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Welcome to the fourth edition of the PWM top 100 wrestlers of the year. If you missed any of the previous issues you can check them out here:
Remember the criteria for the list was as follows:
Matches - quality and quantity of matches in the year 2024
Kayfabe accomplishments - Title wins, defences, days held, tournament performances, major event wins, feud wins etc.
Intangibles - Charisma, promos, stories told, look, presentation etc.
Influence - drawing power, importance to promotion, merch sales, social media buzz, records broken, number of promotions/countries wrestled in, general influence on the industry.
The List - Part 4 40-21
40. Oba Femi - 2024 was quite literally a breakout year for Oba Femi as he defeated Riley Osborne to win the NXT Breakout Tournament. Title success quickly followed as he squashed Dragon Lee for the NXT North American Title. Oba Femi would hold the title for 273 days, impressively defending his belt 10 times including a banger with Wes Lee. If there's one thing Oba Femi proved in 2024 it is that he has all the potential to reach the pinnacle of WWE. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
39. Kyle Fletcher - Continued his meteoric rise as a member of the Don Callis Family, spending the first half of the year defending his ROH TV Title and transitioning into his ‘Protostar’ persona. Seven title defences, including two cracking matches against Lee Johnson, firstly at Supercard of Honor and in a Two Out Of Three Falls match on the 20th June edition of Honor Club earned him an unsuccessful chance against Mark Briscoe for the ROH World Title. Lost the ROH Television Title to Atlantis Jr in the main event of CMLL Viernes Espectacular, ending his reign at 196 days (the 11th longest in history).
Transitioned to AEW programming in July, teaming alongside mentor Will Ospreay to challenge the Young Bucks for the Tag Team Championship on the 25th September edition of Dynamite, only to betray Ospreay 17 days later at AEW WrestleDream to cost him the International Championship to fellow Callis Family member Konosuke Takeshita. From there, Fletcher has stepped up another level, debuting a shaved head and new ring gear to cement his turn, attacking a returning Mark Davis, and at Full Gear, defeated Ospreay cleanly in a bitter grudge match. December saw Fletcher complete his transition as he participated in the Continetnal Classic, topping the Blue League with victories over two reigning champions in Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada and TNT Champion Daniel Garcia, only to fall to Ospreay in the Semi Final at Worlds End. Fletcher enters 2025 with the world at his feet, on a trajectory reminiscent of last year’s Swerve Strickland. - Samuel Preston (@BigBadaBruce)
38. Willow Nightingale - The Babe With The Power established her role as the International Ace of the Women's Division in 2024 by wrestling matches in AEW, New Japan, CMLL and STARDOM all over the world, which makes her one of the few female wrestlers that wrestled for all four promotions. During that, she was able to claim the AEW TBS & CMLL World Women's Championship, while she wasn't able to hold either belt long, the quality in her title defenses made up for it with especially her being the first feud of Mercedes Mone in AEW that led to a fantastic match at Double or Nothing 2024 standing out here. Outside the title picture, Willow feuded with her former best friend Willow Nightingale that ended in a great No Disqualification match at All Out 2024. - Peps (@Peps_Wrestling)
37. Mascara Dorada - Although his 2024 wasn’t as great of a year for him as 2023 was, Mascara Dorada was easily still one of the best wrestlers in 2024. The quality of his matches this year were easily near the best when it came to CMLL in 2024. A few of his best matches this year had him facing Rocky Romero, Barbaro Cavernario, and Templario. Throughout 2024, he continued holding his World Historic Welterweight championship & won 2 tournaments. Those tournaments were the tournament for El Campeonato Universal & Torneo de Parejas Increibles. Dorada would be in the runner up tag team for La Gran Alternativa alongside Neon. Mascara Dorada was constantly presented as one of CMLL’s top stars not only in the promotion but also when it came to sending talent to their international partners. Besides being a top star, Dorada would have various gifs of him being posted all around twitter over the insane spots & dives he was able to pull off. - Floke (@FHisntReal)
36. Rhea Ripley - Rhea showed once again that she is one of the biggest stars of current day WWE. She walked into 2024 as WWE Women's Champion defending her title against Ivy Nile on Raw before defeating Nia Jax in front of over 40,000 people in her home country of Australia to retain her title once more. If that wasn't enough she defeated Becky Lynch at WrestleMania in another great title defence. Unfortunately, she vacated her title due to injury but she would remain at the forefront of the company following her return, entering a high profile feud with Liv Morgan. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
