The PWI 500 and You

Pro Wrestling Illustrated, one of the longest running wrestling publications and one of the few ones that still operate under the guise of kayfabe, even in the era of information overload and the emergence of the "smart fan", released its annual ranking of professional wrestlers culled from the thousands around the world, the PWI 500. Triple H was ranked number one this year, beating out Chris Jericho at number two. Even when they barely face off against each other, Trips always finds a way to make Jericho job to him ;)

Anyway, here's the list, linked from the Chikara forums rather than from a regular webpage because I can't find it on a regular webpage. I'm not gonna post it directly here because it would be super tl;dr, even under a cut. I don't want to discuss it in too much detail because the criteria are mostly in character and don't explore impact of guys who job and guys who don't wrestle all that much, while overrating title reigns and win-loss record. Regardless, people still like to argue the list, whether it's on point or whether it's not.

Anyway, even if you don't agree with the methodology or the order, you have to respect the amount of work and detail that goes into ranking all these wrestlers. Bill Apter and Co. at least show due diligence even if they're still marketing the mag to people who are apt to believe that wrestling's outcomes aren't predetermined. I have to respect that, and I couldn't even begin to put together a top 50 as comprehensive as his top 500 let alone my own 500 list. There is so much that a wrestling journalism hobbyist such as myself doesn't have the time to follow let alone digest.

That being said, I don't think my top 10 would look drastically different. I'd put Jericho at the top, because I think he's been the WWE's MVP for the time-frame involved. Triple H isn't a bad choice at number one all things considered, but I'd probably put him behind Jericho and John Cena. The only really glaring name in the top 10 that I see is Sting, and mainly because he was the beneficiary of really generous booking. He didn't really wrestle on Impacts because he was hurt, but they kept finding ways to keep the strap on him at PPVs. I think 9's high for him out of principle alone, but that's just me. I guess if you use PWI's criteria, he's deserving.