Earlier today (Sept. 24), Pro Wrestling Illustrated released its big annual conversation-starting list of the 500 pro wrestlers it deems the best in the world – the PWI 500. In first place for the Aug. 2025-July 2026 year the magazine was considering for its 36th PWI 500 was AEW’s Maxwell Jacob Friedman, a man with the gift of gab and a never-ending desire to toot his own horn.
PWI having a reaction podcast set with the new #1 immediately after this year’s top ten dropped? That’s just smart booking.
Speaking, and often jousting with, PWI’s Lyric Swinton, Friedman congratulated the magazine for finally getting it right and putting him on top. Then Max and Lyric bantered about the nine names after his on the list. To kick this off Swinton mentions sticking to five words about or sending a message to each man, but they didn’t hold to that throughout:
2. Cody Rhodes: “Mentor. Beat him.”
3. CM Punk: “[Bleeped word I believe started with a ’c’]. Beat him.”
4. Mistico: “Douchebag. And I beat him at Grand Slam Mexico. We all saw it. The ref was very weird about it. I think we had a second match, I can’t remember if we did, but — yeah, I guess that’s a good spot for him. Solid. He’s the second biggest draw in Mexico, like right behind me.”
5. Konosuke Takeshita: “Good kid. Beat him. He’s got something, I think. He’s got potential.”
6. Hangman Adam Page: “Dork. Can never be the AEW World champion ever again. And I beat him.”
7. Yota Tsuji: [Swinton accidentally prompts Friedman with the next name here, but then says Tsuji’s name] “Oh, you skipped him because New Japan’s not a real company. [Lyric tells him that Tsuji is currently a reigning World champion] ”On what planet? A World champion of being skinny fat.“
8. Trick Williams: “I would love to get back to my boy Trick Williams at number eight… Talk about a guy who’s only been on television a very short period of time. I got to meet Trick at LaGuardia Airport… we chopped it up a little bit, got to hang with him again recently at my friend Dip’s par-tay. He’s just a good guy. I like him. I know this is more than five words, but great guy, boatload of potential – nothing to bad to say there.”
9. Oba Femi: “Another guy that’s represented by my guy, Brian Dipperstein. Great dude. And very large, a very large man, and another guy with a boatload of potential.”
10. Gunther: “So, great guy. Pretty upset about the John Cena match — still am. John Cena’s the second greatest professional wrestler of all-time behind me. And to just see John go out like that was real upsetting, so didn’t love it. Didn’t love it. But, I mean, Gunther’s probably the hardest hitting pro wrestler in the game, besides me of course. Really talented, tough S.O.B. In the words of AEW commentator extraordinaire Jim Ross, he’s tougher than a $2 steak.”
Sounds like Max is ride-or-die with his fellow Dipperstein clientele. What about the dude in the top spot, though? What plans does MJF have as PWI’s top wrestler in the world?
“I don’t want to give anything away. But just know, whenever I come back — because I’m waiting for the right time and the right moment — whenever I come back, just know that the PWI cover is not going to be far behind. I’m going to be shoving this down everybody’s throats for as long as humanly possible.“
Looking forward to that?
