2022 saw a lot of change in the wrestling business. It was the year Vince McMahon retired
resigned after a sexual misconduct scandal and Triple H took creative control
of the main roster. It was the year Tony
Khan bought Ring Of Honor but paid a bigger price for being the world’s biggest
CM Punk mark. It was the year Cody
Rhodes left his EVP role at AEW to return to WWE at Wrestlemania to a superstars
welcome. It was the year New Japan Pro
Wrestling created a IWGP Women’s Championship and secured a deal to bring in
Sasha Banks. And it was the year Bray
Wyatt re-invented himself as a spooky man in a mask. No you don’t understand – it’s a completely different
mask, this one has a hat!
2022 also saw a big change in my life as I made the decision to close WrestlingClique.com in October – a website that had been a part of my life for the last 11 years. The forums may have died, but the community lives on via discord. As too do my match of the year lists, coming to you for the first time in blog form.
LET'S FUCKING GO~!!!!
#25 - April 3rd
Sami Zayn Vs Johnny Knoxville – WWE Wrestlemania Night 2
Logan Paul has raised the bar significantly for expectations of a celebrity wrestling match and you’ll get no arguments from me for suggesting that any one of Logan’s 3 matches this year were better than this match. There’s certainly no debate Paul is a better wrestler than Knoxville. However I’m not sure any of Paul’s matches are THIS entertaining. In fact his title match with Roman felt very similar and as good as any other big Roman title match this year. I have been so down on Sami Zayn’s heel years in WWE because I think the work has been drastically below what I expect of a guy that was one of the greatest wrestlers of the 2010s, and this is the night it all changed for me with a wonderful, selfless, carry-job where he let himself be the butt of Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass boys’ jokes. I think this match went a long way to making Sami more likeable in the eyes of fans which eventually helped the honorary Uce storyline.
#24 - November 19th
Eddie Kingston Vs Jun Akiyama –
AEW Full Gear Zero Hour
A dream match is an overused term by promotors putting
together any sort of first time match between two somewhat popular wrestlers,
but how often in wrestling do we ever see a wrestlers legitimate dream match?
Eddie Kingston has long documented his love of 90s All Japan and he often
throws in tribute spots to the four pillars, something I can get cranky about
at times when watching Eddie devolve a match into random chopping battles. He has also documented in podcasts and social
media his desire to one day face the ‘fifth pillar’ and the last link to 90s
AJPW, Jun Akiyama, who these days wrestles for DDT impressively in his
50s. Eddie finally got his wish on the
Full Gear pre-show and even if there were better matches I could have slotted in
the lower half, it would have felt wrong to leave this match off a best of 2022
list. It's a powerful thing to watch
someone live out their dream, and the raw emotion on show here from Eddie is
something I think will stick with me for years.
Eddie might never win gold in AEW, he might always lose every major feud
he has in AEW (you could argue that suits his character), but no-one can take
away the night he got to face, defeat, and win the respect of his idol.
#23 - July 29th
Soberano Jr Vs Templario – CMLL
Super Viernes
This felt like the first match to get some buzz out of CMLL in quite some time, arguably a turning point that highlighted that the promotion was coming out of their COVID coma and had something to offer the wrestling world again. Before COVID hit, Soberano was talked up as one of the brightest young talents in Mexico and then suddenly he was someone nobody was talking about when the world came to a grinding halt. This is about as ‘your move, my move’ a match as you’ll find anywhere this year, but it works, and it rocks.
#22 - November 19th
Toni Storm Vs Jamie Hayter – AEW Full Gear
Toni Storm deserves a tonne of credit for getting the AEW
Women’s Division not only back on track after the Thunder Rosa nonsense, but
into the best shape it’s ever been in.
There was a few months period there where Storm felt like she was
wrestling on Dynamite every week, and for a woman in Tony Khan’s AEW, that’s
quite the glass ceiling to break through.
