This is the next chapter of a year by year retrospective from my viewpoint as a wrestling fan. What did I watch, what was good, what was bad, which men and women were the best and what matches and moments stood out.
This was the hardest year for me to do a write up on. Why? Because 2022 was a strange year. It was the first full year with fans attending events after COVID hit, which eventually meant bigger venues for everyone now that you could pack in people again. So things were looking up….and then Vince McMahon was forced out by his own misdeeds, leaving HHH to take over. Over on the other side of the street AEW went from flying high to losing the plot within six months. Ronda Rousey returned, some people online went all caps to show their disapproval, and for about six months it didn’t matter but then things would fall off the cliff. The Wargames made it’s way to the WWE main roster, and John Cena would drop in to close the year.
The Good
This was admittedly a struggle because outside of good matches and good shows here and there, the only good things I could think of involved money. I mean, there really weren’t any new developments that made the world better beyond WWE starting to do better business. Nothing particularly remarkable happened from a booking standpoint that I would put here. It was just a functional year that saw WWE making more money than they had in a while…..
So to that end, WWE solidified it’s turnaround and went full speed into what is now a three year upswing that shows no signs of slowing down. Roman Reigns and the Bloodline Saga revitalized the entire industry and was leading the way, and that way ran through the United Kingdom for the first time in years as they headed to Scotland for Clash at the Castle, their first PPV in the UK in years.
The Bad
Where to start…….man, there was a lot, so I guess I’ll go in order of how things happened.
In March, Big E got injured and hasn’t been in action since. He took an overhead belly to belly suplex from Ridge Holland outside the ring and banged his head on the floor, injuring his neck. In hindsight doing that kind of spot in a TV match should have been high up on the ‘we don’t need to do all this’ list but these guys and gals don’t get where they are by avoiding risk. I’m not downplaying it; like most of you I love Big E and it hasn’t been the same without him. But as a I get older I wish that these folks would do less and less of these kind of things, especially when it’s for matches that we’re all gonna forget by the next morning.
Then on May 16, there was the walkout heard around the world when Sasha Banks and Naomi left the arena shortly before Monday Night RAW started. Although they were tag team champs they were slated to face the two women’s singles champs in singles matches on the next pay per view, Hell in a Cell. They felt like their titles were being neglected, and then that’s where it gets murky. They’ve both said that they were spoken to in a disrespectful manner backstage and decided to leave. The tag belts were vacated and for the next two shows they got buried on commentary. It was just an ugly scene all around. Thankfully they’ve found their way to better places since then but that was for sure a sad chapter.
Next was the elephant of all elephants in the room. Vince McMahon stepped down in the midst of a lawsuit alleging him of all kinds of stuff. Reading the details of what was in the suit was pretty hard to do, but I think we didn’t have it hard enough to be honest. If you go back as far as I do, which most of you reading this probably do, then you knew Vince was a weirdo at best and a really bad guy at worst. We saw the weird, sexist, racist stuff that was going through his head play out in wrestling angles every week but we rarely if ever walked away from it. Complicit may be too strong a word to describe us but we damn sure ain’t innocent.
And there was Brawl Out, the chaotic aftermath AEW’s All Out, where CM Punk went on an epic rant against several of his own co-workers while AEW Owner Tony Khan very nervously sat next to him, and then got into a fight with said co-workers in the locker room afterwards. And this was after several tumultuous months of backstage sniping between Punk and the Elite that first came to light when Hangman Page shot on Punk unexpectedly during a promo segment leading into AEW’s Double or Nothing PPV. If you’re looking for a hard date when things started to decline for AEW this is it. Through June of 2022 they were averaging almost the same size crowds as WWE per show (5,000 vs WWE’s 6,000 according to WrestleNomics), and then things began to diverege. Losing Cody to WWE in March was a blow, but the real image hit came with Brawl Out. It killed the narrative of All Friends Wrestling, which had been used as a pejorative but was actually a positive until it was proven false.
Anything special happen?
