keiji Mutoh.  He would also have stellar singles matches as a heavyweight, most notably against Mutoh where Muta (he wrestled as the Great Muta in that match) bled so much in a match that the famed “Muta Scale” was created by fans to gauge how much crimson occurred in a match.  Hase would later wrestle for All-Japan and was unselfish by putting over a lot of talent.  He would then become a very successful politician in Japan.

Often confused with Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Evan Lewis was a pioneering wrestler in his own right who would win multiple championships in the late 1800s including the American Catch-as-Catch-can, American Heavyweight and American Greco-Roman title. Lewis would become a draw in the Midwest, and he is credited for creating the rear naked choke, which gave him the nickname of "Strangler" well before Ed Lewis had that moniker.  That in itself makes him worthy of any wrestling Hall of Fame.

Arguably one of the most underrated wrestlers that put on the trunks under the WWE umbrella, Tyson Kidd was the last graduate of the famous Hart Dungeon, and with his marriage to Nattie Neidhart, he is on the fringe of wrestling royalty.  He would join the WWE in developmental in 2006, and along with his longtime friend, Harry Smith would be called up as the Hart Dynasty, and they would win the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship in 2010.  After the team lost the belts and split up Kidd was in a bit of limbo, but in NXT he reinvented himself as a solo star and was a top contender for that championship, but more importantly, he reminded everyone how good a wrestler he was.  Kidd got back on the main roster and was in a tag team with Cesaro and again won tag team gold, but his career was cut short when he was accidentally injured by Samoa Joe when taking a muscle buster causing a severe spinal cord injury, and his career was over after that.  He would later be hired as a producer for the WWE.

Before there were the Crush Gals and the Jumping Bomb Angels (who for many were the first Japanese female wrestlers that many American saw), there was the Beauty Pair (Jackie Sato & Maki Ueda).  They were massive stars that crossed over in the pop singing world, and they changed the way that women wrestlers were marketed and thought of in Japan.  The Beauty Pair would be two-time World Tag Team Champions and in a loser must retire match Sato would beat Ueda.  She would also be a successful solo competitor who would win the WWWA Singles Title three times.  After being forced to retire in 1981 due to the mandatory retirement age of 25 imposed by All Japan, she would return in 1986 in JWP to feud with Shinobu Kandori and would have a great match that devolved into a shoot.