Finding the top 500 wrestlers worldwide, much less ranking them based on annual achievement, must be quite a daunting task. For three decades, Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine has been embarking on this annual journey, revealing their list in a yearly special issue. The rankings, which include those who ply their trade in both major and indie promotions alike, are based on results from mid-June of the previous year to that of the issue date.
While somebody like ECW jobber Don E. Allen might have been thrilled to see his name at #500 in 1994, not everybody has just been happy to be there. Whether or not the wrestlers themselves care much about where they fall seems to depend on who you ask. However, the subjective nature of the PWI 500 has long been the source of debates between fans - some of which continue to this day.
10 1991 - Hulk Hogan At #1 And Ultimate Warrior At #11
PWI wasted no time unveiling their first controversial ranking, as the very first edition in 1991 had Hulk Hogan at #1 for what might have been his least successful year in WWE since his re-debut in 1984.
The 'Hulkster' famously lost the WWE Championship to the Ultimate Warrior - ranked at #11 - at Wrestlemania 6 and, and the Warrior went on to hold the title until Royal Rumble 1991. Since Hogan won it back from Sgt. Slaughter that April at Wrestlemania 7, he'd only be champion for about two months in the qualifying period, while Warrior had the belt for six. How this all meant that the 'Immortal' one belonged ten spots higher than the Warrior is anybody's guess.
9 1994 - Hulk Hogan At #2
Despite only wrestling a couple of times in Japan between his WWE Championship loss to Yokozuna at King of the Ring in June 1993 and his WCW debut in July 1994, Hulk Hogan still managed to grab the #2 spot in that year's 500.
Perhaps PWI staff were placing a ton of stock in his singles victories over the Great Muta and Tatsumi Fujinami, as well as a tag victory with Muta over the Hellraisers (Road Warrior Hawk and Kensuke 'Power Warrior' Sasaki), in Japan. Still, we can't help but figure if it had been anybody besides Hogan with the same record, the sheer lack of matches alone would have kept them from such a high ranking.
8 1996 - Ahmed Johnson At #5
Ahmed Johnson made his WWE television debut in October 1995 and immediately embarked on an impressive winning streak. While his promos needed work, his powerful moveset and strong push helped him immediately become a fan favorite, and he quickly became embroiled in feuds with some top heels like Camp Cornette.
Johnson's meteoric rise continued when he won the Intercontinental Championship at King of the Ring on June 23, 1996. If his big win explicitly fell within the date range for the 1996 edition, his #5 ranking would have been more reasonable, if maybe a bit high. However, since whether or not to include it seems vague, it feels like the 'Pearl River Powerhouse' probably belonged somewhere just outside the top ten that year.
7 1997 - Dean Malenko At #1
In 1997, the 'Iceman' was considered one of the greatest technical wrestlers in the world. WCW's cruiserweight division was red-hot and Malenko - along with other standouts like Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho - began receiving opportunities at other titles. In fact, Malenko probably achieved his professional pinnacle that year when he won the United States Championship.
PWI themselves acknowledged they went outside the box with their choice of Malenko as #1 that year, saying that since there was no clear-cut dominant choice, they decided to go with the 'best wrestler' in their minds. It's hard to say the 'Man of 1000 Holds' was a bad choice under that criteria, but the problem was the inconsistency in determining that year's qualifications.
6 2002 - Rob Van Dam At #1
In 2002, with WCW and ECW now closed, WWE found themselves with a veritable monopoly over American wrestling on a large scale, and many folks who should have been the Alliance's top stars were still sitting out the remainder of their contracts.
Rob Van Dam was one of the top beneficiaries of the Alliance's talent deficit, as he was consistently among the most popular stars on either side during the Invasion and even won the Intercontintental Championship. However, the PWI 500 was never intended to be a popularity contest, and RVD didn't even win a World Championship that year. A top-five ranking would have been appropriate, and the man who first unified the WWE and WCW Heavyweight titles during the period, Chris Jericho, would have been the better choice.
5 2009 - All WWE Top 5
By the time 2009 rolled around, WWE still had a firm grip on most American mainstream wrestling fans, but TNA and Ring of Honor were at or near their respective peaks of popularity. Why then, the top five of Triple H, Chris Jericho, John Cena, Edge and Randy Orton included nobody outside of WWE is something of a mystery.
To be fair, 4/5 of the bottom half of the top ten were all wrestlers from outside WWE, with Nigel McGuiness the foremost ROH representative at #6 and Sting as TNA's highest placement at #9. However, while all five WWE wrestlers had good years and were deserving of such a high ranking, it's hard to believe that nobody outside the 'E was on their level.
4 2011 - The Miz At #1
When the Miz won the WWE Championship in November 2010, fans were understandably shocked that the mid-carder - who was still considered by some as a reality TV star first and wrestler second - was now the industry's 'top guy.' It was even more confounding when the Miz retained his WWE Championship against John Cena (with a little help from guest host The Rock, of course...) at Wrestlemania 27, as heels rarely walked out of the 'Grandest Stage of Them All' still carrying the gold.
This is not to say that the Miz didn't have a tremendous, career year. Still, the sight of 'Mike from the Real World' being lauded the top wrestler in the world for 2011 has fans asking the same question even a decade later... really?
3 2015 - John Cena At #2
When John Cena won the United States Championship from Rusev at Wrestlemania 31, it was a breath of fresh air for Cena and provided a tremendous boost to the mid-card title. WWE had long faced criticism over its booking of both the US and Intercontinental titles, so putting one on such an established top star after winning 15 of his eventual 16 (and counting...?) world titles helped restore some prestige for the former NWA and WCW-branded belt, albeit temporarily.
With that said, it still doesn't make any sense that anybody, even John Cena, would be ranked at #2 based solely on the strength of his US title reign. Seth Rollins at #1 was a pretty clear choice, but there had to be at least one or two World Champions who had comparable years.
2 2018 - Jinder Mahal Only #14
The Modern Day Maharajah's rise to the WWE Championship in 2018 was nothing if not controversial. With his push coming from seemingly out of nowhere, Jinder would see any semblance of hindrance removed from his path as he was the beneficiary of one of WWE's more curious fast-tracked main event runs.
While it's easy to understand all the skepticism around Mahal's sudden rise to prominence, his #14 ranking for 2018 was downright disrespectful. He was WWE Champion for almost five months of PWI's period in summer 2017 (nearly six total) and such title reigns are usually very heavily considered. Despite never again coming within sniffing distance of the title once he lost it, his run should have at least been good to land somewhere in the top ten.
1 2021 - Kenny Omega At #1
The most recent version of PWI's rankings certainly helped fan the flames of 2021's most heated debate - AEW vs. WWE. With Kenny Omega taking the year's top spot due to winning world titles in AEW, Impact and AAA in late 2020 and holding them throughout the first half of 2021, his collection of championships would almost certainly have landed him the #1 spot to little debate in almost any other year.
Omega wasn't the only dominant champion in the wrestling world, however. Roman Reigns had a career year of his own on SmackDown, holding the Universal Championship since August 2020 and rarely looking vulnerable. Both the 'Tribal Chief' and the 'Cleaner' were presented as the heel to beat on their respective brands and a simple coin flip might have been the most efficient way to choose between the two.