Japan's wrestlers in the PWI Top 500

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I was wondering what everyone's opinion was on the ranking of Japanese wrestlers (and wrestlers who compete in Japan) on this year's PWI Top 500 list. Do you feel it's an accurate assessment of each wrestler's accomplishments over the past year? Would you have ranked some people higher (or lower)? Anyone not listed who should have been?

3. Keiji Muto
8. Yuji Nagata
11. Black Tiger
12. Minoru Tanaka
15. Gen'ichiro Tenryu
18. Mitsuharu Misawa
22. Kendo Ka Shin
27. Yoshihiro Takayama
31. Satoshi Kojima
38. Koji Kanemoto
41. Jushin Liger
48. Jun Akiyama
51. Taiyo Kea
52. Shinya Hashimoto
54. Vader
60. Masa Chono
63. Yoshinari Ogawa
68. Scorpio
73. Tokyo Magnum
75. Donovan Morgan
79. Tiger Mask 4
81. Kensuke Sasaki
86. Mike Modest
87. Kaz Hayashi
90. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
91. Masato Tanaka
94. Shiima Nobunaga
97. Takeshi Rikioh
101. Takeshi Morishima
106. Manabu Nakanishi
110. Osamu Nishimura
116. Takao Omori
121. Akira Taue
126. Super Delfin
131. Jinsei Shinzaki
137. Great Sasuke
145. Shinjiro Otani
148. Naoya Ogawa
150. Tadao Yasuda
154. Gedo
158. Jado
165. Milano Collection AT
166. Minoru Fujita
167. Dragon Kid
169. Mike Barton
177. Tatsuhito Takiawa
181. Takehiro Murahama
191. El Samurai
195. Dick Togo
196. Gran Naniwa
198. Johnny Smith
203. Gran Hamada
205. Steve Williams
206. Tsubasa
209. Shinya Makabe
213. Black Buffalo
224. Gamma
228. Bison Smith
231. Masaaki Mochizuki
233. Ryo Saito
241. Mike Rotundo
245. Genki Horiguchi

That's all that was listed... what'd you think?

[Hijo de Carlos]

Who cares about the PWI 500 anyway? It's just a piece of nonsense thrown together for the benefit of marks with a few puroresu stars thrown in as a half-arsed attempt to keep the smarter fans interested.....

One of the funniest things I ever read in PWI was the claim that they had heard from an "insider source" that being ranked in the top 10 of the 500 was what every wrestler longs for, as it can make a $500k difference to their annual salary. Yeah right, I'm sure Black Tiger is cursing right now that he just missed out.....

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I was hoping more for a "thoughtful discussion" than a "sarcastic condemnation"... but since you did respond...

Since the few puroresu stars are just "thrown in" for the benefit of the few "smarter fans", why bother to include them at all? Why not just publish a shorter Top 50 in Japan list at the end of the magazine, instead of lumping their names in with the WWE stars and the indies?

[TRZZXQ]

just remember that most of the PWI editors(ie, the people writing up the 500) don't follow puro or lucha, or follow it loosely. So of course it will be a bit biased to American wrestlers.
RVD really shouldn't have gotten #1 this year, though. And Undertaker at #2 is a **** shame.

[Insane Ninja]

I don't know about you, but I think that's an awful lot of puro wrestlers in that last to be just 'thrown' in there, don't you?

And of course, I'm sure a lot of wrestlers are actually quite interested in whether they made the list or where they are put on it, and I'm sure it can affect some wrestlers salary. (Imagine being an indy guy who makes it into the top 25 on the list. I'm sure you could almost immediately command a higher price for bookings.)

I really don't follow puroresu enough to make a judgment on the ordering of the list, though I was actually suprised to see Keiji Mutoh (or any non-American guy really) take a spot at number 3. I think that alone suggests that they are not just 'throwing' puro guys in the list.

[ElGringo]

Hell, this list proves more than anything that the PWI guys know NOTHING about puroresu, or in fact wrestling. In fact, that list seems to prove that they are actually a year behind the rest of the puroresu community; 2001 Keiji Mutoh, comeback king Mutoh, would have been most of us' (and my) MVP for 2001, but this year he's just dropped so much, and coupled with his lame Colour of Mutoh All Japan (giant screens? a la the Titantron? I can't live with that)., he's had a pretty poor year. Putting Rikioh and Morishima (who are just stagnent, I'm starting to think they'll never progress), above Nakanishi (the most improved wrestler of the year) and Nishimura (the break out star of the year) is just plain idiotic. Magnum TOKYO (why can't they realise that Tokyo Magnum is not his name?) is ranked way, way too high, as he's just boring now, with a tired gimmick that doesn't work anymore.

How they came to the decision to put Masaaki Mochisuki, one of the highlights of a troubled Toryumon Japan below Tadao Yasuda, Noaya Ogawa and Kendo Ka Shin I do not wish to know.

Why is Milano Conection AT so low?
WHY, OH *** PLEASE TELL ME WHY, is Yoshinari Ogawa so high? Does Misawa run PWI?

Tiger Mask IV is below Undertaker?. Let me repeat that: TIGER MASK IV.... is BELOW, your're saying BELOW, the Undertaker? Donovan Morgan is way too high, as are Vader and Scorpio. And Ikuto Hidaka isn't even on the list!

And they think Mike Barton is better than Takehiro Murahama? That's the most braindead, blatantly 'I bought IWA King of the Deatmatch '95 and Super J-Cup '94: I Know Puroresu!' fan type list I've seen in a long time. And they have Shiima Nobunaga on there instead of CIMA. Pathetic.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

So, what would be everyone's Top 10 of last year then?