Storm was such a good ‘interim’ champion that I actually didn’t give Hayter
much of a chance in this match, despite how over she had been getting stepping
out of the shadow of Britt Baker and winning fans over with her hard-hitting
matches. This honestly felt like the
first time AEW have let the best two workers in the women's division battle over
the title and they really delivered and clicked in the ring together. This
is the best womens match in AEW history in my book. Perhaps a bit too much overbooking at the end
with several big kick outs and Britt interference, but the crowd ate it up and
too often on these marathon PPVs crowds have been dead for the women, so I can
live with it. AEW pulled the trigger with
Hayter at the right time and it was awesome to see.
#21 - December 7th
Samoa Joe Vs Darby Allin – AEW
Dynamite
This is the quintessential example of a great TV match
whereby every precious second of time is used to it’s maximum. On paper this is just a routine TNT title
defence by Samoa Joe, but when Darby Allin is involved, nothing is
routine. When Joe’s ‘NOPE’ moment came
in the form of Darby cannon-balling carelessly into the guardrail you knew we
were in for something special. Speed and
recklessness Vs Strength and experience collided in a violent affair, with Joe
coming out on top catching a coffin drop into the coquina clutch. The match made Joe look like both an
unstoppable monster and a giant dickhead (giving Darby a post-match muscle
buster onto a wheels facing up skateboard for christ’s sake), heating Joe up
for his rematch with Wardlow and sowing seeds for a potential rematch with
Darby – All in little over 10 minutes.
#20 - April 1st
FTR Vs The Briscoes – ROH Supercard
of Honor
For years the speculated FTR dream match was FTR Vs Young
Bucks, perhaps because the styles felt so different on paper, and when we
initially got that match in 2021 it was a bit of a letdown. They’d go on to have a much better match
against each other in 2022 that came close to making this list, but it just
proves how hard first-time meetings can be with wrestlers who have never worked
together before. The wacky nature of
2022 saw Tony Khan purchase and save Ring of Honor and all of a sudden we were faced
with another meeting of two of the best tag teams of the modern era. There was no repeat of FTR/Bucks here as FTR and
The Briscoes put on a magnificent tag match with FTR leaning heel, big-timing
Briscoes with not shaking hands before the match and Dax spitting in Jay’s face
later on. Even with the reluctance to
put The Briscoes onto national TV with AEW, there was no way Tony Khan would be
able to resist running this match again.
This was the no-flips, just fists version of FTR they often say they are,
but then just work the AEW house style anyway – maybe it was the opponents or
maybe it was working an ROH, but this was the night I felt FTR really found
their groove and got their act back on track after an odd first year in
AEW. I think it’s fair to say this was
the start of the best in-ring rivalry of 2022.
Minor gripe and the only thing keeping this from possibly making my top
10 was the switch of attitudes from FTR after the bell, all hugs and backpats because
gosh darn we just love tag team wrestling this much we gotta respect the
Briscoes……after a match where they continued to disrespect the Briscoes.
#19 - July 1st
Speedball Mike Bailey Vs Tre
Miguel – Impact Wrestling Against All Odds
Sometimes I can find leg selling matches a really irritating
watch. If someone limps and limps like
they’re near-amputation, but then jump to their feet to run through their
closing stretch as if a miracle from god healed them in seconds, I turn into a
grumpy bastard and feel like I’ve had my time wasted. So when Tre and Speedball started to work a
DOUBLE leg selling match where both of them had had their legs targeted, I was
preparing myself to hate what would unfold.
Thankfully, they both nailed the execution of the match and I found
myself loving their struggles as they found themselves in a spiral of pain whereby
performing a move to their opponent always hurt them as well.
#18 - September 16th
Atlantis Jr Vs Stuka Jr – CMLL Anniversario
A crowning moment in the young career of Atlantis Jr as he
takes the mask of Stuka Jr in the main event of CMLL’s biggest show of the year
and stepping into the footsteps of his father, Atlantis, as a mask collector. I came into this match having never seen
Atlantis Jr before, and he won me over with his presence and performance in the
biggest spot. The tope into the
guardrail is one of 2022’s nutter bumps.
