Every year, Pro Wrestling Illustrated releases their PWI 500, listing the 500 “best” in professional wrestlers in the world. The list always causes controversy, and always seem to rile up the emotions of professional wrestlers, fans, promoters, bookers, and pundits. The rankings process for the PWI 500 always has its critics, but one thing we can all agree on: Mr. Ooh La La and the Japanese Pool Boy always deserved their rankings! Today, PWI released the latest edition of their PWI 500, and people, of course, are unhappy about it.
After all the uproar from the release of the PWI 500, I decided that SoCal deserves its own (unofficial) list, The SoCal 50! Now this list was put together a little more scientifically than PWI’s 500 list. I put together a list (unofficially) of the Top 50 in SoCal based on whoever came to my mind and didn’t suck. Things like championships, rankings, people putting their friends over, and people trying to get themselves ranked were not taken into account. None of that shit. This was just me going “ok, come up with names that pop into your head of wrestlers that don’t suck, and list them in the order they come into your head with no real method of ranking these people.” The Top 3 guys are, in my opinion, the legit Top 3 best wrestlers in SoCal right now though, but not in order. That’d be too hard for me to decide. Everything else is just random.
Onto the list!
The SoCal 50 (an unofficial list of 50 names in SoCal Wrestling as put together by Andrew, while he was stoned)
1. B-Boy
2. Scorpio Sky
3. Willie Mack
4. Joey Ryan
5. Steve Pain
6. Brian Cage
7. Andy Brown
8. Tito Escondido
9. Tyler Bateman
10. Ray Rosas
11. Rico Dynamite
12. Che Cabrera
13. Pinky
14. Peter Avalon
15. Gary Yap’s Man In Black
16. Eli Everfly
17. Douglas James
18. Lil’ Cholo
19. The Young Bucks
20. D’Marco Wilson
21. Phoenix Star
22. Zokre
23. Adrian Quest
24. Nate Coy
25. Thunder Rosa
26. Ryan Taylor
27. Famous B
28. Mariachi Loco
29. Mike Camden
30. Rocky Romero
31. John Morrison/Johnny Mundo
32. Human Tornado
33. Kevin Martenson
34. Kaos
33. SoCal Crazy
34. Holidead
35. Amazing Junior
36. Ju Dizz
37. Danny Limelight
38. Raze
39. Espiritu
40. Sage Sin Supreme
41. Legacy
42. Seiya
43. Rick Knox*
44. Donnie Suarez
45. Dirty Sanchez
46. Cara De Leon
47. Oso Blanco
48. Ultimo Panda
49. Ty Ray
50. Damien Smith
Congratulations to the people who made the (unofficial) list. You were all somewhat noteworthy in SoCal, or weren’t shitty. Everyone who didn’t make the (unofficial) list, either sucks or are in a bunch of promotions that aren’t putting their names out there enough to be noticed over the 50 names listed above here.
But the real thing to take away from here is this: the PWI 500 is just a stupid fucking list that nobody should take seriously. A lot of the rankings on those lists after the top 50 or 100 are based on promoters and others involved in wrestling who send in things like profiles and photos. Shit’s not worth being emotionally invested in. The PWI 500 is seriously less credible than my list.
*-Regarding Rick Knox
I think he belongs on the list because, well, he’s probably the coolest referees in pro wrestling and deserves some recognition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHJbN30yLlw
Match of the Column
From this month’s Empire Wrestling Federation event in Covina, CA, H.A.T.E’s Che Cabrera & Rico Dynamite forced Andy Brown and Adrian Quest to put their titles on the line in an impromptu match after Quest had just faced Rocky Romero moments before.
To be honest, Rick Knox should be ranked much higher. Also, after reading this list was composed while stoned, it begs the question of weather this list was inspired by an indica or a sativa, and made me curious how it would differ if written again under the influence of the opposite kind of strain.
For the record, I was using a Hybrid.
no Ashley Grace?
Sigh.