Bianca Belair winning the RAW Womens’ Title was a big deal. It was a year after her historic win in the main event of night 1 of WrestleMania 37, and it was every bit as important. A Black Woman wrestler getting a full blown eight month hero’s redemption arc that was paid off with a win was still a thing that hadn’t happened by that point. A lot of us were real life angry when she got punked out at Summerslam, because quite frankly we did not trust Vince McMahon to pay it off the right way. But he did, and Bianca and Becky Lynch had the women’s match of the year on that show. One year can be a fluke but getting a second big win in back to back years was the kind of certification that no Black woman wrestler had ever gotten on a big stage.
On that same show Cody Rhodes returned home. Having asked for and gotten his release in 2016, Cody went on a multiyear journey to show and prove that he could be a main eventer in pro wrestling. His return was as that very thing, and gave WWE and crucial thing – the man who could dethrone Roman Reigns and carry the company’s banner afterwards. Cody’s return was nothing short of spectacular, and even though it would be cut short by injury he was able to lay the groundwork for what would come two years later at WrestleMania 40.
HHH taking over was a sea change of epic proportions. While several things had been put in motion beforehand – Summerslam and the Clash at the Castle show, PPVs being renamed Premium Live Events (PLEs), and PLE cards starting to get a little shorter – HHH came in did some pretty sweeping things immediately. Namely, re-hiring people who Vince had gotten rid of. From big names like Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt to people who’d gotten a raw deal creatively like Mia Yim and Karrion Kross to early COVID releases like Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows to people who never really gotten much of a chance on the main roster like Bronson Reed and Tegan Nox, the returns were aplenty. Bring these folks back also helped convince a few others to stick around like Iyo Sky and Johnny Gargano. Already operating with a lot of cool points just for not being Vince, this bought HHH a ton of goodwill with lots of people and start HHH on the road to being looked at as a savior to pro wrestling.
The return of Ronda Rousey was special, but not in the way that anyone hoped for. Her return at the Royal Rumble got a big reaction (don’t let the revisionist historians lie to you), but it was spoiled online the day of the show and was poo poohed there immediately. The first few months did big numbers on all of WWE’s platforms despite the online backlash, but after she won the Smackdown Women’s at Backlash (see what I did there) things began to slip. Over the Summer they began to turn her heel, but people in the arenas were still cheering her so long as she was beating up heels or security guards. But once the heel turn was cemented when she regained the Smackdown Title from Liv Morgan, people began to tune out. The dirty secret was that nobody really wanted to see her as a heel; the general audience dug the Ronda who beat up on villains and authority figures and the hardcore fans just didn’t want to see her at all. Turning her heel didn’t serve either group. Ronda herself became frustrated with her booking and by her own words got fed up enough that she was done being champion and pulled a power move to drop the belt to Charlotte Flair on the December 30 Smackdown. All in all a very bizarre turn of events.
Awards – Who was the best?
Top 5 Male Wrestlers: 1. Roman Reigns, 2. Seth Rollins, 3. Cody Rhodes, 4. Brock Lesnar, 5. Gunther
Reigns still ruled the roost here. Cody would have been number two had he not gotten injured, that’s just how impactful he was. As it was Rollins was the man who did heavy lifting once Roman shifted to part time in the second half of the year. Brock made an unexpected and surprisingly face turn into Cowboy Brock and put together a great run from January 1 through Summerslam. Gunther won the IC title and began a run of ringwork that would span over a year and make the I-C title the workhorse belt again.
Honorable Mentions: Bobby Lashley, Jon Moxley, CM Punk
Top 5 Women Wrestlers: 1. Bianca Belair, 2. Becky Lynch, 3. Ronda Rousey, 4. Mandy Rose, 5. Jordynn Grace
For the second year in a row, Bianca was THE woman in pro wrestling. She scored a second career making WrestleMania win over Becky Lynch to follow up her match with Banks from 2021 and carried the division the rest of the year. Lynch was her most frequent dance partner and made was some real magic with her. Ronda despite running aground in the second half of the year came in to a huge response (go check for yourself if you think I’m lying), did tremendous business for the WWE again and won the Smackdown women’s title twice. Say what you want but you cannot deny the receipts. Mandy Rose completely turned her career around, dominated the NXT Women’s division and became a legit major player in women’s wrestling. And Grace helped carry the Knockouts division in Impact for another year capping it off with a barnburner at Bound for Glory.
