Pro Wrestling Illustrated December 2022

NORMALLY, I WOULD be inclined to use this space to provide you with a quick overview of the new PWI “500” list—a notable shift, absence, or trend of some kind. Alas, Kristen Ashly has that covered in her stats piece, which starts on page 71. Don’t flip that page just yet! In lieu of “500” analysis, I’d like to share with you a couple of important updates concerning our trilogy of annual rankings. I’ll begin with a bit of background for the uninitiated. As you may already know, our “500,” “Women’s 150,” and “Tag Team 50” are approached as logical extensions of our ongoing top 10 lists, building upon PWI’s “Heavyweight,” “Women,” and “Tag Team” rankings. Those linchpin lists use most of the same criteria—monitoring the progress of wrestlers in these respective…

ONE YEAR AGO, Triple H was fighting to survive a life-threatening cardiac episode. His father-in-law, Vince McMahon, had fired William Regal, Brian James (Road Dogg), and other members of his inner circle, while effectively killing his passion project, NXT. Only three months ago, Stephanie McMahon—amid reports that she and Vince had differing opinions regarding her role as chief brand officer—went on hiatus from WWE. Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque are now the most powerful couple in the industry, gaining control when WWE’s succession plan had never been so uncertain—with Vince musing not long ago that the company might evolve beyond a family business. Stephanie, as the new chairwoman and co-CEO with Nick Khan, will feel pressure to maintain WWE’s unprecedented financial success. Triple H, as the new head of creative, must…

LAST YEAR, AS a certain Universal champion began building what would become the most dominant world title reign that WWE had seen in decades, many PWI readers—and countless more casual observers—assumed Roman Reigns would top our annual “500” list for a second time. “The Tribal Chief” first ranked #1 back in 2016 as a top talent who, like John Cena before him, drew as many jeers as he did cheers. Surely, considering the incredible work done by Reigns in late-2020 and early-2021, he was worthy of being acknowledged. "I expected it … It should've been happening for years now." Instead, Reigns, who was (and is) the top box office draw in the industry, came in a close second to AEW’s Kenny Omega. After all, we reasoned, this was Pro Wrestling Illustrated, and…

THE ANNUAL PWI “500” ranking serves as a snapshot in time; a glance into the state of wrestling during the 12-month evaluation period. Who excelled far and beyond any peers? Which promotion had the best roster? Which territories or countries saw the most growth in terms of talent? The “500” list, painstakingly compiled from hours of research and long ranking meetings, serves less as a definitive, mathematical chart of the best wrestlers, and more of a document of the wrestlers and promotions who made a big impact. While it’s easy to get lost in who topped the list, there are 500 spots filled with talented wrestlers who had stellar years. And, often, the list is best analyzed when looking at the big picture. After adding up and analyzing the data, we’ve noticed…

IN ITS 32ND year of publication, it’s hard to believe that this list could still break new ground. But, alas, in putting together the top 10 for another year, I discovered a PWI “500” first: For the first time in its history, the top 10 is majority non-white. Of the first 10 wrestlers on this list, six are people of color. There’s one Pacific Islander (Roman Reigns), one Asian wrestler (Kazuchika Okada), one Latino (El Hijo Del Vikingo), and three African Americans (Bobby Lashley, Big E, and Jonathan Gresham). The 6/10 ratio beats the previous high watermark of 5/10, set last year, when Reigns, Lashley, Kota Ibushi, Shingo Takagi, and Rich Swann all made the top 10. Before that, there were several years during which four of the first 10 wrestlers on…

IF YOU’RE ONE of our regular readers, you likely understand—maybe even appreciate—how much effort goes into compiling a ranking of 500 wrestlers from around the globe. Even when we take into account the athletes who do not qualify due to inactivity, or whose primary focus is in women’s or tag divisions (see “From The Desk Of …” on page 3), there are still far more wrestlers in the world than any one person could reasonably be familiar with. It takes a village, from our committee members and magazine contributors to consultants, promoters, and even wrestlers themselves. I won’t bore you with how we start off each year’s deliberations, or how we whittle down and then refine each list. Besides, you can check out appearances from myself and many of our writers…