Pro Wrestling Illustrated

Information about Pro Wrestling Illustrated

Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Hulk Hogan on the cover of the November 1994 issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Hogan has appeared on PWI's cover a record 81 times. Hulk Hogan on the cover of the November 1994 issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Hogan has appeared on PWI's cover a record 81 times.
Senior Editor	Bill Apter
Categories
Frequency	Monthly
Publisher	Golden Boy Enterprises
First issue	September 1979
Company	London Publishing Company
Country	United States
Language	English
Website	www.pwi-online.com
ISSN	1043-7576

Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) is a professional wrestling magazine.

History

Pro Wrestling Illustrated was started in 1979. The magazine was known for not breaking kayfabe, traditionally treating all "storyline" events as real. However, in more recent years, the magazine has taken an editorial approach halfway between kayfabe and "shoot" writing, for the first time using terms such as "storyline" and differentiating between "onscreen" feuds and real-life controversies.

PWI also does not follow only the "big" promotions, as they also cover some independent promotions. The magazine features stories about wrestlers and wrestling groups/teams. PWI also has monthly rankings for the big promotions, some select independents, and an overall rankings in singles and tag teams.

Originally PWI declared it would recognize three World Titles when it started publication: NWA, AWA and WWF. When Jim Crockett Promotions, which controlled the NWA Title, became WCW in 1991, WCW earned World Title Status, and the NWA's world title status was dropped. ECW finally earned World Title recognition status in 1999, not long before ECW itself went out of business. The NWA title was restored to a World Title in July 2006 based on TNA's success. They also granted World Title status to two of WWE's World titles, referred as the "RAW World Championship" and the "SmackDown! World Championship". Despite the fact that ECW has been revived as a WWE brand, PWI has yet to recognize the world title status of the resurrected "ECW Championship".

Bill Apter, who can be seen at most high-profile wrestling events taking photos, was the senior editor of PWI for years. Stuart M. Saks is the current longtime publisher for PWI. Hunter S. Thompson-influenced Matt Brock has been PWI's most popular columnist. Brock, however, is actually a fictitious writer. Through the years, many different PWI editors have written stories as Brock. Likewise, columnist Liz Hunter is fictitious, as are oft-quoted WWF/WWE "inside source" Thomas Pilliard and "wrestling psychologist" Dr. Sidney M. Basil.

While PWI writers do conduct certain legitimate interviews with figures within the wrestling business, the majority of "in-character" quotes are penned by the magazine's staff. The rule of thumb: If a quotation is about real-life events (i.e., the people behind the characters), it was uttered by the quoted source. If the quote pertains to any angle or someone's in-ring persona, the response is typically "invented" by the feature's writer.

PWI is now headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Golden Boy Enterprises.

PWI Awards

PWI's family of magazines has given out annual awards since 1972. Unlike the PWI 500 which is voted on by the PWI Staff, the fans ostensibly vote for the winners of the year-end awards. A ballot is printed in the special year-end issue.

A special PWI Awards magazine is put out annually, which shows not only the winners, but the first three runners-up with the number of votes. The wrestlers receive plaques for each PWI Award that they win.

The awards that PWI has given out are as follows:

Wrestler of the Year (since 1972)
Tag Team of the Year (since 1972)
Match of the Year (since 1972)
Feud of the Year (since 1986)
Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (since 1972)
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (since 1972)
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (since 1978)
Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (since 1972)
Rookie of the Year (since 1972)
Stanley Weston Award (since 1981)
Comeback of the Year (since 1992)
Woman of the Year (since 1999)

Discontinued awards are as follows:

Manager of the Year (1972 to 1999)
PWI Girl Wrestler of the Year (1972 to 1976)
Midget Wrestler of the Year (1972 to 1976)
PWI Announcer of the Year (1977)

Recognized championships with World Title status

PWI has its own personal criteria when it comes to classify the championships that have "World Title Status". For more information go to PWI's list of wrestling World Heavyweight Title reigns and PWI's list of wrestling World Tag Team Title reigns.

Special PWI Editions

Besides the special year-end edition and the special PWI Awards Edition, PWI also publishes other special issues. They have published the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts since 1996. It includes all of the PWI 500 rankings over the years, title histories, PPV histories, wrestler stats, top stories of the year, PWI Award Winners and a What's In/What's Out list.

PWI also publishes a Women of Wrestling magazine that has short bios of the divas of pro wrestling and includes lots of pictures.