#17 - March 31st
Jon Moxley Vs Biff Busick – GCW
Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 8
In addition to his great work at
the top of the AEW card, Moxley spent much of the year making indie dates and
bringing his bloodied, aggressive style to the smaller stage. I’m not sure those indie matches ever peaked
as high as they did on Wrestlemania weekend in the ‘I can’t believe this
shootstyle circlejerk gimmick show is still a thing’ show against former NXT
alumni Oney Lorcan. This was condensed,
brutal war where Biff ended up a bloody mess and was put to sleep with a running
knee. The talking point coming out of
this match was how Biff Busick may be able to compile himself a WOTY resume now
he’s free to work wherever he wants. Instead
Biff would wrestle only a handful of dates after this before quietly taking a
break from the ring, while his opponent on this night would stake his strong
claim to the 2022 WOTY title, and the king of the bloodbaths.
Kazusada Higuchi Vs Konosuke
Takeshita – DDT Who’s Gonna Top
Konosuke Takeshita had a great
year making towns in the US, having show-stealing matches and increasing his
popularity. It wouldn’t be right to not
find a spot for him on my countdown of the very best of pro-wrestling in 2022,
and for me his greatest match actually came back in his home promotion of DDT,
challenging yet again for the KO-D Openweight Championship. How refreshing it was to watch a main event
title match in Japan go under 20 minutes long.
The work was excellent too as Takeshita tried and failed to topple this
Sumo-Terminator-like champion in Higuchi.
If there was an award for ‘soundbite of the year’, then the thud of Higuchi’s
skull on the steel ringpost would win it.
#15 - April 6th
Jon Moxley Vs Wheeler Yuta –
AEW Rampage
Probably the best ‘elevation’
match of the year as Yuta won himself a lot of new fans in this match trying to
survive a round with a reinvigorated, wrestling machine in Jon Moxley. Yuta had been floundering in AEW midcard hell
as a member of Best Friends before this match, but he saw a better path for his
career learning under the mentorship of William Regal and this match was his
audition for the BCC. For that stable to
work, they needed someone young, unpolished and in need of an attitude transplant,
and I think Yuta was a perfect guy to add to the fold. What works so well in this match is to
remember their previous encounter where Moxley destroyed Yuta in minutes, and then
see this young guy give his all to better himself and show he can hang with the
best wrestlers in the world. There were
moments where even I thought Yuta was gonna sneak out a victory such was the
performance of Yuta here. As far as club
initiations go, there’s tamer ones than having blood spew out of your forehead
on national TV.
#14 - August 12th
Josh Alexander Vs Alex Shelley –
Impact Wrestling Emergence
2022 was the best in-ring year Impact has had in a long,
long time and one of the booking decisions that aided that was keeping the world
title on Josh Alexander for most the year.
Alexander’s title matches became appointment viewing in my wrestling calendar
with great defences against the likes of Tomohiro Ishii, Eric Young, Frankie Kazarian
and Speedball Mike Bailey, but it his match against Alex Shelley that gets my
top vote as the best Impact match of the year.
Alex Shelley has been an incredible wrestler for almost two decades and
doesn’t get the credit his career deserves, and that played into this match a
bit with this being his first ever shot at the world title in Impact which
seems barmy to even type out. Josh
Alexander in the build cited Shelley as an inspiration for him first attending
wrestling school, but Shelley instead decided to use that respect as a weakness
and turned in an awesome heel performance to put the odds in his favour. It didn’t work as Alexander put him to bed
with a C4 spike, but the nastiness and disrespectful work from Shelley was a
blast to watch and took what looked a routine Alexander defence on paper to the
next level.
