Hunter’s 2022 Wrestling Awards Part 1: Match Of The Year, Best Storyline, More

Greetings Huntiacs — Huntamaniacs — Little Hunters out there —

Let me try that again.

From the “Brawl Out” to Vince McMahon (temporarily) retiring from WWE, AEW co-founder Cody Rhodes jumping back to WWE, Tony Khan buying Ring of Honor and the unlikely popularity of one Sami Zayn, 2022 was a wild year in pro wrestling. There was hardly a chance for fans or people “in the business” to catch their breath when another unbelievable match or shocking piece of news happened. How to make sense of it all?

While I may be new to writing for 411 Wrestling, I’ve been a regular visitor and commenter since back in the Sc*tt K*ith days. That is the lens I wanted to look through: classic 411 year-end awards categories.

Caveats:
* These awards are meant to be fun and not overly serious. These are explicitly my opinions and my opinions alone. Wrestling is a strangely subjective artform. What blew my mind may not have landed for you. Feel free to disagree but keep it respectful. I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments.

* My selections will largely be focused on North American Pro Wrestling. I watched some New Japan in 2022, a little bit of Impact, but I simply don’t have time to watch all the wrestling I might want. Even at that, I watched very little WWE until SummerSlam and beyond.

* Most of this was written back in December. Recent events, such as the Royal Rumble, don’t factor into any of these perspectives. The one exception is the tragic passing of Jay Briscoe needs to be addressed.

* I don’t do star ratings. I don’t have a catalogue of match reviews to pull from. I am a person who leads with his heart. I love and appreciate technical wrestling; Bryan Danielson is my favorite wrestler in the world (and has been for over a decade now). I love pro wrestling, however, because of it can make me feel.

LFG!

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Biggest Disappointment of The Year

5 Drew Not Beating Roman At Clash At The Castle
4 Bryan Danielson Being a Jobber To The Stars
3 Cody Rhodes exiting AEW
2 FTR bafflingly being overlooked in AEW Tag Division
1 CM Punk, apparently done with wrestling again following “Brawl Out”

A year after his unprecedented, emotionally-charged return to pro wrestling, Phil Brooks delivered a drawn out, profanity-laden, muffin-eating rant that effectively napalmed his tenure in AEW. The subsequent locker brawl with the Elite turned a debacle into a full-blown embarrassment to the company. Since All Out, CM Punk has not been seen or heard in any connection with pro wrestling, leading most to assume he is once again done. It’s hard to imagine a more dispiriting, joyless end to a return that held so much potential.

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Best Non-Wrestler

5 Stokely Hathaway
4 Michael Cole
3 Tony Schiavone
2 Taz
1 William Regal

Lord Regal showing up at AEW Revolution to slap both Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley in the face was both unexpected and delightful. I didn’t expect William Regal to be such a terrific on-screen addition to AEW. From making you pay attention when he was called upon to cut a promo, his on-commentary “relationship” with the “Man in the Mask” (Excalibur), to ultimately being a major part of MJF’s ascension to AEW world champ, simply put, William Regal gave a master class every time he performed.

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Tag Team of The Year

5 Swerve In Our Glory
4 Aussie Open
3 The Acclaimed
2 Usos
1 FTR

In spite of being bafflingly underutilized in AEW, FTR had the best year of their career. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler worked all over the world, putting on banger after banger including a trilogy of stone classics vs The Briscoes. In-ring, they are tag team masters with excellent psychology, an old-school work ethic, and a hard-hitting style that may not involve flips but is no less compelling. What sets Dax & Cash apart from every other team, including the Usos, is the emotion they wring out of the crowd. FTR make you FEEL and hook you into the story and drama. Their matches leave a mark, literally on the men of FTR, and figuratively in the minds and hearts of fans. FTR are unquestionably the tag team of the year.

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Worst PPV/Major Show of 2022

3 AEW Double Or Nothing
2 AEW All Out
1 Royal Rumble 2022

The Royal Rumble is, bar none, my favorite wrestling event of the year. I love the Royal Rumble concept. Even a middle-of-the-road Rumble is usually a lot of fun. The quality of matches since adding the Women’s Rumble has been at worst “good.” That’s why it was so shocking that both Rumble matches at the 2022 edition of the event were absolute disasters. It wasn’t just that both battle royales served merely as vehicles for Brock and Ronda to destroy everybody; there wasn’t a single memorable spot and zero drama between over TWO HOURS of rumbling. Guys came out, laid around, tied up in the corner, got eliminated, Brock/Ronda smash. The point of the Rumble is the little stories, interesting eliminations, great spots throughout. That neither match had any redeeming qualities is appalling. Beyond that, if you had been hyped for Lashley v Brock to at least have a good smashmouth bout, nah, it was a dog with a terrible finish. Lynch vs Doudrop and Edge/Beth vs Miz/Maryse were both mediocre. Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns was OUTSTANDING; but after the former Shield members opened the show, the entire thing drove off a cliff. In a car full of fireworks. Into a lake of gasoline. Next to a volcano.

