AEW's Kenny Omega Tops PWI 500

The Best Bout Machine nabs the PWI 500 top spot for the second time in his career.

by Andrew Pollard
Kenny Omega
AEW

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.

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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.

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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.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.