AEW commentator Excalibur and veteran indie pro wrestler Mike Modest will be inducted into the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame 2023 Class.
GCW recently announced Excalibur and Modest for the second class of the Indie Hall. There’s no word yet on who will induct Excalibur, but Modest is being honored by his longtime friend Barry Blaustein, producer of hit wrestling documentary Beyond The Mat from 1999.
Modest was featured in the Beyond The Mat film. He began wrestling in 1991, and has worked around the world – for AAA and CMLL in Mexico, Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan, Stampede Wrestling in Canada, APW and WCW in the United States, plus other promotions in Canada, Ireland, and America, including TNA and ROH. He also helped run the Pro Wrestling IRON promotion from the debut show in June 2002, to the final show in May 2005. In recent years Modest has worked as Head Trainer and wrestler for Future Stars of Wrestling in Las Vegas.
Excalibur began wrestling in January 2000. He is one of the six owners of top indie promotion PWG in California, and wrestled mainly for PWG until retiring in October 2006 due to concern over concussions. Most of Excalibur’s matches were for PWG, but he also worked for CZW, CHIKARA, ROH, and APW. His last match before retiring was a win over Player Uno (aka Evil Uno) at CHIKARA’s Cibernetico Forever event on October 28, 2006. He would go on to work a Tag Team Gauntlet match at CHIKARA King of Trios 2007 in February of that year, teaming with Joey Ryan. Excalibur worked as PWG’s lead commentator after retirement, and went on to do work for other promotions. He did commentary at All In in 2018, then for NJPW later that year. He has been with AEW since April 2019.
Excalibur tweeted on the induction and wrote, “Thank you to the #IndieHOF for including me in the 2023 class, & thank you to all that shared their support. None of this would be possible without @OfficialPWG & I hope this can give recognition to the most influential independent promotion of the last two decades, if not ever.”
GCW and Orange Crush Magazine launched the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022. The inaugural class featured LuFisto (inducted by Lenny Leonard), Dave Prazak (inducted by CM Punk), the late Tracy Smothers (inducted by Nate Webb, accepted by Chris Hero), Ruckus (inducted by Sonjay Dutt), Homicide (inducted by Chris Dickinson), and Jerry Lynn (inducted by Sean Waltman).
GCW will host the 2023 Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Sunday, April 2 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles during WWE’s WrestleMania 39 Weekend. VIP Table seating is still available for $49. General Admission is included with WrestleCon passes. Below is the updated line-up, along with related tweets:
* Excalibur, to be inducted by TBA
* Mike Modest, to be inducted by Barry Blaustein
* Cheerleader Melissa, to be inducted by Dave Prazak
* Jimmy Jacobs, to be inducted by Alex Shelley
* Christopher Daniels, to be inducted by Frankie Kazarian
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
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