It is that time of year again, as Pro Wrestling Illustrated has released its annual PWI 500 list! The yearly tradition sees the historic pro wrestling magazine release its rankings of the top five hundred active male pro wrestlers worldwide. While the list is purely opinionative, many in the industry take it very seriously and laud their place on it if they make the cut.
Earlier today, on Busted Open Radio, the top ten for this year’s list was revealed. Topping the charts? WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth “Freaking” Rollins.
You can find the full top ten below:
- WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth “Freaking” Rollins
- Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns
- AEW International Champion Jon Moxley
- WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther
- AAA Mega Champion El Hijo de Vikingo
- AEW World Champion MJF
- NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion Kazuchika Okada
- Orange Cassidy
- Josh Alexander
- Cody Rhodes
Interestingly, only one AEW talent cracked this year’s PWI 500, and it wasn’t MJF, which is sure to be a talking point among fans online. Moxley has certainly over delivered across the last twelve months, but Friedman is positioned as the centerpiece of the company and retained their top title in the main event of their largest event ever just two weeks ago. We would not be surprised to see Friedman not taking the top spot, or any of the top five, for that matter, becoming a talking point in some of his upcoming promos. He is set to defend his title against ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe next week at AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam.
Haus of Wrestling sends its congratulations to Rollins and all the talent that made this year’s list.