Pro Wrestling Illustrated, a long running US wrestling magazines, has published their annual list of The Best 500 wrestlers in the world. It seems to have been posted first here (drownedinsound) and I saw it cross posted here (the-w)
This list is for entertainment purposes only. If you find yourself being legitimately upset about a ranking, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re mildly amused, you’re doing better.
12.Ultimo Guerrero
17.Mistico
22.Perro Aguayo Jr.
26.Mesias
28.Dr. Wagner Jr.
32.Cibernetico
59.Rey Mysterio Jr.
68.Averno
71.Zorro
73.Dos Caras Jr.
77.Alan Stone
85.El Hijo del Santo
98.Charly Manson
102.Chessman
105.Mephisto
108.Rocky Romero (wait, why would I put him on the list?)
109.Atlantis
112.Negro Casas
113.Halloween
115.Rey Bucanero
121.Blue Demon Jr.
123.Hector Garza
128.Black Warrior
133.Sangre Azteca
138.Mr.Niebla
142.Juventud Guerrera
145. Jack Evans
146.Mr.Aguila
172.Marco Corleone
191.Volador Jr.
192.La Sombra
194.Super Crazy
209.El Sagrado
212.L.A.Park
233.Kenzo Suzuki
236.Teddy Hart
238.La Mascara
240.Heavy Metal
249.La Parka (Jr.)
254.Olimpico
257.Damian 666
259.Ephesto
263.Shocker
269.Alex Koslov
276.Intocable
282.Lizmark Jr.
286.Maximo
291.Brazo de Plata
297.Felino
301.Ricky Marvin
312.Abismo Negro
313.Blue Panther
315.Ultimo Dragon
325.Crazy Boy
328.Incognito
333.Jorge Rivera
344.El Pantera
367.El Gran Apache
389.Sean Waltman
480.Chris Stone
489.Leono
493.Super Calo
Let me wait a couple days to be reminded which people I missed or should remove (Waltman?) to do a comparision with previous years – you can find last year’s version here
Mega and Omega are wrestlers from North America. Mega worked for ECWA, World-1 and other promotions, Omega was last seen at IWA East Coast.
The PWI guys completely forgot Lucha Libre when they throwed the dice to write down the names from #389 to #480.
Actually ‘Omega’ was a wrestler I created on TNM in the year 2000. Just for the record.:)
‘Obvious link bait’. Mwahahahahahaha.
Dammit!! No Chico Che in the PWI 500…This is bs!;)
Did they change the schedule for the 500? It seems like its out earlier than in the past. I recall it always came out in September. Well at least the ones from the ’90s I use to get. I haven’t kept up with PWI in the last 10 years.
Just curious, who’s doing their lucha coverage nowadays?
What are the dates the PWI 500 is based off of? August-July?
You missed Jack Evans at 145.
Supposedly Quackenbush is their “international contributer” now, under the nom-de-plum “Mike Spillane”, which is ironically his legit name.
Since they stated they were uh… “changing the criteria” for the PWI500 back in like 2005, the list is way less comprehensive (and perhaps fair) than it had been. Before, they relied a lot more upon “contributing correspondents”, aka people who regularly sent in results and write ups to the magazine group.
Since then, they have been more fair to international wrestlers (with Japan getting treated “more fair”) in the PWI500, but show an absolute bias now towards the “super indy” promotions (CZW, ECWA, Chikara, ROH, PWU, PWG, FIP, and a few others). I mean, it is hard to believe a guy like Aero Star is not on this list at all, yet Adam Flash is 232. I would have no problem with a guy like Flash making the list, but he shouldnt be ahead of Kenzo Suzuki at 233. Remember, it isnt a “workrate” based list, if it was Randy Orton wouldnt be #1.
I think it is a decent list for a little debate, but in reality, it isnt more legitimate or unbiased than if I made my own list.
The problem is that it isn’t just a list without a workrate base, it is a list without any identifiable base. For instance, Valiente has the workrate plus he had the success by winning Rey del Aire in May and by climbing the cards – nevertheless he is not listed while Ephesto was placed into the middle of the list and even Leono got his mention. Or for another instance, they seem to think that only three AAA wrestlers were more important / had a better workrate / were more pushed / drew more audience / whatsoever than Alan Stone. Meanwhile, the other Bellos Stone are placed more than 400 ranks below him. Naturally they had to be listet below, but 400 ranks? Whatever, the PWI 500 are as always a list consisting of pure randomness.
It’s just a bunch of names and numbers. It’s not meant to make sense at all and isn’t worth overanalyzing or even analyzing at all. Think of it like CMLL booking.
its b/c the list is made by people who only follow american wrestling. they dont watch mexican wrestling. they say, oh this guy has a title, he has to be on the list and make up some place that they think he belongs.
WTF are the stupid writers at the pwi thinking?