8 Reasons Why Kazuchika Okada Is #1 In This Year's PWI 500
5. A Mixed Year For WWE Frontrunners
The PWI 500 is always heavily skewed towards WWE wrestlers. This makes sense: it's a kayfabe list, and given that WWE are the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, it's logical that their perceived top guy would finish first. Wrestlers from Vince McMahon's promotion have topped the table 23 times out of 27, and if the bulk of WWE's biggest stars hadn't had such middling years, it's safe to assume they'd take the podium once more.
Not to discredit Okada's accomplishments, but he has definitely profited from diminished competition. AJ Styles, his biggest challenger, has been positioned on the midcard since February. Roman Reigns hasn't been pushed anywhere near as strongly as he was during the previous window. Kevin Owens was a weak Universal Champion. John Cena and Brock Lesnar haven't wrestled enough matches to justify top 10 inclusion.
All of WWE's major players have taken notable losses this year, which makes it hard to make a case for them as number one. Okada, meanwhile, is clearly positioned as NJPW's undisputed top guy, and while his home promotion is significantly smaller than WWE, this is circumvented by the way Vince McMahon has booked his own PWI frontrunners.