AEW's Kenny Omega Tops PWI 500
The Best Bout Machine nabs the PWI 500 top spot for the second time in his career.
For the second time in his career, Kenny Omega has taken the top spot on the annual PWI 500.
The current AEW World Champion previously took the #1 spot on this prestigious list back in 2018, with the Best Best Machine landing at #18 last year as Jon Moxley grabbed pole position.
Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Al Castle broke this news during today's Busted Open Radio.
As just announced by @AlCastlePWI on @BustedOpenRadio: Congrats to @KennyOmegamanX, who ranks #1 in the 2021 #PWI500—his second time topping the list.
Preorder your copy of our 31st annual "500" issue at https://t.co/EuUXs75XJB pic.twitter.com/pJ5JhImsvn
Advertisement— PWI (Pro Wrestling Illustrated) (@OfficialPWI) September 8, 2021
For those wondering, this year's PWI 500 covers the period between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021. In compiling this list, PWI staff take into account, amongst other things, win-loss records, quality of matches, level of opposition, title wins, rivalries, and general in-ring ability.
During this time, Kenny Omega has won the AEW World Championship and the IMPACT Wrestling Title, has continued to hold the AAA Mega Championship, and was still an AEW Tag Team Champ when the assessment period began.
Fleshing out the rest of the top ten of the PWI 500 this year, we've got, in order, Roman Reigns, Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, Kota Ibushi, Jon Moxley, Will Ospreay, Finn Balor, Shingo Takagi and Rich Swann. PWI also took to Twitter to comment how Reigns would've been #1 in "just about any other year" but this one.
As of this writing, the rest of the PWI 500, or those included on the PWI Women's 100 and PWI Tag Team 50, have yet to be revealed.
You can pre-order the upcoming PWI 500 issue here.