It makes me nervous when the PWI Top 500 wrestler list comes out each year.
Palms get a little sweaty. Fidgeting sets in. Fingernails get gnawed off. The nervousness isn’t because there’s a horse I have in that race, but the discourse around the list is exhausting. Tribalism reigns supreme and social media gets filled up with even more outlandish opinions than usual. You never know what you’re going to get when the thing drops.
Pro Wrestling Illustrated has been publishing their top 500 pro wrestler list for over three decades. There are stringent qualifications that wrestlers must have to make the list. Because of that consistent scrutiny, the list has become a strong barometer of not just the tip top players in the industry, but the up and coming players to look out for as well.
Of course the list is subjective and rooted in the opinion of PWI, but each year I publish my own opinion about theirs. Did they get it right?