WWE's Stephanie Vaquer, AEW's Willow Nightingale Lead Top 10 of PWI Women's Top 250 List for 2026

Pro Wrestling Illustrated released its annual PWI Women's 250 list on Thursday, and WWE's Stephanie Vaquer paced the field for 2026.

Vaquer beat out the AEW trio of Willow Nightingale, Thekla and Mercedes Moné for the No. 1 spot after earning the No. 5 ranking on the list in both 2024 and 2025.

The top 10 for the 2026 PWI Women's 250 is as follows:

1. Stephanie Vaquer (WWE)

2. Willow Nightingale (AEW)

3. Thekla (AEW)

4. Mercedes Moné (AEW)

5. Saya Kamitani (Stardom)

6. Liv Morgan (WWE)

7. Persephone (AEW/CMLL)

8. Syuri (Stardom)

9. Rhea Ripley (WWE)

10. Kris Statlander (AEW)

Over the course of one year from September 2025 through September 2026, Vaquer held the WWE Women's World Championship twice for a total of 237 days.

Her initial reign lasted 210 days, and while the second ended after less than a month, it was memorable due to the fact that she beat Liv Morgan for the title in her home country of Chile.

La Primera's selection as No. 1 may be controversial to some given the success enjoyed by Nightingale, Thekla and Moné in AEW.

All three of them held the AEW Women's World Championship at some point in 2026 with Thekla holding it for 165 days before dropping it to Nightingale and Nightingale holding it for 35 days before losing it to Moné.

Mercedes, who was No. 1 on last year's list, is in the midst of a two-plus-month run with the title, and an argument can be made that she eclipsed all others in the PWI Women's 250 rankings in 2026 with her in-ring work.

There is a strong case to be made for Moné at No. 1, and the same can be said for Morgan, who has been the WWE women's world champion since WrestleMania 42 in April with the exception of Vaquer's 27-day reign in between.

Referring to herself as the greatest women's world champion of all time, Morgan has been the face of the WWE women's division for most of 2026, especially with top stars such as Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair and Naomi missing a significant amount of time.

Ripley did still manage to sneak into the top 10 at No. 9, though, three years after being ranked No. 1 on the inaugural PWI Women's 250 list in 2023.