#13 - March 6th
Jon Moxley Vs Bryan Danielson –
AEW Revolution
The birth of the Blackpool Combat Club and the one constant thread
that would keep AEW sailing through the rocky waters of main eventer injuries
(Punk, Hangman, Cole), defections (Cody) and playground politics (Punk Vs Elite). Sometimes a heel will say something so true
that it becomes impossible to disagree with them, and Bryan suggesting that him
and Moxley team up to overthrow the goofiness and silliness on the AEW roster
was something both the fans, and Moxley were interested in seeing. This was the definition of a mission
statement from Moxley and Danielson in what they wanted to established in their
Regal inspired two-man powertrip. They
were ultra-competitive, incredibly physical and gritty and it took a debuting
William Regal to slap them in the face after the match to stop fighting like a
dad breaking up a scrap between his two sons.
#12 - June 26th
Will Ospreay Vs Orange Cassidy
– AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door
In my mind there’s no debate that
this is the best match of either man’s 2022.
Will’s NJPW work is always going to be hampered for me by the clap
crowds and their insistence that his matches go too long. Cassidy years into his run with AEW now knows
to not overdo the mindgames schtick, and this was for the most part a serious
encounter with comedic moments sprinkled in when it made sense. A breathless closing stretch really set
Forbidden Door on it’s way to being the show of the year. Also – Shibata coming out to save Orange
Cassidy was something you couldn’t help but smile at.
#11 - August 17th
Bryan Danielson Vs Daniel Garcia
– AEW Dynamite
On the 150th episode of Dynamite, Danielson and
Garcia met in a 2/3 falls match that was a direct response to Garcia beating
Danielson 3 weeks earlier, albeit with an assist from JAS interference. This was not only a mini-program showcasing arguably
AEW’s two top technical wrestlers abilities, but a layered story with Garcia, a
heel, openly admitting that Bryan Danielson, a babyface, is his idol and these
matches mean a lot to him in his young career.
With Garcia taking the first fall by making Bryan pass out in a dragon
sleeper, it gave him another ‘visible win’ over his idol even if Danielson
would go on to win the next two falls. The
post match was all about Garcia too, with Garcia stepping in to prevent a Chris
Jericho attack on Danielson, setting up an angle that got Garcia over as a teasing
babyface before disappointing returning to just another guy in the JAS. It was a quieter year for Danielson than 2021
where he was easily my wrestler of the year, but nights like this prove he’s
still at the top of his game when he’s given an opportunity.
#10 - October 15th
Villano IV Vs Pentagon Jr – AAA Triplemania
There’s nothing quite like a mask vs mask match atmosphere,
and when the match hits, it’s always gonna rank on a list like this. Fenix and El Hijo Del Vikingo had a match right
before this that earned a tonne of praise for their awe-inspiring high spots,
but for me it was soulless compared to an old man fighting the match of his
life to protect his mask and identity against Pentagon Jr, 20 years younger
than him. Sure the match feels like it’s
on slow motion sometimes, and the false finish with Pentagon tapping out but
the referee missing it was unnecessary in my book, but it really doesn’t
matter. This match is all about emotion
and it has it in spades. This match got
me worked up into such a lucha frenzy that I’ve spent the months since this
match working a tonne of old school matches from Mexico.
#9 - May 1st
Hiroshi Tanahashi Vs Tomohiro
Ishii – NJPW Wrestling Dontaku
For the first time I believe since 2017 we got a singles match
between these two. I’ve made no secret
of how little I enjoy modern Japanese wrestling, but when you put two all-timers
in the ring together you stand a chance of seeing something worth your
time. These two shouldn’t be able to
have matches like this anymore with them both being in their 40s and plenty of
miles on the clock, but you can hold this match up to any of their previous encounters
during their prime. On paper this was for
the US title, but that title is meaningless so to me it felt more about pride
and calling back to their G1 history together with Ishii upsetting Tanahashi at
the 2013 G1 and then failing to repeat that victory ever since. Ishii giving Tanahashi a slingblade was something
to behold.