[ElGringo]

I don't do Top 10s, since often workers deserve higher places than they are forced to be given, but here are my year end awards for 2001:

Wrestler of the Year: Keiji Mutoh
Tag Team of the Year: Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Satoshi Kojima
Technique Award: Minoru Tanaka
Most Improved Wrestler: Tetsuhito Taikawa
Most Potential for 2002: Taiyo Kea
Breakout star: Noamichi Marufuji
Best Young Lion: Hiroshi Tanahashi
Fighting Spirit Award: Osamu Nishimura
Best Gai-Jin: Silver King
Longetivity Award: Genichiro Tenryu
Career Achievement Award: Tatsumi Fujinami

Here's my current (tentative) awards for 2002; sometimes many wrestlers are indicated, as frontrunners for the awards.

Wrestler of the Year: Yuji Nagata/Osamu Nishimura/Satoshi Kojima
Tag Team of the Year: Masahiro Chono/Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Manabu Nakanishi/Osamu Nishimura/Jushin Lyger/Minoru Tanaka/Koji Kanemoto/AKIRA.
Technique Award: Osamu Nishimura/Kentaro Shiga/Milano Connection AT.
Most Improved Wrestler: Manabu Nakanishi/Yoshihiro Takayama/Katsushi Takemura
Most Potential for 2003: Tiger Mask IV/Hiroshi Tanahashi/KENTA
Breakout star: Ikuto Hidaka/KENTA/Curry Man
Best Young Lion: Blue Wolf/Milano Connection AT/Wataru Inoue
Fighting Spirit Award: Hiroshi Tanahashi/Wataru Inoue
Best gai-jin: Black Tiger III/Curry Man
Longetivity Award: Jushin Lyger/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Career Achievement Award: Yoshihiro Asai (Ultimo Dragon)

[Hijo de Carlos]

Please excuse my earlier ravings - I wasn't really myself that day. And as for the 500, it's certainly come on a bit since I last saw it when it seemed to be put together on the basis of "list all the Americans we can think of, and the luchadores who work in America, then chuck in Liger and Inoki to keep the puro fans happy"....

[Yoshimitsu]

My opinion is that the guys who write the PWI 500 are writing out of their busterfazoos. Who the heck, thought that a lazy lumbering borefest like the Undertaker could be ranked above EVERY puro wrestler?!? Need I say more?

[TDinDC]

First, wrestling is fake - sometimes I think people forget that. Secondly, the PWI 500 is from a PURELY MARKISH perspective. It is based on the FAKE ACCOMPLISHMENTS of wrestlers, not who is "a better wrestler." If you look at it from the point of view that wins and losses and titles (markish point of view) matter, than Undertaker at #2 is not a problem at all. Is he a good worker? Hell no! But that's not what they are ranking!

[El Pollo Guerrera]

First, wrestling is fake

... um, yeah, I know.

It is based on the FAKE ACCOMPLISHMENTS of wrestlers

You are correct. Maybe I should have substituted the word "performance" for the word "accomplishments" when I started this post, then. Sorry about that.

So, by looking at it from that viewpoint, do you think that the list was an accurate assessment of Japan's wrestling scene?

[TDinDC]

If one is to rank the top 500 workers in the industry, then no, the list is crap. But that's not the list. A "mark" would say that Undertaker had a much better year than let's say Eddy Guerrero, so from PWI's perspective, 'Taker is "better." However, 'Taker wouldn't be anywhere near Eddy on a best worker list. By the way, isn't there some list that comes out every year of the top 500 workers, and aren't there usually only a handful of U.S. workers in the top 100 or so of the list?

Anyway, as far as Japanese wrestlers are concerned, I think you're right in that mentioning them is only a token mention to give people the perception that they know what's going on. That's why you don't see any in the bottom half of the 500. They only know the main name guys, and nothing beyond that. You can only rank what you know I guess.

[Technosphile]

Hey:

I think many of you are looking at this the wrong way. PWI is by no means a serious puroresu publication, but all I know is the first time I ever heard of Kenta Kobashi was in the PWI 500, 1996. And thats the point: PWI is a total mark magazine, and the only people who are marks anymore are little kids. If putting Mutoh at third on this list and including a photo of him gets a little kid to say, "who is this guy?" and makes him aware of wrestling in Japan, then GOOD.

Also, throughout the years PWI HAS paid attention to puroresu and given it a small, but noticable amount of coverage. In the PWI Almanac 1996, there is a HUGE article on puroresu and its stars. A couple years ago, they printed a big article in their full-color section demanding that Mitsuharu Misawa come to America, which I thought was great. You might be saying that two examples in six years is pretty pathetic, but thats all I can think of off the top of my head. Trust me, there is much more to be found in PWI about puroresu, so give them some slack. Also, I think its awesome that so many Japanese wrestlers made the list, regardless of who they are or "what kind of year they had".

-Technosphile

[Pheonix_Chi25]

Who cares about the PWI 500 anyway? It's just a piece of nonsense thrown together for the benefit of marks with a few puroresu stars thrown in as a half-arsed attempt to keep the smarter fans interested.....

One of the funniest things I ever read in PWI was the claim that they had heard from an "insider source" that being ranked in the top 10 of the 500 was what every wrestler longs for, as it can make a $500k difference to their annual salary. Yeah right, I'm sure Black Tiger is cursing right now that he just missed out.....

You should have seen my post on the PWI 500