Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2020 i Pro Wrestling Illustrated

WHEN LAST YEAR’S “500” dropped, All Elite Wrestling was still in its infancy. Though the company’s first two official events—Double or Nothing and Fyter Fest—both took place within our previous evaluation period, AEW was a month away from the premiere of its flagship weekly TV program, Dynamite. Over the last 12 months, AEW has emerged as perhaps the most legitimate competition WWE has seen since the era of the Monday Night War. WWE responded in kind by moving its pre-taped NXT broadcasts to the USA Network, where they aired, live, opposite Dynamite. Of course, in the era of COVID-19, both shows now typically tape in advance, but the spirit of competition has led to the advent of a new ratings war on Wednesday nights. Most weeks, AEW has won those…

AS WWE WANES, OTHERS COME TO THE FORE BACK IN JUNE, I attended my first PWI “500” meeting in several years. I usually have strong feelings about the top three, but quite frankly, whether we rank Dominik Dijakovic or Luchasaurus at 104 doesn’t really matter to me. Even this year, with Stu Saks retired and Dan Murphy gone to pursue new endeavors, I was confident our new Editor-in-Chief, Kevin McElvaney, and our committee of sharp, plugged-in writers were absolutely capable of ranking the sport’s superstars from 1 to 500. They could tell me all about Effy, Pro Wrestling NOAH, and the nuances of the AAA-CMLL rivalry, while I still spend my columns wondering why Ric Flair wore his kneepads below his knees. Yet, with AEW on TNT and the COVID-19…

BETTER REPRESENTATION, BUT STILL ROOM TO GROW LAST YEAR, AFTER the PWI “500” dropped, I created my own list of the world’s best wrestlers, called the Black Wrecellence 250. Having researched the representation in 2019’s “500,” I found it to be pretty lackluster: Only six percent of the wrestlers listed were Black. One thing led to another, and the BW250 was born. A lot came from that list, but, most importantly, it had an influence on this year’s PWI “500.” And that is the reason I am here writing this. Considering the “500” criteria, it’s not surprising this year’s #1 pick is Jon Moxley. With his promos, polarizing podcast interviews, and high-profile matches in AEW and New Japan, Moxley really shook up the landscape of pro wrestling … and legitimized…

THE WORLD IS IN FLUX … SO, TOO, IS THE “500” A PANDEMIC THAT that shut down wrestling companies around the globe for more than a third of the evaluation period. A national reckoning on institutional racism that spurred us to more closely look at the names (and skin tones) of the wrestlers on our list. And a new milestone in female empowerment that made us consider the inclusion of women—and the exclusion of some men—in the PWI “500.” Never have world events, politics, and social revolutions shaped the list as they have in this, its 30th edition. While part of me certainly misses the days when all we had to consider was the tidy criteria we developed over the last three decades, I certainly appreciate why the formation of…

IT’S BECOME A common refrain. Ask any wrestler who broke into the game within the past 20 years, and, more often than not, they will tell you that the competitor who most influenced them and inspired them to step into the ring is Shawn Michaels. That’s because of the standard of excellence he set in the ring, as an unparalleled performer who could bump and sell like nobody’s business, who always made his opponents look great, and whose arsenal was filled with exciting, crisply executed maneuvers. If you go back a little earlier, a response you’re often likely to get is Ric Flair, for much the same reasons. And yet, if you were to ask Flair himself that same question—or the majority of wrestlers of his generation—the name you would…