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Best PPV/Major Show of 2022

5 WWE Clash At The Castle
4 AEW Revolution
3 Forbidden Door
2 WWE WrestleMania (Night 1)
1 AEW Full Gear

Satisfied. That is what I was after AEW Full Gear. Satisfied in a way that a lot of wrestling events failed to do in 2022. For all the online comments about AEW having “no stories,” every match on the card had a storyline going into it. Some more heated and well-built than others, but that’s… every wrestling show, ever. The match quality was high, but far more important: the results. Jungle Boy scored vengeance on Luchasaurus in the one of the best cage matches of the past few years; Death Triangle upended the “obvious” return victory of The Elite; The Acclaimed retained the belts to cap their trilogy with Swerve In Our Glory. Most importantly, AEW pulled the trigger on both Jamie Hayter and MJF winning the top belts in the company. I wasn’t frustrated with booking decisions. I didn’t have that feeling of “let down” many shows had left this year. I don’t know if there was a “Match of the Year” candidate on the event; but the Royal Rumble had a MOTY candidate on Rollins/Reigns and that event is otherwise dogshit. WrestleMania Night 1 had some tremendously spectacular matches, but Full Gear was the most SATISFIED as a wrestling fan I have felt in some time.

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Best Wrestling Storyline of 2022
Storyline as in feud, angle, etc. Only the scripted stuff, not
backstage drama/etc.

5 Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins
4 Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch
3 CM Punk vs MJF
2 FTR vs The Briscoes
1 The Bloodline

Prior to Vince McMahon leaving WWE, I don’t think the Bloodline ends up in the #1 spot. The Bloodline wasn’t nearly so interesting from February to August this year. It was fine. Roman, Jey, and “The Wise Man” Paul Heyman all delivered; however, there was little forward momentum beyond “Roman wins.” Enter: Sami Zayn. Sami’s earnest desire to truly become part of the group and win Roman’s favor completely changed the trajectory of the faction. Jey Uso’s sheer loathing and increasing befuddlement at how the rest of the Bloodline has gradually accepted Sami has been *chef’s kiss*. And all of this has led to a crowd that is DEEPLY invested… in the inevitable moment when Sami gets his body and heart broken. When in early fall, Roman teased pulling the trigger, the emotional crowd reaction on Smackdown was so palpable it could be felt through the TV. The promo and character work from all involved has been top-tier. The patience and time the storyline has been given — time that almost guaranteed would not have been given under Vince — will make the ultimate payoff that much more powerful. Sami Zayn is basically the biggest babyface in the company when it goes down, and Roman will get perhaps the most authentic heel heat he will ever have had as a result (Post-Script Note: he did). Sympathetic babyface. Hated heel. THAT is a great wrestling storyline.

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Best Promotion of 2022

4 IMPACT
3 WWE
2 NJPW
1 AEW

Honestly, I don’t think any single promotion stood out this year as “best.” I tried to get back into New Japan to mixed results. WWE was dogshit for a significant portion of 2022, until the unthinkable happened with Vince leaving. AEW struggled mightily with the exit of Cody, significant injuries, poor decision making, ABC (Always Be Chris Jericho…ing), and the spectacular meltdown of CM Punk. That said, AEW was the company I still (mostly) enjoyed watching on a weekly basis. What I note going forward is the visible improvement, in the final months of 2022, of both AEW and WWE. Wrestle Kingdom looks hype (Post-Script Note: Wrestle Kingdom was hyyyyyyype). 2023 looks like it could be an incredible year for pro wrestling fans.

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Best Matches of 2022

5 Will Ospreay vs Orange Cassidy (AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door)
4 ROH World Tag Team Titles: FTR vs The Briscoes (ROH Supercard of Honor)
3 Intercontinental Title: Sheamus vs Gunther (WWE Clash at the Castle)
2 Dog Collar Chain: CM Punk vs MJF (AEW Revolution)
1 ROH World Tag Team Titles / Double Dog Collar Chain: FTR vs The Briscoes (ROH Final Battle)

I flip-flopped on which FTR/Briscoes match was my #1. Arguably, any of their spectacular trilogy could be there. As a tag team wrestling mark, the purity of the first encounter hit me just right. It was one of the best tag team matches I’ve seen in years. The Dog Collar title bout was an emotional and draining affair; recency bias and not wanting to let a “stip” color my perception gave me pause about ranking the Final Battle match at the top.

Weeks later, though, I simply had to acknowledge one of greatest tag team matches I’ve ever seen. The double dog collar match was full of hatred, passion, violence, and drama. A feud based, ultimately, on being the BEST, between two very proud teams. In a year of great matches, Dax, Cash, Jay, and Mark put the wrestling world on notice: tag team wrestling is the goddamn best.

January addendum: The match selection was written in December 2022. The tragic, shocking passing of Jay Briscoe in late January of 2023 puts the brilliant FTR/Briscoes trilogy in an even more powerful light. Donations to support the recovery of Jay’s daughters, and to support his wife and family, can be made at https://www.givesendgo.com/pughlove

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Part II of this column, including Wrestler of the Year, will drop sometime in the next week! Until then, check out some great writing around 411:

* Madman Pantoja’s “Best 100 Matches of 2022” series has finished. Can’t disagree with his Match of the Year!

* I wrote an emotional tribute about Jay Briscoe’s passing.

* One of my favorite sections of 411 is Leighty’s old-school reviews. He’s right; 1996 Lex Luger was awesome.

* People of Earth, I will sporadically be posting columns to 411. What should my column name be? Sound off in the comments. Or don’t. I’m not your mom. Tell her to top up my Uber card, though. /Shoresy

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