#8 - May 29th
ANARCHY IN THE ARENA – AEW
Double or Nothing
This is about as perfect as a match like this can go in the
modern era, and the easy comparison to make is to look at this match and the
Blood and Guts match a few weeks later which I felt did have some noticeable
flaws. This match was chaotic, insane,
violent and captivating from the first minute.
The idea to wrestle with Jon Moxley’s ‘Wildthing’ blasting out in it’s
entirety, and then on repeat for another easy crowd pop, and then an easy heat
moment for Chris Jericho when he destroyed the soundboard to put an end to
Moxley’s music, was a move of pure genius, echoing memories of New Jack ECW
brawls in the 90s. Who will ever forget
Eddie Kingston walking down the ramp with a petrol can looking like Trevor from
GTAV with revenge in his eyes on Chris Jericho.
This match stands alone as one of the most unique and brilliant slices
of pro-wrestling in 2022. Sadly
Blackpool Combat Club Vs Jericho Appreciation Society carried on for 7 more
months and never reached these heights again.
#7 - June 26th
Zack Sabre Jr Vs Claudio Castagnoli
– AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door
This is the greatest pro-wrestling substitute since AJ
Styles filled in for Bray Wyatt at TLC 2017.
This match was originally supposed to be a meeting of the two men who
have the monopoly on the WON Best Technical Wrestler Award, Zack Sabre Jr and
Bryan Danielson, but with Danielson still injured from Anarchy in the Arena,
Danielson chose the former Cesaro to be his replacement in the Swiss’ first
match since leaving WWE. I know he went
on to win two ROH world titles, but I think this night was the highlight of
Claudio’s post-WWE career, a tremendous clash of styles where Claudio had to
overcome the tricky, flexible limbwork of Sabre Jr. It was great to see the return of the Ricola
bomb after all these years.
#6 - June 5th
Cody Rhodes Vs Seth Rollins – WWE
Hell in a Cell
When you’ve watched thousands upon thousands of matches in
your life as we have, you build up a tolerance for watching people beat the
shit out of each other. But when Cody
slowly took of his jacket and revealed the large dark purple bruising left by
his torn pec, there’s no inner-tolerance for that. That was a new experience to live through
after 20 years of watching this dumb hobby.
I winced, the crowd gasped and I’m sure a large number of us were asking
‘Cody what the hell are you doing working this match? – Why did nobody stop
him?’ . All the smoke and mirrors and
sleight of hand of pro-wrestling still wouldn’t be enough to prevent Cody from
being in agony during that match. It was
an uncomfortable watch, but also a captivating one. I have to give Rollins his due here too, he
was a perfect foil for Cody on this night, dastardly zooning in on the injury
and wearing polka dot gear to mock Cody’s late father. I’m still not sure whether it was bravery or
stupidity of Cody to work that match, but I have a feeling this will be his
King of the Ring 1998/Sakura Genesis 2017 moment and the defining moment of his
career when it’s all said and done.
#5 - April 2nd
Becky Lynch Vs Bianca Belair – WWE Wrestlemania Night 1
Bianca Belair put on another Wrestlemania classic for the
second year running as she defeated Becky Lynch to win the Raw Womens
Championship – a title she would still hold going into 2023. Bianca’s athletic, spirited, never give up
performance was matched by that of Becky’s deluded Big Time Becks character,
whose ego would eventually cost her the win here. I HATED the Bianca/Becky title switch at
Summerslam 2021, but this went some way to recovery from that and make Bianca
feel like more of a star. More matches
like this from Belair on the biggest stage and she’ll be entering Shawn
Michaels rarefied air as Mrs. Wrestlemania.
