Number #9 in the TDF Top 50
From being a small boy, I have always been a huge fan of both football and professional wrestling and at around the age of 10-years-old, I came across a monthly magazine brought to newsagents from the makers of the world famous Sports Illustrated all about pro wrestling. It was simply named Pro Wrestling Illustrated. It was a publication I regularly read as well as Shoot and Match weekly magazines to feed my football addiction. In 1991, PWI began this new craze that instantly grabbed my attention more than no other magazine had before. They revealed the 'PWI 500'. The 'PWI 500' section in the magazine listed (in rank order) the top 500 professional wrestlers in the world that year. Counting down from 500, this revealed to me many, many talents that I have not discovered as of yet. This was released every year, and still to this day is the best selling edition of the magazine each year. I studied and read and read over and over again that edition in 1991 and I came up with an idea. What if Match or Shoot revealed the top 500 footballers in the world? Thinking back to 1991, I used to love to tune into the 'BBC Radio 1 Top 40' show every Sunday afternoon too... maybe I'm a tad obsessed with countdowns. Anyways, reflecting on the idea, I thought about it each year the 'PWI 500' was released. As years went on, I felt that this would have grown into a hugely successful plan, gaining great recognition with people in the game, possibly gained its own award ceremony on TV with the emergence and exposure SKY Television in the United Kingdom was just beginning to give to the game back then.
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