AEW World champion Kenny Omega was voted #1 in the 31st annual Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 list, getting his second number one rank of his career following the same placement in 2018.
Omega capped off a memorable year by being the AEW World champion, the Impact World champion, and the AAA Mega champion. While he lost the Impact title to Christian Cage on the first episode of Rampage last month, Omega is still both the AEW and AAA champion. The period that the list was compiled judged wrestlers from the period of July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021.
The top 10 list was comprised of two AEW stars, four WWE stars, three NJPW stars, and one from Impact Wrestling.
WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns was in #2, with PWI noting that “Roman would’ve been #1 in just about any other year” but 2021 belonged to Kenny Omega. WWE champion Bobby Lashley was in #3 and former WWE champion Drew McIntyre was in #4.
Kota Ibushi was in #5, last year’s number one pick Jon Moxley dropped to #6, fan favorite Will Ospreay placed in #7, Finn Balor was in #8, IWGP World Heavyweight champion Shingo Takagi is in #9, and Impact’s Rich Swann wraps up the top 10 list.