Pro Wrestling Illustrated Information & Pro Wrestling Illustrated Links at HealthHaven.com

*Pro Wrestling Illustrated*
	; Randy Orton on the October 2008 cover
Publisher	Stu Saks
Frequency	Monthly
Publisher	Kappa Publishing Group
First issue	September 1979
Company	Sports and Entertainment Publications
Country	United States
Language	English
Website	www.pwi-online.com
ISSN	1043-7576

"PWI" redirects here. For other uses, see PWI (disambiguation).

Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) is a professional wrestling magazine. PWI is currently based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Kappa Publishing Group.^[1]

[edit] History

The first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated was released in 1979. The magazine soon became known for not breaking kayfabe in its articles as it traditionally treated all "angles", or storylines, as real. However, in more recent years, the magazine has taken an editorial approach between kayfabe and "Shoot" writing, differentiating between on-screen feuds and controversies behind the scenes. PWI is not limited to covering only prominent professional wrestling promotions, as it also covers multiple independent promotions in the United States. PWI also publishes other special issues, which include: Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts since 1996, Women of Wrestling, and a weekly newsletter entitled PWI Weekly from 1989 to 2000.

PWI has given out annual awards and recognitions since its inception. These awards had previously been given out by another Victory Sports Magazine property-The Wrestler. PWI has also given out monthly rankings for the big promotions, some select independents, and an overall rankings in singles and tag teams. Additionally, readers are given the ability vote for the winners of the year-end awards with ballots being included in special year-end issues. A special PWI Awards magazine is issued annually, which reveals winners and the number of votes counted. The following is a list of categories in which PWI has issued awards.

Wrestler of the Year (since 1972)
Tag Team of the Year (since 1972)
Match of the Year (since 1972)
Feud of the Year (since 1986)
Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (since 1972)
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (since 1972)
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (since 1978)
Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (since 1972)
Rookie of the Year (since 1972)
Stanley Weston Award (since 1981)
Comeback of the Year (since 1992)
Woman of the Year (since 1999)
Manager of the Year (1972 to 1999)
Girl Wrestler of the Year (1972 to 1976)
Midget Wrestler of the Year (1972 to 1976)
Announcer of the Year (1977)

[edit] PWI 500

PWI has published its list of the top 500 professional wrestlers each year since 1991 in an annual special edition magazine called the PWI 500. Here are the top ten ranked wrestlers for each year:

