Top 10 Pro Wrestling Stories of 2022
Modern pro wrestling is a unique art form that fuses both onscreen and backstage storylines. This year, both kinds of stories kept coming — each one seemingly more impactful than the last — making wrestling as fascinating as ever. Here are the stories that defined a particularly chaotic year in the squared circle.
10. RIP Scott Hall
Thankfully, the parade of dead-before-their-time wrestlers that defined the 90s and 2000s has slowed considerably. Unfortunately, it has not stopped. Scott Hall’s death in March at the age of 63 was shocking, somewhat because it hadn’t happened already. After years of alcohol and drug abuse, Hall had gotten his life back on track nearly a decade ago, but the tolls of the pandemic (and the passage of time) were too much for the man formerly known as Razor Ramon. For wrestling fans who came of age during the Monday Night Wars, Hall will not be forgotten. The words he said at his WWE Hall of Fame induction have become an epitaph: “Hard work pays off, dreams come true. Bad times don’t last, but bad guys do.”
9. Crowns of thorns, liar’s chairs and broken thoughts, unrepaired
For all the times wrestling fans have had to explain that wrestling is not fake but predetermined, there’s nothing like a “holy shit!” moment where real pain proves that it’s still real to us.
–Adam Page gives Adam Cole a crown of barbed wire during an Easter deathmatch
–Darby Allin takes his idol Jeff Hardy to the extremes via ladders and chairs
–Dax Harwood adds a chain to a headbutt during the final battle between FTR and the Briscoes
–Eddie Kingston pours gas on the Anarchy in the Arena fire
8. Revolving doors
Cody Rhodes finally got his wish and became the most important person in wrestling for a brief time this year. An executive vice president leaving AEW for WWE was either a major shot across the bow or an inevitability for the son of a son of a plumber. Rhodes even had his WrestleMania moment, and then went on extended leave after working himself into a disgusting-looking shoot injury. Will he return triumphant at the Royal Rumble? Will he take one of Roman Reigns’ belts? Time will tell.
Women’s locker rooms throughout wrestling also saw some major changes, mostly with talent making their escape from WWE. Saraya — formerly WWE’s Paige, and the subject of her own Florence Pugh-starring biopic — made her long-awaited return to the ring. Kairi returned to Japan and became the inaugural IWGP Women’s Champion — a title she might end up defending against Mercedes Varnado. The erstwhile Sasha Banks walked out of WWE in May and has stoked the rumor mill for months, with an appearance at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom in January 2023 all but certain.
7. Forbidden doors
Not all wrestlers booked one-way tickets this year. AEW and NJPW finally delivered on the promise of post-WWE-hegemony with Forbidden Door, a joint PPV that saw talent from both companies compete against each other. However, a rash of midsummer injuries to wrestlers including CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Tomohoro Ishii blunted the edge of the event, which still featured the debut of Claudio “Cesaro” Castagnoli, a clash of styles between Will Ospreay and Orange Cassidy, and a battle of aces Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jon Moxley.
6. MOX
Speaking of Moxley, the Death Rider returned to AEW in January after a brief stint in a treatment program, looking and sounding refreshed, recharged and ready to avoid wrestling’s tragic outcomes. Mox feuded and then teamed with Bryan Danielson (with a debuting William Regal as manager) as the Blackpool Combat Club. Like the Two Man Power Trip before it, BCC never quite hit its full potential, but still provided a summer’s worth of showcase matches against the Jericho Appreciation Society. Injuries and idiocy led to Moxley bailing out the company not once but twice (more on that later), proving definitively who the ace of AEW really is.
5. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens get dream matches
I’ll admit to not watching much WWE these days, but the Royal Rumble and the seemingly endless two-night WrestleMania provided glimmers of (sports) entertainment. Night one of Mania was headlined by Kevin Owens against Stone Cold Steve Austin, marking the living legend’s first match in nearly 20 years. The thrills of that no-holds-barred match were outdone by the Looney Tunes violence that saw Owens’ life partner Sami Zayn take on Johnny Knoxville. We’ll watch these two jackasses forever, whoever they fight.
4. Scissoring
Who could have imagined that the top selling AEW shirt of the year would be one that boldly proclaims, “Scissor me, Daddy A$$!”? The Acclaimed’s run as the New New Age Outlaws culminated with winning the favor of “Daddy Ass” né “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn (the man chose money over his own sons: a true Worker) and getting so over that a title reign was an inevitability. The Acclaimed’s rise from office-assembled duo to Dark workhorses to viral rap stars to tag team champs with a queer-facing, sex positive catchphrase is a testament to AEW’s ability to give the fans what they want.
3. The Devil’s Greatest Tricks
Maxwell Jacob Friedman proved that he is the best wrestler of his generation in 2022. The 26-year-old is one of the rare performers that lives the gimmick in a way that makes wrestling as electric as it can be (a short list that includes Eddie Kingston). MJF simultaneously had a dream feud with CM Punk (more on that later) and blew off a long-simmering feud with Wardlow, then stole his ex-bodyguard’s thunder with a shoot promo that served as his own pipebomb. MJF worked himself into a summer vacation, only to return at All Out to buy his chance at the title that he won in November. Expect a long title reign until the Bidding War of ‘24.
2. You’re… retired!
Vincent Kennedy McMahon. $12 million in hush money, he’s threatening to come back and the shows are still largely unwatchable. The King of Kings is dead, long live the king.
1. The Self Destruction of CM Punk
If this list existed in 2021, CM Punk’s pipebomb-pipedream return to wrestling after seven years away would be at the top of the list. Punk won that feud with MJF after a dog-collar match that their shared idol Roddy Piper would have loved (and an all-timer entrance), and then reeled off a handful of matches before dethroning Adam Page.
Then the wheels came off, almost literally. Punk fractured his foot, missed Forbidden Door, juggled the title with Moxley in a pair of matches that was supposed to make both look strong, and tore a muscle in his match at All Out. His shoot promo at the post-show scrum was more scintillating then the original pipebomb, and we might not know what actually happened to the Young Bucks, Ace Steel, Kenny Omega’s arm and Punk’s dog for years. The Elite is back at the heart of AEW and Punk is recovering, subtweeting and may never return to wrestling (again). A storyline so tragic it’d have to be predetermined.
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