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Every year, Pro Wrestling Illustrated releases its list of the top 500 wrestlers in the industry today, as well as category awards like “Most Popular Wrestler of the Year” or “Feud of the Year.” Naturally, fans put a lot of weight behind these lists, but pro wrestling veteran Matt Hardy believes that the wrestlers themselves shouldn’t focus on what the PWI 500 puts out yearly.
“I say this all the time: people in wrestling, especially like people who worry about their PWI500 rating-ranking or whatever; you’re worried about the wrong number,” Hardy said during an episode of his “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast. “The number you need to be worried about in pro wrestling is the amount of money that you’re making when it’s all said and done. With everything you’re doing, that’s what your focus should be on as far as it goes about having a high number.”
Hardy further expressed that he’d personally rather have a high number on the income side than have a high number on the PWI500 list. However, when he looked back at his original opinions of the PWI500, Hardy admitted that he originally thought it was cool during his early years, but by 2001, he stopped caring about it. “I haven’t been concerned where I was ranked in it [at] any point [since] then,” he claimed. “I think maybe the highest I was ever ranked in it was 2003? When I was doing Mattitude Version 1, if I’m not mistaken.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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