It’s the first Christmas Day for wrestling fans worldwide today as Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine today unveiled the 2026 PWI 500, ranking the top wrestlers, male or female (and THEY ARE MAX) in the world. The magazine announced the top 10 on social media and the digital edition is now available. But if you’re waiting for the print versions in about 3 weeks and want to avoid SPOILERS, DO NOT CLICK BELOW! (The top 10 are listed then I will update as I go through the list with notable Japanese or Japan-based/active wrestler rankings)
First, the Top 10…note the rankings period was 8/1/2025-7/31/2026 so some recent major events like the G1 CLIMAX, Royal Road and N-1 VICTORY Tournaments were outside the cutoff period and weren’t factored in this year’s rankings:
1-MJF (All Elite Wrestling)
2-Cody Rhodes (WWE)
3-CM Punk (WWE)
4-Mistico (CMLL)
5-Konosuke Takeshita (New Japan/DDT/AEW)
6-Adam Page (AEW)
7-Yota Tsuji (New Japan)
8-Trick Williams (WWE)
9-Oba Femi (WWE)
10-Gunther (WWE)
So the highest-ranked Japan wrestler technically is Takeshita at #5. I had him as a legit #1 contender.
The rest of the list (will be updated multiple times):
14-Callum Newman (New Japan)
17-Kazuchika Okada (AEW)
26-Zack Sabre Jr. (New Japan)
31-Yoshiki Inamura (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
33-Kento Miyahara (All-Japan)
51-Yoh (New Japan)
59-Shane Haste (New Japan, Pro Wrestling NOAH)
61-Hirooki Goto (New Japan)
67-KENTA (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
71-Gabriel Kidd (New Japan, AEW)
73-El Desperado (New Japan)
78-Madoka Kikuta (Dragon Gate)
80-Yuki Ueno (DDT)
83-Ren Narita (New Japan)
89-Shota Umino (New Japan)
91-Boltin Oleg (New Japan)
93-Masa Kitamiya (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
97-Yuya Uemura (New Japan)
102-Jun Saito (All-Japan)
103-Shingo Takagi (New Japan)
108-Hideki Suzuki (All-Japan)
110-Naraku (EVIL) (New Japan, WWE)
114-Shun Skywalker (Dragon Gate, New Japan)
116-Shinya Aoki (DDT)
120-Go Shiozaki (Pro Wrestling NOAH, All-Japan)
135-Kosei Fujita (New Japan)
137-Titan (CMLL, New Japan)
141-Kyoki (Hiromu Takahashi) (New Japan, WWE)
146-Ryoya Tanaka (Dragon Gate)
148-El Phantasmo (New Japan)
151-KUSHIDA (New Japan)
152-Naomichi Marufuji (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
156-Kenoh (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
158-Eita (Pro Wrestling NOAH)
159-Drilla Moloney (New Japan)
163-MAO (DDT)
164-YAMATO (Dragon Gate)
166-Kaito Kiyomiya (Pro Wrestling MOAH)
168-Katsuyori Shibata (All Elite Wrestling)
170-Chris Brookes (DDT)
174-Robbie Eagles (New Japan)
182-Ryohei Oiwa (New Japan)
187-Shuji Ishikawa (Independent/Freelancer)
191-Daisuke Sasaki (DDT)
The highest-ranked woman? Allie Katch at 99.