From 1989 through 2000, PWI published a weekly newsletter entitled PWI Weekly. It had results from the previous week that included all wrestling shows, title changes, injury updates, wrestlers leaving/entering promotions, and obituaries. It was canceled due to monetary and time constraints on the part of its writers.

PWI 500

PWI has published its list of the top 500 wrestlers each year since 1991, in an annual special edition magazine called the PWI 500. Here are the number one ranked wrestlers for each year:

1991: Hulk Hogan
1992: Sting
1993: Bret Hart
1994: Bret Hart
1995: Diesel
1996: Shawn Michaels
1997: Dean Malenko
1998: Steve Austin
1999: Steve Austin
2000: Triple H
2001: Kurt Angle
2002: Rob Van Dam
2003: Brock Lesnar
2004: Chris Benoit
2005: Batista
2006: John Cena
2007: John Cena

Top Fives

The top five wrestlers were:

The top five tag teams were:

Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk)
Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner)
Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy)''
The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson)
British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid)

PWI 500 all-time top tens

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1991	Hulk Hogan	Lex Luger	Ric Flair	Randy Savage	Sting	Scott Steiner	Ricky Steamboat	Steve Williams	Arn Anderson	Rick Steiner
1992	Sting	Randy Savage	Ric Flair	Rick Rude	Bret Hart	Ricky Steamboat	Jerry Lawler	Scott Steiner	Ultimate Warrior	Steve Austin
1993	Bret Hart	Big Van Vader	Shawn Michaels	Sting	Yokozuna	Ric Flair	Lex Luger	Rick Rude	Mr. Perfect	Scott Steiner
1994	Bret Hart	Hulk Hogan	Ric Flair	Big Van Vader	Shawn Michaels	Steve Austin	Razor Ramon	Sting	Ricky Steamboat	Owen Hart
1995	Diesel	Shawn Michaels	Sting	Bret Hart	Sabu	Hulk Hogan	Big Van Vader	Randy Savage	Razor Ramon	Mitsuharu Misawa
1996	Shawn Michaels	The Giant	Sting	Kenta Kobashi	Ahmed Johnson	Kevin Nash	Rey Misterio, Jr.	Hulk Hogan	Sabu	Ric Flair
1997	Dean Malenko	Mitsuharu Misawa	Steve Austin	Diamond Dallas Page	Lex Luger	The Undertaker	Shinya Hashimoto	The Giant	Jushin Liger	Chris Benoit
1998	Steve Austin	Goldberg	Mitsuharu Misawa	Diamond Dallas Page	The Undertaker	Kenta Kobashi	Booker T	Ken Shamrock	Jushin Liger	Chris Jericho
1999	Steve Austin	Rob Van Dam	Mitsuharu Misawa	Rey Misterio, Jr.	The Rock	Diamond Dallas Page	Keiji Mutoh	The Undertaker	Goldberg	Taz
2000	Triple H	The Rock	Chris Benoit	Kenta Kobashi	Jeff Jarrett	Justin Credible	Mike Awesome	Jushin Liger	Chris Jericho	Kensuke Sasaki
2001	Kurt Angle	Steve Austin	Chris Benoit	Keiji Mutoh	Booker T	Triple H	Scott Steiner	Mitsuharu Misawa	Chris Jericho	Rhyno
2002	Rob Van Dam	Undertaker	Keiji Mutoh	Chris Jericho	Eddie Guerrero	Kurt Angle	Edge	Yuji Nagata	The Rock	Triple H
2003	Brock Lesnar	Triple H	Kurt Angle	Keiji Mutoh	Chris Jericho	Big Show	Booker T	Kenta Kobashi	Eddie Guerrero	Rob Van Dam
2004	Chris Benoit	Eddie Guerrero	Triple H	Kenta Kobashi	Randy Orton	Toshiaki Kawada	John Cena	A.J. Styles	Shawn Michaels	Chris Jericho
2005	Batista	John Cena	Satoshi Kojima	Triple H	JBL	Kurt Angle	A.J. Styles	Edge	Shelton Benjamin	Hiroyoshi Tenzan
2006	John Cena	Kurt Angle	Edge	Samoa Joe	Místico	Rey Mysterio	Brock Lesnar	Kenta Kobashi	Shawn Michaels	Jeff Jarrett
2007	John Cena	Edge	Mistico	Kurt Angle	The Undertaker	Shawn Michaels	Christian Cage	Perro Aguayo Jr.	Bobby Lashley	Takeshi Morishimaalign=center

References

2005 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts.