35. Gabe Kidd - 2024 was a big year for Gabriel Kidd. He fought Henare to a double ko in an awesome match in February in preparation for the steel cage warfare between United Empire and the War Dogs. After his side emerged victorious from the cage Gabe Kidd would win his first singles gold in NJPW, defeating Eddie Kingston for the NJPW Strong Openweight Title. Gabe made 5 defences in the year including battles with international stars Ultimo Guerrero and Lio Rush. Gabe picked up an impressive 8 points in the G1 including spectacular matches with Zack Sabre Jr and Shingo Takagi. He also made it to the finals of World Tag League alongside Sanada. It wasn't just NOAH where Gabe made an impression this year as he had a fantastic match and feud with Kaito Kiyomiya for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
34. El Hijo Del Dr. Wagner Jr. - El Hijo Del Dr. Wagner Jr reached incredible heights in 2024, winning the GHC Heavyweight Championship, becoming the first Mexican to achieve the feat. He would defend the title once against Jake Lee before losing it in a great match with Kaito Kiyomiya. He wowed crowds in NOAH all year including the time he teamed with his brother against Los Golpeadores in an excellent match in the Nippon Budokan. That was a feud that also extended to Mexico as the Wagner brothers defeated Los Golpeadores to win the Crash Tag Team Titles. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
33. Kazuchika Okada - Spent the first two weeks of January setting the highest of standards, stealing the show at Wrestle Kingdom 18 with a victory over Bryan Danielson in an instant classic and defeating Will Ospreay at Battle In The Valley in a second absolute classic. Laid some historical demons as he appeared on the 25th January episode of TNA Impact alongside the Motor City Machine Guns to defeat Moose, Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards in a six-man tag team match, and retained the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship alongside Tomohiro Ishii and Hiroshi Tanahashi before vacating the titles. Surprised many when New Japan announced Okada would be leaving them at the end of January, before debuting for AEW on the 6th March episode of AEW Dynamite where he shockingly turned heel and aligned with the Young Bucks as part of The Elite.
Two weeks later, Okada defeated Eddie Kingston for the Continental Championship, a title he would defend the rest of the year. Spent the majority of the year tapping into his more comedic and goofier personality, becoming synonymous with the insult ‘Bitch’ and antagonising rivals, but has still featured in a range of brilliant matches over the last 9 months. Defended his title against PAC at AEW Dynasty, defeated Dax Harwood on Collision, a time limit draw with Claudio Castagnoli, a victory over Kyle Fletcher, an unsuccessful challenge for the World Title against Danielson, and beating Kyle O’Reilly at the October edition of Battle of the Belts XII, and featured in several multi-man matches such as Anarchy in the Arena at AEW Double or Nothing, Blood & Guts in July on Dynamite, the Casino Gauntlet at AEW All In London, and a Four Way against Takeshita, Briscoe and Orange Cassidy at AEW All Out. Ended the year with the Continental Classic, winning the tournament at Worlds End after defeating Ricochet in the Semi-Final and Will Ospreay in the Final, retaining his title to reach 283 days and winning his fifth tournament in his career. A brief standoff with Kenny Omega after his victory sets up an exciting prospect for 2025. - Samuel Preston (@BigBadaBruce)
32. Tam Nakano - Tam Nakano had a very strong year, showing again that she is one of the most important players in Stardom. She defeated Natsuko Tora in August to win her second World of Stardom Title. She held the title for 120 days including some great defences against Maika and Suzu Suzuki. Her reign would come to an end at Dream Queendom when she lost in a valiant effort against Saya Kamitani. Nakano also held the Artist of Stardom titles alongside Natsupoi and Saori Anou as Cosmic Angels. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
31. Toni Storm - Near the end of 2023, Toni Storm began possibly the most successful (artistically and commercially) example of a drastic gimmick change of this era, with the introduction of the "Timeless" "fading Golden Age of Hollywood starlet" character. By the beginning of 2024, the success of this new character had already pushed Storm to the World Championship, (which she would go on to hold for most of the year…) and the fans' embrace of her nominally-villainous ways had moved her into more of a situational tweener, leaning babyface, sort of role.
