WWE's Roman Reigns Tops The 2022 PWI 500

The Head of the Table is the Head of the PWI 500.

by Andrew Pollard
Roman Reigns
WWE

With many wrestling fans eagerly anticipating today's big reveal of who has topped the coveted PWI 500 this year, it's now been announced that Roman Reigns has nabbed the top spot in this year's list.

As initially revealed on Busted Open Radio, the Tribal Chief has been ranked #1 for the second time in his career, having previously done so back in 2016.

Rounding out the top ten male wrestlers, Kazuchika Okada came in at #2, CM Punk at #3, 'Hangman' Adam Page at #4, Bobby Lashley at #5, Cody Rhodes at #6, Bryan Danielson at #7, El Hijo del Vikingo at #8, Big E at #9, and Jonathan Gresham at #10.

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Making up the top 20, there's Shingo Takagi at #11, Jon Moxley at #12, Matt Cardona at #13, Josh Alexander at #14, Hiroshi Tanahashi at #15, MJF at #16, Seth Rollins at #17, Adam Cole at #18, Kenny Omega at #19, and Drew McIntyre at #20.

The evaluation for this year's PWI 500 was 1 July 2021 through until 30 June 2022.

Throughout the assessment period, Roman Reigns has continuously held the WWE Universal Title, in addition to taking the WWE Title from Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38 to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. Along the way, Reigns has picked up major wins over the likes of John Cena, Finn Balor, Big E, Shinsuke Nakamura, Goldberg, Matt Riddle, and of course bested Lesnar on a couple of occasions.

In terms of the criteria used to rank wrestlers, that's based around in-ring achievements, influence on a certain promotion or the industry as a whole, technical ability, and success against a variety of high quality opponents. To be eligible, a wrestler has to have had at least ten matches during that period or at least six matches in separate months. Interestingly, that criteria made the aforementioned Lesnar ineligible for this year's rankings.

The PWI 500 has been in place since 1991, with Hulk Hogan topping the inaugural list. The person to head-up the PWI 500 the most is John Cena, with three #1 spots to his name - those coming in 2006, 2007 and 2013.

Elsewhere, the PWI Women's 150 was launched in 2008 - initially as the Female 50, then the Women's 100 - and was topped last year by Bianca Belair, whilst the PWI Tag Team 50 debuted in 2020 and has been topped once each by FTR and the Young Bucks in its two years in existence.

For those wondering, this year's PWI Women's 150 will be revealed in October, and the PWI Tag Team 100 (now expanded from 50) will be revealed in December.

The digital edition of the latest Pro Wrestling Illustrated - complete with the full PWI 500 - can be found here, while the print edition will hit newsstands from 4 October.

 
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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.