WWE's Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair and AEW's Jamie Hayter in Top 5 of PWI Women's 250

Pro Wrestling Illustrated named WWE women's world champion Rhea Ripley the No. 1 female wrestler in the world as part of the PWI Women's 250 list on Wednesday.

PWI revealed the choice Wednesday, just over one month after WWE world heavyweight champion Seth Rollins came in at No. 1 on the annual PWI 500 list:

In order to secure top honors, Ripley beat out a pair of Japanese joshi wrestlers in Giulia (No. 2) and Tam Nakano (No. 5), as well as WWE's Bianca Belair (No. 3) and AEW's Jamie Hayter (No. 4).

The top 10 women's wrestlers in the world for 2023, according to PWI, were as follows:

1. Rhea Ripley (WWE)

2. Giulia (Stardom)

3. Bianca Belair (WWE)

4. Jamie Hayter (AEW)

5. Tam Nakano (Stardom)

6. Athena (AEW/ROH)

7. Deonna Purrazzo (Impact Wrestling)

8. Willow Nightingale (AEW/ROH)

9. Kamille (NWA)

10. Jordynne Grace (Impact Wrestling)

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While this marks the first year PWI has done a Women's 250, the list started in 2008 with the Female 50 and expanded to the Women's 100 in 2018 and the Women's 150 in 2021.

The 27-year-old Ripley is the ninth different WWE wrestler to earn the No. 1 spot on the list in the past 10 years, joining Paige, Nikki Bella, Charlotte Flair, Asuka, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, Bayley and Belair.

Ripley has been WWE women's world champion for nearly 200 days, winning the title from Flair at WrestleMania 39 in arguably the best women's match of the year in any promotion.

While she has defended the title sparingly and been used more as an attraction, there is no denying her talent and presence, as well as her status as one of the biggest stars in WWE, given her role as the de facto leader of The Judgment Day.

Coming in at No. 3, Belair joins Charlotte as the only women to rank third or better in PWI's Women's list in three consecutive years.

The EST was No. 1 in 2021 and No. 2 last year, and she checked in at No. 3 in 2023, as she held a championship for most of the evaluation period.

Belair has been off WWE programming for the past two months after Iyo Sky successfully cashed in her Money in the Bank contract and beat her for the WWE Women's Championship at SummerSlam, and her absence has made it even more obvious that Belair is one of WWE's best performers.

While WWE occupies two of the top three spots, it has just two Superstars inside the top 10, which is tied for the company's worst top-10 representation in the history of the PWI Women's list.

Topping the list for AEW at No. 4 is Hayter, who was AEW women's world champion for 190 days before dropping it to Toni Storm at Double or Nothing in May.

While Hayter had been presented as Britt Baker's sidekick for some time, a groundswell of fan support led to the decision to have Hayter win the title in November 2022.

Hayter has been out of action due to injury since losing the title, and her presence has been sorely missed in the AEW women's division.

Two other AEW stars also made the top 10 in the form of Athena and Willow Nightingale, who are Nos. 6 and 8, respectively.

Athena is approaching one full year as Ring of Honor women's world champion, while Willow held the NJPW Strong Women's Championship and won the 2023 AEW Owen Hart Tournament.

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