External links

PWI Awards

Current Awards
Wrestler of the Year \| Tag Team of the Year \| Match of the Year \| Feud of the Year \| Most Popular Wrestler \| Most Hated Wrestler \| Most Improved Wrestler \| Most Inspirational Wrestler \| Rookie of the Year \| Stanley Weston Award \| Comeback of the Year \| Woman of the Year
Discontinued Awards
Manager of the Year \| Girl Wrestler of the Year \| Midget Wrestler of the Year \| Announcer of the Year

Terrence Gene Bollea (born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American actor, former rock bassist and professional wrestler. He currently stars on the VH1 reality show Hogan Knows Best and will be the new host of
..... Click the link for more information.

Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled until (UTC) due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or
..... Click the link for more information.

Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.

English}}}
Writing system: Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng
..... Click the link for more information.

An ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic periodical publication. The ISSN system was adopted as international standard ISO 3297 in 1975. The TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the standard.
..... Click the link for more information.

Professional wrestling, or pro wrestling, is the athletic performance, management, and marketing of a form of entertainment that is based on simulated elements of catch wrestling, mock combat and theatre.
..... Click the link for more information.

Topics in journalism
Professional issues
Ethics & objectivity
Sources & attribution
News & news values
Reporting & writing
Fourth estate • Libel law
Education & books
Other topics

Fields
Advocacy journalism
..... Click the link for more information.

19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s
1976 1977 1978 - 1979 - 1980 1981 1982

Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins.

..... Click the link for more information.

In professional wrestling, kayfabe (pronounced KAY-fayb; IPA: ['keɪfeɪb]) refers to the portrayal of events within the industry as real, that is, the portrayal of professional wrestling as unstaged or worked.
..... Click the link for more information.

independent circuit or indy circuit refers to the many independent promotions which are much smaller than major televised promotions, particularly WWE and TNA. Specific promotions on the independent circuit are referred to as indy promotions or indies.
..... Click the link for more information.

Tag Team was a Miami bass duo of DC the Brain Supreme (Cecil Glenn) and Steve Roll'n (Steve Gibson) from Florida, USA, best known for their 1993 hit "Whoomp! (There It Is)".
..... Click the link for more information.

The World Heavyweight Championship is the name given to a number of unrelated titles, meant to emphasize the top championship of boxing, professional wrestling, mixed martial arts, or other similar sports and performance arts.
..... Click the link for more information.

The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is the largest governing body for a group of independent professional wrestling promotions and sanctions various NWA championships. The NWA has been in operation since 1948.
..... Click the link for more information.

American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo.
..... Click the link for more information.

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

Public (NYSE: WWE )
Founded 1952
Headquarters Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.

Key people Vince McMahon, Chairman
Linda McMahon, CEO
Shane McMahon, Executive Vice President of Global Media
..... Click the link for more information.

Jim Crockett Promotions was a professional wrestling promotion owned by Jim Crockett, Jr. up until the late 1980s. It was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and was the forerunner to World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
..... Click the link for more information.

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001.^[5]

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) that appeared on the national
..... Click the link for more information.

TNA Entertainment

Privately held limited liability company
Founded May 10 2002
Headquarters Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Key people Dixie Carter, President
Jeff Jarrett, Vice President
Chris Sobol, Vice President of Operations
..... Click the link for more information.

WWE Raw is the Monday night professional wrestling television program for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and is the primary broadcast of the RAW brand. WWE Raw is generally seen as WWE's flagship program over its sister programs, SmackDown! and
..... Click the link for more information.

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight-grade championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Incepted in 1963, it was the original world heavyweight title of the promotion and one of the oldest heavyweight
..... Click the link for more information.

Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.

World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. It was originally the highest ranked title on the RAW brand. Currently, it is the highest ranked championship on the SmackDown! brand.
..... Click the link for more information.

Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) Championship is a professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. It was originally the highest ranked title of the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion. Currently, it is the only championship on the ECW brand.
..... Click the link for more information.

Bill Apter is a journalist specializing in professional wrestling and best known for the kayfabe or so-called "mark" magazines he edited and photographed matches from the 1970s and currently still does that at times.
..... Click the link for more information.

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers.
..... Click the link for more information.

For the football player of the same name see Matt Brock (football player).

Matt Brock is a fictitious "veteran pro wrestling reporter," appearing in the Pro Wrestling Illustrated family of magazines. Typically writing in the style of Hunter S.
..... Click the link for more information.

award is something given to a person or group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field. Awards are often signified by trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins or ribbons.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Herod_Archelaus