Honorable Mentions: Liv Morgan, Charlotte Flair, Thunder Rosa, Jamie Hayter
Standout Matches
- CM Punk vs MJF, AEW Revolution
- Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair, WrestleMania 38
- Sami Zayn vs Johnny Knoxville, WrestleMania 38
- Charlotte Flair vs Ronda Rousey, Backlash
- Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins, Hell in a Cell
- The Usos vs The Street Profits, Money in the Bank
- Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar, Summerslam
- Gunther vs Sheamus, Clash at the Castle
- Bianca Belair vs Bayley, Crown Jewel
- Jordynne Grace vs Masha Slamavich, Bound for Glory
- Women’s Wargames, Survivor Series
Others worth your time: Brock Lesnar vs Big E vs Seth Rollins vs Kevin Owens vs Bobby Lashley at Day 1, Charlotte Flair vs Naomi on the February 11 Smackdown, Women’s Gauntlet Match from February 14 RAW, Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch vs Asuka, Hell in a Cell, Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch at Summerslam, Ronda Rousey vs Raquel Rodriguez on the December 30 Smackdown
Match of the Year
Men: Reigns vs Lesnar, Summerslam
It was the culmination of the rekindled feud between Reigns and Lesnar, which did a ton a business and was the thing that made WWE’s resurgence more permanent. It wasn’t a five star workrate special but it was spectacular in all the ways that a wrestling match should be. And it was for all intents and purposes the swan song for Vince McMahon; not only was it the last match that he had a hand in setting up but it was a Vince match in every way you could think of.
Women: Lynch vs Belair at WrestleMania 38
The culmination of eight months that began with a ‘Vince, WTF is this?’ moment at Summerslam 2021 when Becky returned after a year and suckered Bianca into an impromptu match where she lost her Smackdown Women’s title and looked like a total geek in the process. Me and a lot of other people remained suspicious as to whether or not Vince would pay that off properly but to his credit he did, and thus proved that despite his infinite bad qualities when he was on he knew how to do something crazy that would work. The match was an all time great and cemented Bianca’s place in the business.
Show of the Year
WrestleMania 38
Vince’s final WrestleMania in charge embodied him in every way. Three celebrity matches, all of which were good. A big return in Cody Rhodes. A Hall of Famer in Steve Austin giving his career and ending he saw more fitting. The big storyline climax with Becky and Bianca. And the King Kong vs Godzilla night main event in Reigns vs Lesnar. It was also the show that let the world know that the WWE was back (h/t to my man Jay). Night 1 was better than Night 2, but taken as a whole it was the best show of the year in my opinion.
I’d give Clash at the Castle a close second. It was also a great show with a Match of the Year Candidate in Sheamus vs Gunther, another epic encounter in Reigns vs Drew McIntyre, and several other good matches.
Final Verdict
This was a difficult year to write about because it was just kinda weird all around. Vince getting in trouble was bad, but HHH taking over creative was a good thing that came out of it. The Brawl Out situation was one that no company would want to deal with, but that media scrum with Punk was one of the most entertaining scenes that year. There was no shortage of great matches or shows either, but many times the overall vibe was a bit lacking. I took in a couple of shows, a house show in late April and a RAW in August but it wasn’t the most personably enjoyable year for me because my two favorite wrestlers, Roman and Charlotte, weren’t around as much in the second half of the year. So in light of there being some really high highs and really low lows I’m giving it a C.
The grade tally so far – 2012: B, 2013: C, 2014: A, 2015: A-, 2016: A, 2017: C, 2018: B, 2019: C, 2020: C, 2021: A
Stroke of Genius 