Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Pro Wrestling Illustrated

IT IS IMPORTANT to me that this column, even when it deals with difficult subject matter, never gets too maudlin. After all, you read this magazine to be entertained and informed—not to be bummed out. However, this particular edition is going to be a pretty tough one to get through. If you’re not currently able to handle heavy discussions of illness and grief, you may want to turn the page. In past editions, I’ve talked about my wife Megan, who has been battling cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) since 2020. As I write this, I am sorry to say that her fight is nearing its end. During production of our previous issue, we learned that Meg’s cancer—a type that rarely travels beyond the torso—had spread to her brain. She received radiation…

RHEA RIPLEY WHEN SURVEYING THE wrestling landscape of the last 12 months, it wasn’t hard to see that Rhea Ripley had a year to rival that of any female wrestler in this century. To limit that comparison to one gender, however, would be a disservice to the Australian bruiser. Rhea Ripley had one of the best years in wrestling imaginable, full stop. It takes a special person to hold their own in a stable that also includes Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, and Damian Priest. Ripley has not only done that, but she has (arguably) established herself as the leader of the talented faction over the past year. It also takes a special kind of person to be Dominik Mysterio’s “Mami.” And Ripley, too, has taken on that role with aplomb,…

SINCE 2008, PRO Wrestling Illustrated magazine has published a version of the ranking you are about to read. It began life as the “Female 50,” with Awesome Kong as #1 in the first-ever edition. Other early “Female 50s” noted the rising influence of SHIMMER and independent women’s promotions, as Madison Eagles and Cheerleader Melissa topped the 2011 and 2013 lists, respectively. By the time the list doubled in size in 2018, WWE’s “Women’s Revolution” had resulted in wider mainstream acceptance of women’s wrestling as something worthy of celebration. Ronda Rousey was the top-ranked wrestler in that edition. And, when the ranking grew again in 2021—becoming the “Women’s 150”—Bianca Belair was the eighth WWE wrestler in as many years to rank first. In 2022, Stardom’s Syuri made history as the first…

AS WE CELEBRATE women’s wrestling this month in the pages of Pro Wrestling Illustrated, it seems only fitting to look back at the life and legacy of the person who just may have been the greatest women’s wrestling superstar of them all; someone who, in many ways, created the template for women’s wrestling as a viable enterprise, despite the efforts of several to erase that legacy over the years since. Those efforts were sadly all-too-successful for quite some time. Thankfully, the accomplishments of Mildred Burke have been reappraised in recent years, helping to restore her to her rightful place among the greatest of all-time. The story of Mildred Burke is a paradoxical one. She was arguably the greatest attraction women’s wrestling ever produced. And she did so in an era…

BACK IN MY school days, my wrestling addiction often made it hard to focus on my classwork. When I was supposed to be taking down U.S. history notes, I was instead doodling Ultimate Warrior symbols. When I was meant to be reading my English textbook, I was actually reading the copy of Inside Wrestling that I hid inside it. Surely, this behavior would never help me in my career when I grew up. Unless, of course, I grew up to write this column … STUDENT BODY One of the hardest parts of training to become a pro wrestler is getting in the kind of shape where you’re comfortable performing in front of crowds in your underwear. Harder, still, is staying in that shape. Just ask Adam Cole. After experiencing various…

EACH YEAR, OUR annual rankings have been known to create quite a bit of controversy, no matter how “safe” we feel some of our choices are. Sometimes, the controversy is warranted: Our sincere apologies to Tetsuya Naito, who was initially included in the top 10-15% of the 2023 “500,” but was later omitted via clerical error. In other situations, it simply comes down to (admittedly, heated) differences of opinion. And that’s okay! Indeed, that’s one of the things that makes pro wrestling great—the ability to immerse ourselves in the things we like or dislike; to share those opinions with other wrestling enthusiasts. Our annual Achievement Awards, which predate PWI magazine itself, offer you, dear reader, the unequivocal chance to praise and lambast to your heart’s content. So long as you…

FOR PERIOD ENDED OCTOBER 1, 2023 HEAVYWEIGHT 1 SETH ROLLINS 217, Davenport, IA (1) WWE World heavyweight champion 2 MJF 205, Plainview, NY (3) AEW World champion 3 ALEX SHELLEY 215, Detroit, M  (4) IMPACT World champion 4 EDDIE KINGSTON 240, Yonkers, NY (-) ROH World champion 5 JAKE LEE 231, Hokkaido, Japan (7) GHC World champion 6 HIJO DEL VIKINGO 207, Nuevo Leon, Mexico (6) AAA Mega champion 7 ALEX KANE 240, Atlanta, GA  (8) MLW World champion 8 SANADA 220, Niigata, Japan  (5) IWGP World champion 9 REY FENIX 165, Mexico City (-) AEW International champion 10 ALEC PRICE 165, Boston, MA  (-) IWTV World champion WOMEN 1 RHEA RIPLEY 170, Adelaide, SA  (8) WWE Women’s World champion 2 SUZU SUZUKI 114, Miyazaki, Japan (-) 5STAR Grand Prix…