Ladies and gentlemen, the (Unofficial) SoCal 50 and (Unofficial) SoCal 51-75!
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 as usual, people are unhappy about it.
Last year, I decided that SoCal deserved its own (unofficial) list, The (Unofficial) SoCal 50!
The SoCal 50 is put together a little more scientifically than PWI’s 500 list. I put together a list (unofficially) of the Top 50 workers 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.
And now, without further Apu, here is the 2nd Annual (Unofficial) SoCal 50!
- Tito Escondido
- Eli Everfly
- Jeff Cobb
- B-Boy
- Ray Rosas
- Scorpio Sky
- Adrian Quest/Astro Viajero
- Andy Brown
- Ryan Taylor
- Penta el Zero M
- Lil’ Cholo
- Willie Mack
- Brody King
- Rico Dynamite
- Joey Ryan
- Douglas James
- Che Cabrera
- Rey Fenix
- Brian Cage
- Tyler Bateman
- Rey Horus
- Hoss Hogg
- Jesse James
- Jake Atlas
- Rocky Romero
- Famous B
- Dicky Mayer
- Laberinto
- Jarek 1:20
- Rey Mysterio Jr.
- Zokre
- Phoenix Star
- Joe Heiken
- Mariachi Loco
- Shayna Baszler
- Kikutaro
- D’Marco Wilson
- Bestia 666
- Steve Pain
- Peter Avalon
- Donnie Suarez
- Rick Knox
- Shotzi Blackheart
- Mike Camden
- John Hennigan
- Chris Kadillak
- Ruby Raze
- Darwin Finch
- Heather Monroe
- Ryan Kidd
Last year, I developed some unreasonable controversy with my list. Turns out, some workers thought they were being told they sucked because they weren’t in the Top 50. To avoid controversy, I created the (Unofficial) SoCal 51-75. So, to everyone who made this edition of the (unofficial) list, congrats!
The (Unofficial) SoCal 51-75
- 51. Luchasaurus
- 52. Super Panda
- 53. Alonzo Alvarez
- 54. Nate Coy
- 55. Lucas Riley
- 56. Chaz Herrera
- 57. Dan Joseph
- 58. Jorel Diez
- 59. Dylan Bostic
- 60. SoCal Crazy
- 61. Corey Jackson
- 62. Michael Hopkins
- 63. Human Tornado
- 64. Seiya
- 65. Enigma
- 66. Legacy
- 67. Koto Hiro
- 68. Anthony Idol
- 69. Dirty Ron McDonald/Seabass
- 70. Super Boy Jr.
- 71. Ty Ray
- 72. Ju Dizz
- 73. K.C. Douglas
- 74. Guy Cool
- 75. Ultimo Panda
The lesson to learn from this.
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 20 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.
