The 34th annual PWI 500 — Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s (mostly) kayfabe ranking of the 500 best wrestlers in the world — is here.
Grabbing the top spot — and beating a World champion from his former company
— for the second straight year was the American Nightmare Cody Rhodes. Both he and AEW’s Jon Moxley held their respective prizes for mos of the Aug. 1, 2024-July 31, 2025 period PWI considers. Rhodes had nine defenses during that time, while Mox had eight.
They were followed by the Ring General who held WWE’s other top men’s prize twice during the evaluation period, and the Cowboy who finally dethroned Mox in AEW. While there’s some room for debate among those four, the rest of PWI’s Top Ten provides a lot more…
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Here’s the top 10:
- Cody Rhodes
- Jon Moxley
- Gunther
- Hangman Adam Page
- Hirooki Goto
- Jey Uso
- Swerve Strickland
- Seth Rollins
- Mistico
- Will Ospreay
In another parallel to the previous year, it’s a fairly balanced list. PWI’s given us a Top Ten with four WWE names, four from AEW, and one each from New Japan and CMLL.
Striking that balance is one reason I’ve always called the PWI 500 “(mostly) kayfabe”. As Cagesider OLeo91 just reminded us the other day in The Feed, PWI’s selectors consider in-ring achievement, influence, technical ability, level and variety of competition, and activity during the evaluation period when coming up with their rankings. While there’s some subjectivity to “technical ability”, it’s “influence ” (defined as “visibility and prestige within a promotion and/or the industry”) that allows them to consider non-work elements of a person’s career… and what & who will help them sell the most magazines. But I’m a cynical middle-aged bastard, so…
Whatever factors you’re considering, you can now debate these rankings in the comments below.
And you can purchase a digital or print copy of the December 2025 issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated dedicated to the 34th PWI 500 here.
