NJPW Star Tops PWI 500 List, Triple H Talks Mae Young Classic

There are many legendary stars who have managed to claim the top spot on the annual PWI 500 list, and this year it was one of NJPW’s top stars who earned the number one spot.

The evaluation period took place from July 31, 2016 to June 30, 2017 and Okada managed to hold on to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship through the entire time period. The NJPW star issued a statement saying that he feels this is an indication that the world is finally starting to realize how great Japanese wrestling is.

“What this award signifies is that wrestling fans and media worldwide are thinking about what promotion and what wrestler deserves their attention, and the answer is Okada,” Kazuchika Okada said. “It’s an indication that finally the world at large is realizing just how great Japanese wrestlers and Japanese wrestling is, and that’s special.”

For those who are wondering, you can see the criteria for the list in order of importance below.

• Win-Loss Record
• Technical Ability
• Influence On The Sport
• Success Against The Highest Grade Of Competition
• Activity

The first few episodes of the Mae Young Classic tournament are now available on the WWE Network, and they’ve got a lot of people talking. Tournaments are something that WWE fans are getting used to as of late, because last year WWE held the Cruiserweight Classic tournament, which later resulted in the return of the cruiserweight division, and the creation of 205 Live.

Triple H recently spoke to USA Today’s For The Win, and he was asked if the Mae Young Classic could result in the creation of an all women’s show, and he said “never say never.”

“Never say never; you could end up there. We’re experimenting with a lot of different things as far as programming. But the women are a lot different. With the women, you hopefully have opportunities for a lot of these women to beef up the roster on RAW, Smackdown, NXT, and while it’s still a work in progress, we have the intention to be in the United Kingdom as well. We want the women to have the same opportunity as the men to be everywhere. You don’t need a separate show, as long as opportunities are everywhere. It makes it feel like less than for them.”