Storm did an excellent job of incorporating an old-timey feel into her wrestling to suit her character without abandoning everything that had already made her excellent bell-to-bell. Meanwhile, she would grow into the most consistently funny and entertaining interview in wrestling. Over the course of the year, the slow burn of a "protege who will inevitably betray their mentor" story between Storm and Mariah May was one of the most compelling stories in all of women's wrestling. And in spite of the fact that everyone expected it, May's ultimate betrayal still managed to shock and enthrall with its sudden brutality.
After finally losing the title and making a star of her protege in the process, Storm would tour the world, giving attention and the rub of her unsuccessful attentions to Women's wrestling champions globally. - Sergei (@SergeiAlderman)
30. YAMATO - YAMATO had a strong first half of the year, winning a good feud against Kota Minoura and making the Rey de Parejas finals with Susumu Yokosuka. After he won the Open the Dream Gate championship against Ben-K in July, he ramped it up a gear. He has 4 successful defences against Madoka Kikuta, ISHIN, Kenoh and Dragon Dia. He ended the year winning the Open the Brave Gate title from Dragon Dia (winning the DG Grand Slam in the process) and had a brief reign with the King of Freedom Tag Team Championships. - Amy (@Amyhay___)
29. Mark Briscoe - In 2024, Mark Briscoe claimed his first singles World Title, dethroning Eddie Kingston at Supercard of Honor. In truth though, that barely scratches the surface of Briscoe’s year, emphatically announcing himself as one of the world’s premier babyfaces. From AEW to ROH, both in-ring and out, Briscoe was a force of nature, bringing his unique brand of energy to every setting. Most recently, Briscoe actively improved on his impressive 2023 Continental Classic output, producing a wonderful television main event opposite Kyle Fletcher. - Joe Hulbert (@JoeHulbert)
28. Athena - Though not the homerun that she produced in 2023, Athena remained Ring of Honor’s centrepiece in 2024, once again closing their final PPV of the year. In addition to the ongoing saga with Billie Starkz, Athena also battled Hikaru Shida, Nyla Rose and Queen Aminata under the ROH banner, leading the latter to her best match yet. Athena took her belt on the road too, stopping through Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling for an extended shootout with Gisele Shaw. - Joe Hulbert (@JoeHulbert)
27. Damian Priest - 2024 was undoubtedly the most successful year of Damian Priests’ career. He entered the year holding both sets of main roster WWE Tag Titles alongside Finn Balor. Priest lost his tag titles at WrestleMania Saturday but would rebound in spectacular fashion, cashing in his money in the bank briefcase to defeat Drew McIntyre for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Priest made 3 defences including a very good match against Drew in his native Scotland. Whether it was a part of the Judgement Day or the Terror Twins Priest played an integral role on WWE tv all year. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
26. Giulia - Giulia had a very influential year making a big impression in multiple promotions this year. She started the year in Stardom’s Triangle Derby losing in the finals to God’s Eye. Giulia also began the year as NJPW Strong Women’s Champion defending her title against Trish Adora and Natsuko Tora in the year before losing it to Stephanie Vaquer in Korakuen Hall. She also played a crucial role in the launch of Marigold. She main evented the company’s first show teaming with Utami Hayashishita against Bozilla and Sareee in a belter.
