Pro Wrestling Illustrated

Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979. "PWI" is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishing Group. The magazine is the longest published English language wrestling magazine still in production. "PWI" publishes bi-monthly issues and annual special issues such as their "Almanac and Book of Facts". The magazine recognizes various world championships as legitimate, similar to "The Ring" in boxing.
"PWI" is often referred to as an "Apter Mag", named after its long-time photographer Bill Apter, a term used for wrestling magazines that keep kayfabe. In recent years, the "PWI" has moved away from reporting on storylines as actual news and mixed in editorial comments on the behind-the-scenes workings.
Since 1991, "PWI" has been publishing their annual "Top 500 Wrestlers" listing the top male wrestlers in the world. In 2008, they added an annual "Top 50 Female Wrestlers" list, which was later expanded and renamed to the "Top 100 Female Wrestlers" list in 2018. In 2020, they added an annual "Top 50 Tag Teams" listing the top tag teams in the world.
History.
The first issue of "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" was released in 1979. The magazine soon became known for not breaking kayfabe in its articles as it traditionally treated all "angles", or storylines, as real. However, in more recent years the magazine has taken an editorial approach between kayfabe and "shoot" writing, differentiating between on-screen feuds and controversies behind the scenes. "PWI" is not limited to covering only prominent professional wrestling promotions, as it also covers multiple independent promotions in the United States. "PWI" also publishes other special issues, which include: "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts" since 1996, "Women of Wrestling" and a weekly newsletter entitled "PWI Weekly" from 1989 to 2000. It was eventually acquired by Golden Boy Enterprises.
Yearly Awards.
"PWI" has given out annual awards and recognitions since its inception. These awards had previously been given out by another "Victory Sports Magazine" property, "Sports Review Wrestling". "PWI" has also given out monthly rankings for the big promotions, some select independents, and an overall rankings in singles and tag teams. Additionally, readers are given the ability to vote for the winners of the year-end awards with ballots being included in special year-end issues. A special "PWI" Awards magazine is issued annually, which reveals winners and the number of votes counted. The following is a list of categories in which "PWI" has issued awards.
"PWI" world championship status.
Historical recognition.
Although many wrestling organizations promote their lead title as a World Heavyweight Championship, "PWI" has only recognized a few top versions as valid World titles at any one time. With regard to the NWA World Heavyweight championship, "PWI" has generally recognized the lineage retrospectively traced by the NWA from its 1948 formation back to Georg Hackenschmidt in 1905. "PWI" has also recognized any tag team title corresponding to a recognized World title as a World Tag Team Championship.
Until March 1991, "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" and its sister publications steadfastly referred to WCW as "the NWA" despite WCW having increasingly phased out the latter name in the preceding months. In Spring 1991, the family of magazines adopted a new policy of referring to the current promotion and its champions as WCW and the promotion's pre-1991 past as the NWA. The magazine also announced it would refer to the overall history of the World title as the "NWA/WCW World Championship" (and likewise with other WCW championships). 
Subsequently, after Ric Flair left WCW and was stripped of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in July 1991, "PWI" and its sister publications nonetheless continued to recognize the WCW title as held by Lex Luger, Sting, Vader and Ron Simmons as the rightful continuation of the historic NWA World Heavyweight Championship. When Masa Chono won an NWA World title tournament in Japan in August 1992, "PWI" and its sister publications only recognized Chono's title as the "NWA Championship" and rejected it as a World title or as a continuation of the historic NWA World title.
In 1983, "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" withdrew world title recognition from the WWF, citing how champion Bob Backlund was not facing contenders from outside the WWF territory and furthermore was only facing rulebreakers. This coincided with the WWF's withdrawal from the NWA in summer 1983. PWI reinstated world title recognition in 1985 on account of the WWF's massive mainstream media profile.
The AWA was stripped of world title recognition in January 1991 when the promotion was in its final months. By this time, the AWA World Heavyweight Championship was vacant and would remain so until the promotion's closure in August that year. ECW was finally granted world title status in 1999 only for the promotion to close two years later.
Current retrospective recognition.
As of March 29, 2021, "PWI" recognizes the WWE Championship, WWE Universal Championship, AEW World Championship, Impact World Championship, ROH World Championship, MLW World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Heavyweight Championship from the United States, the AAA Mega Championship and CMLL World Heavyweight Championship from Mexico, as well as the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship and GHC Heavyweight Championship from Japan.
According to the latest "PWI" almanac, "PWI" also recognizes select world title reigns from May 4, 1905 – January 28, 1946, prior to the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in July 1948.
PWI Rankings.
"PWI 500".
"PWI" has published the list of the top 500 professional wrestlers each year since 1991 in an annual special edition magazine, the "PWI 500". "PWI" writers choose the position of the wrestler following a designated evaluation period starting from mid-June; anything a wrestler accomplished before or after that period is not considered. They follow a criterion that includes win-loss record, championships won, quality of competition, major feuds, prominence within a wrestler's individual promotion(s), and overall wrestling ability. , Jushin Thunder Liger has appeared in the most editions of the "PWI 500", with 29 appearances. In 1993, Miss Texas (Jacqueline Moore) was the first woman to be ranked in the list at No. 249. Since 2008 men and women have their separate lists.
"PWI Women's 100".
"PWI" has published a list of the top female professional wrestlers each year since 2008 in a special edition magazine, the "Women's 100" (formerly known as "Female 50"). As with the list of male professional wrestlers, "PWI" writers choose the position of the wrestler following a designated evaluation period starting from mid-June; anything a wrestler accomplished before or after that period is not considered. In 2018, after ten years of the list including 50 wrestlers, it was expanded to 100 and renamed from "Female 50" to "Women's 100".
"PWI Tag Team 50".
"PWI" has published a list of the top tag team each year since 2020. "PWI" writers choose the position of the wrestler following a designated evaluation period starting from October; a minimum of 10 matches or 4 months as tag team is required. The ranking included both male and female tag teams.