Wrestling veteran disagrees with Gunther being ranked lower than former AEW Champion on PWI's Top 10 wrestlers (Exclusive)
Reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther was ranked ninth in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 500 for 2024. Although he made it to the top 10, wrestling veteran Bill Apter has claimed The Ring General should have been ranked much higher.
In this week's episode of The Wrestling Time Machine, host Mac Davis spoke about the top ten names in the PWI 500 this year. Cody Rhodes claimed the top spot, while former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland was ranked at number two. Meanwhile, Will Ospreay, Seth Rollins, Tetsuya Naito, Damian Priest, and MJF ranked above Gunther, with Mistico of CMLL taking the 10th spot.
Bill Apter told Mac Davis that he disagreed with Gunther's ranking, claiming that the RAW Superstar should have been ranked above names like Damian Priest and AEW World Champion MJF.
"MJF is a fine wrestler, but Gunther should be above him, too!" Apter said. [2:22-2:32]
Apter, who hasn't been a part of the selection process of the PWI list for 30 years now, said that if he were a part of the panel, Swerve Strickland wouldn't have been ranked in the second spot despite The King of Swerve's memorable reign as AEW World Champion this year. The 78-year-old also seemed to agree with the decision to put Cody Rhodes at the numero uno spot after the incredible year The American Nightmare has had.
Shockingly, Roman Reigns was excluded from the top 10 list, but Kevin McElvaney of Pro Wrestling Illustrated explained that The OTC was dropped from the list because he didn't meet the minimum match requirement. At the time of making the list, Reigns had only wrestled five singles matches. The minimum number of matches during the evaluation period is 10, or six matches across six separate months.
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Gunther once again declines Sami Zayn's challenge on RAW
The Ring General has been repeatedly trolling Sami Zayn since the beginning of September. After losing his rematch for the Intercontinental Championship, Sami Zayn stepped up to challenge the man he beat this year at WrestleMania 40.
While the World Heavyweight Champion first appeared respectful in each of his promos, he repeatedly rejected Zayn's challenge. Even when Bret Hart was involved in the recent RAW in Canada, he trolled The Hitman by stating that his all-time favorite was Bill Goldberg.
On the September 23 edition of RAW, Sami Zayn's impressive win over Ludwig Kaiser made it appear as though he had done enough to get a World Title shot, only to be denied again by the reigning King of the Ring.
It will be interesting to see if the Imperium leader accepts Zayn's challenge in the coming weeks.
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