#4 - December 10th
FTR Vs Briscoe Brothers – ROH
Final Battle
How do you take things to the next level after two highly
praised tag matches? A double dog collar blowoff bloodbath of course. 2022 was the year of the blade in America,
and we got perhaps the greatest sendoff to that theme in the final major show
of the year as The Briscoes, FTR and even the referee were all donning the
Crimson mask. Outside of Dax taking an
eternity to wrap the chain around his forehead for a headbutt, this was a
fantastic closing chapter to the feud of the year.
#3 - October 26th
Tomohiro Ishii Vs Ren Narita –
NJPW TV Title Tournament Round 1
Easily one of the best matches of the year from another down
year by the former Great Match Factory, NJPW.
This had a classic rookie on the rise Vs grizzled veteran vibe, but with
Narita being so heavily inspired by Katsuyori Shibata, there’s nods to the
classic Shibata/Ishii matches throughout.
Great throat selling is Inception niches within niches levels of
pro-wrestling nerdism, but Ren Narita’s throat selling was off the charts here. I’m not sure whether Narita will be the star
NJPW hope he can be, but he’s definitely the best worker to come from their dojo
in quite some time and he is the #1 thing that excites me about NJPW in 2023.
#2 - September 3rd
Gunther Vs Sheamus – WWE Clash
at the Castle
Summerslam 1992 had Bret Vs Davey, and 30 years later as WWE
brought a PPV to the UK, Clash at the Castle had Gunther Vs Sheamus – only this
time both wrestlers turned up! Triple H’s
WWE can be rightly criticised as not being a big enough improvement from Vince’s
WWE, but the one area we can see a real improvement is the booking of Gunther,
and therefore the Intercontinental Championship. Gunther has been presented as a monster of a
champion and put on great matches with the likes of Ricochet, Rey Mysterio and
Shinsuke Nakamura on TV. The jewel in
his crown came in front of over 60,000 British fans in Cardiff with this
ultimate hoss battle against Sheamus where both men were at their best. Sheamus has won (almost) every accolade there
is in WWE, but perhaps his most iconic moment when he hangs up his boots will
be the standing ovation he received in defeat in Cardiff. For someone I’ve thought of as an excellent
wrestler for WWE, arguably the most consistent wrestler in WWE in the 2010s, it’s
awesome to see him in his 40s reach even higher heights. Gunther I’ve known for years COULD reach
these heights, but I had no confidence that we’d ever see it on a major show
for WWE for relatively big stakes (with Roman holding both world titles,
Gunther’s IC title feels like the 2nd biggest prize in the company). I have my prayer mats at the ready that Gunther
isn’t getting fed to Brock at Wrestlemania next year because they have
something here in Gunther that’s worth pursuing at the top of the card and his first
major loss on the main roster should be to someone that can benefit from it.
#1 - January 5th
Hangman Page Vs Bryan Danielson – AEW Dynamite
This match doesn’t feel like it happened in 2022. So much has happened in AEW this year that both the Hangman Adam Page title reign and Danielson heel run feel like ancient history at this point. This match came 2 weeks after their thrilling 60 minute draw that I had at #5 on my 2021 MOTY list, so it’s fair to say I love these two together, and dammit they went even better and wound up #1 on my list for 2022. I’m of the belief that Danielson is the greatest wrestler of all time, and this was another example of his magic because I knew there was no way they would end the Hangman reign this early, but I couldn’t turn away from this match from a second. This is up there with the Kofi match as one of Bryan’s great heel performances since his indie days. The jumping jack trolling is so wonderful and actually gets paid off deep in the match when Hangman does it back to him after they do a ‘safer’ version of the Nigel post spot. I re-watched this match last night and everything holds up so well. The nearfalls are superb, the faster pace from the hour long draw is welcome, the buckshot lariat teases are so so good playing off the finish to the draw 2 weeks earlier, especially the one where Bryan collapses to avoid it a la Omega/Okada, both men put in fantastic performances and the AEW world title feels like the biggest prize in the world. It took 5 days of 2022 for this to go to the top of my ongoing MOTY list, and it stayed there unchallenged all year.
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