Giulia would also take part in the first ever Marigold World Title match in a losing effort against Sareee. Her year didn’t end there though as she would make her debut in NXT, almost immediately entering the title picture facing Roxanne Perez in a title match. Giulia later won the Iron Survivor Challenge to earn another shot at Roxanne Perez. It seems no matter the promotion Giulia always finds a way to rise to the top. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
25. Mike Bailey - The true workhorse of pro wrestling. In 2024, he wrestled well over 100 matches in nearly 50 promotions. And every time he gives his 100% (or maybe even more), very often ending up with the best match of the night.It's nearly impossible to name all his great singles matches. The ones against Konosuke Takeshita in MLP, Titus Alexander and LaBron Kozone in DPW, Moose, Zachary Wentz, Mustafa Ali and Leon Slater in TNA just to name some of them.
He also was able to win some titles. He captured TNA X-Division twice this year, first by defeating Mustafa Ali at Slammiversary and then by winning Ultimate X match at Emergence. He also had a 9 month long reign with DPW Worlds Tag Team Titles alongside his partner, Jake Something. I consider it one of the best title runs of the year. - Raion (@Raion74_)
24. Sami Zayn - Sami Zayn had a very impressive year, most notably defeating Gunther at WrestleMania ending his historic reign as WWE Intercontinental Champion. Sami made 6 title defences including some great matches with Chad Gable. Sami Zayn was also on the winning side of WarGames at Survivor Series and was a constant source of good matches throughout the year on WWE tv. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
23. Stephanie Vaquer - Vaquer had a very similar year to the aforementioned Giulia experiencing success in a variety of promotions before making her mark in NXT. Vaquer started the year as CMLL World Women’s Champion and CMLL World Women’s Tag Team Champion alongside Zeuxis and would hold both titles until her departure from WWE in July. Vaquer defeated Giulia for the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship in March at Korakuen Hall and proceeded to defend it all around the world. Successful defences include against AZM in Chicago, Alex Windsor in California, Rhio in London and La Catalina in Mexico before losing it to Mercedes Moné at Forbidden Door in New York. Stephanie Vaquer made a big impression in NXT before the end of the year and it is clear that in 2025 she will be one of the biggest stars on the brand. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
22. Natsupoi - Natsupoi may not have won the top title in Stardom this year but for my money she was the best performing member of the roster in 2024. She did however, hold the Wonder of Stardom for 155 days defeating Saori Anou for the honour. Natsupoi had some fantastic defences against Hazuki and Thekla before losing it to Starlight Kid at Dream Queendom in what is widely considered one of the best women’s matches of the year. Natsupoi also did some very impressive tag team work this year holding the Artist of Stardom titles as well as a wonderful appearance in the main event of Sareee-sim Chapter IV teaming with Sareee against AZM and Takumi Iroha. - Patrick (@PatrickEireWres)
21. Maika - The Empress of Stardom had a rise like no other this year as she became the new face of Stardom by carrying the World of Stardom Championship for the first 7 months of the year during a tough time as nobody was more important for STARDOM during the split with Rossy Ogawa & Marigold than her. During her run as World Champion, she defeated her rivals like Momo Watanabe, Megan Bayne, Tomoka Inaba, Xena, Utami Hayashishita and Saya Kamitani.
She also defeated the latter in the 5STAR Grand Prix Final that she won undefeated as the first wrestler in the history of Stardom. Maika was also successful in the Tag & Trios division as she claimed the Artist of Stardom Championship with Xena & Mina Shirakawa as E-neXus-V as well as making into the final of the Goddess of Stardom Tag League for the third time in five years with HANAKO. She ended the year with a brutal No Disqualification match against Natsuko Tora that established Maika's Ace status with a bloody performance. - Peps (@Peps_Wrestling)
Please check back tomorrow for the next issue which will feature the wrestlers placed 20-1!