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1991	Hulk Hogan	Lex Luger	Ric Flair	Randy Savage	Sting	Scott Steiner	Ricky Steamboat	Steve Williams	Arn Anderson	Rick Steiner
1992	Sting	Randy Savage	Ric Flair	Rick Rude	Bret Hart	Ricky Steamboat	Jerry Lawler	Scott Steiner	The Ultimate Warrior	Steve Austin
1993	Bret Hart	Big Van Vader	Shawn Michaels	Sting	Yokozuna	Ric Flair	Lex Luger	Rick Rude	Mr. Perfect	Scott Steiner
1994	Bret Hart	Hulk Hogan	Ric Flair	Big Van Vader	Shawn Michaels	Steve Austin	Razor Ramon	Sting	Ricky Steamboat	Owen Hart
1995	Diesel	Shawn Michaels	Sting	Bret Hart	Sabu	Hulk Hogan	Big Van Vader	Randy Savage	Razor Ramon	Mitsuharu Misawa
1996	Shawn Michaels	The Giant	Sting	Kenta Kobashi	Ahmed Johnson	Kevin Nash	Rey Misterio, Jr.	Hulk Hogan	Sabu	Ric Flair
1997	Dean Malenko	Mitshuaru Misawa	Steve Austin	Diamond Dallas Page	Lex Luger	Undertaker	Shinya Hashimoto	The Giant	Jushin Liger	Chris Benoit
1998	Steve Austin	Bill Goldberg	Mitsuharu Misawa	Diamond Dallas Page	Undertaker	Kenta Kobashi	Booker T	Ken Shamrock	Jushin Liger	Chris Jericho
1999	Steve Austin	Rob Van Dam	Mitsuharu Misawa	Rey Misterio, Jr.	The Rock	Diamond Dallas Page	Keiji Mutoh	Undertaker	Goldberg	Taz
2000	Triple H	The Rock	Chris Benoit	Kenta Kobashi	Jeff Jarrett	Justin Credible	Mike Awesome	Jushin Liger	Chris Jericho	Kensuke Sasaki
2001	Kurt Angle	Steve Austin	Chris Benoit	Keiji Muto	Booker T	Triple H	Scott Steiner	Mitsuharu Misawa	Chris Jericho	Rhyno
2002	Rob Van Dam	Undertaker	Keiji Muto	Chris Jericho	Eddie Guerrero	Kurt Angle	Edge	Yuji Nagata	The Rock	Triple H
2003	Brock Lesnar	Triple H	Kurt Angle	Keiji Muto	Chris Jericho	Big Show	Booker T	Kenta Kobashi	Eddie Guerrero	Rob Van Dam
2004	Chris Benoit	Eddie Guerrero	Triple H	Kenta Kobashi	Randy Orton	Toshiaki Kawada	John Cena	A.J. Styles	Shawn Michaels	Chris Jericho
2005	Batista	John Cena	Satoshi Kojima	Triple H	JBL	Kurt Angle	A.J. Styles	Edge	Shelton Benjamin	Hiroyoshi Tenzan
2006	John Cena	Kurt Angle	Edge	Samoa Joe	Místico	Rey Mysterio	Brock Lesnar	Kenta Kobashi	Shawn Michaels	Jeff Jarrett
2007	John Cena	Edge	Místico	Kurt Angle	Undertaker	Shawn Michaels	Christian Cage	Perro Aguayo, Jr.	Bobby Lashley	Takeshi Morishima
2008	Randy Orton	Kurt Angle	Triple H	Samoa Joe	Edge	Undertaker	Shawn Michaels	Nigel McGuinness	John Cena	Shinsuke Nakamura
2009	Triple H	Chris Jericho	John Cena	Edge	Randy Orton	Nigel McGuiness	Hiroshi Tanahashi	CM Punk	Sting	Último Guerrero

[edit] PWI Top 50 Females

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
2008	Awesome Kong	Beth Phoenix	Gail Kim	Mickie James	MsChif	Sara Del Rey	Roxxi Laveaux	Melina	Michelle McCool	Candice Michelle
2009^[2]	Mickie James	Angelina Love	Melina	MsChif	Tara	Awesome Kong	Beth Phoenix	Michelle McCool	Maryse	Taylor Wilde

[edit] All-Time Top Fives

	1	2	3	4	5
Wrestlers	Hulk Hogan	Ric Flair	André the Giant	Bret Hart	Antonio Inoki
Tag Teams	The Legion of Doom (Hawk & Animal)	The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner)	The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Buddy Roberts & Terry Gordy)	The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson)	British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid)

[edit] Recorded accomplishments

Pro Wrestling Illustrated has recorded select singles and tag team championships of six professional wrestling promotions as "world" level accomplishments, which include those of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Of the six professional wrestling promotions, only WWE, TNA, and the NWA remain active. Though different championships within these promotions have been recorded by the magazine, its criteria for selection remains undefined and unexplained. As there is no collectively official method of determining what constitutes a "world" level accomplishment in professional wrestling, it should be noted that the views presented in the following list are solely those of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and are neither authoritative nor definitive. The following championships are listed by what they are currently referred to in Pro Wrestling Illustrated and currently are or previously were recorded by the magazine.

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b Martin, Adam (2009-08-14). "Wrestling magazines bought back". Wrestle View. http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1250287837.php?. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
^ Kelly, Chris (2009-09-11). "PWI Top 50 Female Wrestlers list". Wrestle View. http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1252704430.php?style=dark. Retrieved 2009-09-12.

[edit] References

2005 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts.

[edit] External links

Official site

[publisher-0] Martin, Adam (2009-08-14). "Wrestling magazines bought back". Wrestle View. http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1250287837.php?. Retrieved 2009-08-16.

[1] Kelly, Chris (2009-09-11). "PWI Top 50 Female Wrestlers list". Wrestle View. http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1252704430.php?style=dark. Retrieved 2009-09-12.

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