Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Al Castle Details Methodology For PWI 500, No. 1 Spot

The annual PWI 500 list is always a topic of debate among wrestlers, fans, and pundits alike. At the end of the day, there's really no surefire way to determine which wrestlers are the best of the best; however, the Pro Wrestling Illustrated team has a process that they go through to determine placements on the list. While speaking to "Busted Open Radio," Al Castle detailed the methodology behind the list, noting that it has nothing to do with in-ring talent. Instead, it's more determined by a wrestler's strength of opponents and competition.

"This isn't meant as a slight, this guy sucks and this guy's really good or anything like that. Essentially, it's where are they slotted on a card. I'm sure the best wrestler in the world, most fans have never even seen yet. I mean, that's the reality. Let's just take a WWE, for example, Akira Tozawa is a terrific wrestler, a super-talented guy. It means more to beat a Drew McIntyre than it does to beat an Akira Tozawa... So that's essentially what we're talking about when we talk about quality of competition."

This year's PWI 500 list was topped by two WWE Superstars, with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns coming in at number one and two, respectively. During the interview, Castle explained why Rollins beat Reigns and other high-profile talents.

"He checked a lot of boxes. Seth won his World Title relatively late in the evaluation period, and in that time — I think it was a two-month window that he had the title — defended it more than both Roman and MJF. He was the workhorse. If you go through the criteria, whether it's influence or technical ability or quality of competition, activity, Seth gets As in all of those."