diff --git a/docs/news.rst b/docs/news.rst
index 8c4ce091..98eb19d2 100644
--- a/docs/news.rst
+++ b/docs/news.rst
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ Release Notes
 - Fixed ``ValueError: ZIP does not support timestamps before 1980`` when using
   ``SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=0`` or when on-disk timestamps are earlier than 1980-01-01. Such
   timestamps are now changed to the minimum value before packaging.
+- The future-proof fix in 0.36.0 for converting PyPy's SOABI into a abi tag was
+  faulty. Fixed so that future changes in the SOABI will not change the tag.
 
 **0.37.1 (2021-12-22)**
 
diff --git a/src/wheel/bdist_wheel.py b/src/wheel/bdist_wheel.py
index 7cbd1402..3a82caa8 100644
--- a/src/wheel/bdist_wheel.py
+++ b/src/wheel/bdist_wheel.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 from email.generator import BytesGenerator, Generator
 from io import BytesIO
 from shutil import rmtree
-from sysconfig import get_config_var
 from zipfile import ZIP_DEFLATED, ZIP_STORED
 
 import pkg_resources
@@ -55,7 +54,7 @@ def get_platform(archive_root):
 def get_flag(var, fallback, expected=True, warn=True):
     """Use a fallback value for determining SOABI flags if the needed config
     var is unset or unavailable."""
-    val = get_config_var(var)
+    val = sysconfig.get_config_var(var)
     if val is None:
         if warn:
             warnings.warn(
@@ -69,8 +68,8 @@ def get_flag(var, fallback, expected=True, warn=True):
 
 
 def get_abi_tag():
-    """Return the ABI tag based on SOABI (if available) or emulate SOABI (PyPy)."""
-    soabi = get_config_var("SOABI")
+    """Return the ABI tag based on SOABI (if available) or emulate SOABI (PyPy2)."""
+    soabi = sysconfig.get_config_var("SOABI")
     impl = tags.interpreter_name()
     if not soabi and impl in ("cp", "pp") and hasattr(sys, "maxunicode"):
         d = ""
@@ -87,9 +86,9 @@ def get_abi_tag():
             m = "m"
 
         abi = f"{impl}{tags.interpreter_version()}{d}{m}{u}"
-    elif soabi and soabi.startswith("cpython-"):
+    elif soabi and impl == "cp":
         abi = "cp" + soabi.split("-")[1]
-    elif soabi and soabi.startswith("pypy-"):
+    elif soabi and impl == "pp":
         # we want something like pypy36-pp73
         abi = "-".join(soabi.split("-")[:2])
         abi = abi.replace(".", "_").replace("-", "_")
diff --git a/tests/test_bdist_wheel.py b/tests/test_bdist_wheel.py
index 2a4d777a..d54cee77 100644
--- a/tests/test_bdist_wheel.py
+++ b/tests/test_bdist_wheel.py
@@ -5,11 +5,13 @@
 import stat
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import sysconfig
 from zipfile import ZipFile
 
 import pytest
 
-from wheel.bdist_wheel import bdist_wheel
+from wheel.bdist_wheel import bdist_wheel, get_abi_tag
+from wheel.vendored.packaging import tags
 from wheel.wheelfile import WheelFile
 
 DEFAULT_FILES = {
@@ -218,3 +220,15 @@ def test_unix_epoch_timestamps(dummy_dist, monkeypatch, tmpdir):
             "--build-number=2",
         ]
     )
+
+
+def test_get_abi_tag_old(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(tags, "interpreter_name", lambda: "pp")
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sysconfig, "get_config_var", lambda x: "pypy36-pp73")
+    assert get_abi_tag() == "pypy36_pp73"
+
+
+def test_get_abi_tag_new(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sysconfig, "get_config_var", lambda x: "pypy37-pp73-darwin")
+    monkeypatch.setattr(tags, "interpreter_name", lambda: "pp")
+    assert get_abi_tag() == "pypy37_pp73"