The Rainmaker Is #1

[Jack-Hammer]

Pro Wrestling Illustrated released its annual list of the 500 top wrestlers in the sport and current IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada, tops the list. Among the chief reasons for Okada taking the top spot are his two matches against Kenny Omega that've been lauded by some as two of the best matches in pro wrestling history and that Okada is currently on day 436 of his 4th run as champion. Okada has been champ throughout PWI's evaluation period of July 31, 2016 through June 30, 2017 and unless he drops the title within the next 6 weeks or so, he'll have the longest single reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion in history. The top 10 reads as follows:

1. Kazuchika Okada
2. AJ Styles
3. Kevin Owens
4. Roman Reigns
5. Kenny Omega
6. Shinsuke Nakamura
7. Dean Ambrose
8. Samoa Joe
9. Bobby Roode
10. The Miz

Okada also happens to be the first Japanese wrestler to top the PWI 500. Okada came in second last year, making him the 2nd Japanese wrestler to reach that high on the list as Mitsuhara Misawa made it to #2 in 1997.

These lists are usually pretty fun to discuss and debate considering that there are always disgruntled fans who disagree with either the top spot or much of the rest of the list in general.

 

[Starkist]

I am not surprised even though I am someone who has not seen his work. This whole year has had Okada's name on it. From his matches with Kenny Omega in NJPW have received nothing but positive praise. He seems and sounds like a really sound worker who has stepped into a world of his own.

Makes me want to check out his matches when I have some spare time.

 

[Sai the Uganda Guy]

I'm a fan of Okada, but admittedly I haven't watched much NJPW (or Japanese wrestling in general, for that matter) in the past year or so. I definitely wanna watch his matches with Omega, among others, and if they're as good as others claim (I'll choose to ignore Meltzer's 6 star rating), then it's well-deserved.
I'll check out the rest of the 500 as well later, but the top 10 looks solid this year.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

It's a joke without Brock. He should be 1 or 2.

He has had great matches, been a bonafide draw, established the Universal Championship which was derided & mocked and I mean for fuck's sake if there was a contender from the nether regions of the Crab Nebula challenging for the Universal Champion I'd still pick him!

Fuck you PWI.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Ambrose at 7 is downright laughable. The guy had been stuck in a never ending feud with Miz for what felt like years. Last SummerSlam, he was in an awful feud with Dolph Ziggler. He had a few moments with AJ and Cena during their feud over the WWE Title, but I feel like he has largely been forgotten the last year. He didn't even defend the IC Title on some of the PPVs, like Elimination Chamber. How he made top ten is a head scratcher.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It's a joke without Brock. He should be 1 or 2.

He has had great matches, been a bonafide draw, established the Universal Championship which was derided & mocked and I mean for fuck's sake if there was a contender from the nether regions of the Crab Nebula challenging for the Universal Champion I'd still pick him!

Fuck you PWI.

Lesnar potentially has a shot at being in the top spot for next year's list if he continues to have matches like we've seen with Joe at Great Balls of Fire or the Fatal Fourway we saw at SummerSlam. Those are really the only two great matches he's had against wrestlers who weren't around during the Attitude Era since his bouts with John Cena at Extreme Rules in 2012 & SummerSlam in 2014 and against CM Punk at SummerSlam in 2013.

If we get the sort of performances out of Lesnar between now and WrestleMania next year in singles programs against, possibly, Strowman, Cena, Reigns, Balor, maybe another run with Joe and a few others from Raw, then I could see him being a legit contender. Otherwise, I just can't view a guy as being the top wrestler in the game when he wrestles 3 or 4 times a year and the matches are pretty much crapfests like we saw with Goldberg.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Lesnar potentially has a shot at being in the top spot for next year's list if he continues to have matches like we've seen with Joe at Great Balls of Fire or the Fatal Fourway we saw at SummerSlam. Those are really the only two great matches he's had against wrestlers who weren't around during the Attitude Era since his bouts with John Cena at Extreme Rules in 2012 & SummerSlam in 2014 and against CM Punk at SummerSlam in 2013.

If we get the sort of performances out of Lesnar between now and WrestleMania next year in singles programs against, possibly, Strowman, Cena, Reigns, Balor, maybe another run with Joe and a few others from Raw, then I could see him being a legit contender. Otherwise, I just can't view a guy as being the top wrestler in the game when he wrestles 3 or 4 times a year and the matches are pretty much crapfests like we saw with Goldberg.

He had a great program with Goldberg and their SSeries match was more shocking and memorable than 90% of the matches of 2016. They told a great story, built it to Mania and then went hell bent for leather. Most fun 10 minutes of the show.

Great story, great blowoff.

He had the match with Orton and it was memorable for him basically killing Randall so ye his 'performance' again remember that word, has been great. He 'performed' really well and really doesn't need to have long matches Ala Balls of Fire and SSlam when a great story is told, he solidifies his gimmick and becomes more of a draw.

Monkeys at PWI can't stop jacking off about their darlings.

 

[AnthonyM4]

Awesome! Well deserved! Usually the number 1 guy in PWI 500 is the guy who won the wwe title or retained it at wrestlemania. Randy Orton shouldn't be number 1.

 

[ABMorales787]

Okada being #1 is fine. I mean who else was it going to be? The perplexing thing is how Dean Ambrose is #7 but Tetsuya Naito doesn't break the top 10 despite having amazing matches with Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi. It shows quite a glaring flaw in PWI's list when the guy who was publicly critized for not putting any effort is there but the guy who was behind Okada and Omega in importance but above them in merch isn't.