Best and Worst of 2022

Best and Worst of 2022

by Alex Kalil

The Top 5 Best Things of 2022

-Tony Khan buys ROH: This is low on the list because the fact that ROH isn't going to be back on actually cable or TV but rather just Honor Club is a bit of a buzzkill after so many weeks of ROH on AEW TV but the fact that Tony Khan saved ROH from the graveyard is still something to be praised. ROH has such important historic value to wrestling and should be in the hands of someone who will respect that history. On top of that, we got 3 incredible PPVs this year, each one with a 5 star classic from FTR and The Briscoes. How can you not praise that alone? -AEW feuds and TV: AEW knocked out of the park this year with their feuds and TV show. Yes, there were bad weeks here and there and a few feuds flopped. But the amount of great feuds and must-see TV week to week was incredible. Heel Danielson, Sammy vs. Cody in a Ladder Match, MJF vs. Punk, Baker vs. Rosa in a Steel Cage, FTR vs. The Bucks, MJF vs. Wardlow, the Trios tournament, MJF's pipebomb, Moxley's interim run with the AEW title, Moxley vs. Punk, MJF's return and feud with Moxley, the Best of Seven series with The Elite vs. Death Triangle. Plus the pushes of a lot of young talent like Hook, "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry, Dante Martin, Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia, Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs. AEW had some roadblocks this year (many self-inflicted) but what a year they still had! -The Bloodline: The best thing in WWE right now if not the world of wrestling. I loved this stable from the moment Roman got his hands on Jey Uso. From there this stable has built itself up into some of the best TV and matches of the year. The Sami Zayn storyline was week to week amazing and so interesting you couldn't look away. The Usos had a banger year as a team, even though booking them as a dominant tag team AND the henchmen to the champion is dumb. And Solo has made the most of his time on the main roster. I have said it before and I will say it again, Roman is on another level of star power right now. Everything he does is perfect for who he is and I wish we had gotten this Roman for the past 5 years instead of the smiling babyface Vince wanted him to be. This is a near perfect stable and storyline that I am excited to see what happens next. -AEW Blood and Guts: AEW finally came to my home state this year, and for one of my favorite matches! I love everything about WarGames! I love stables, I love cage matches, I love gimmicks, I love blood and violence. This match is made for my wrestling taste. Last year's match was great and this year's topped it! This whole show was a joy to watch and was not just one of the best wrestling things of the year, but one of the best parts of 2022 for me personally. I can't wait for AEW to return to Michigan! -Vince retires and Hunter takes over: The evil mastermind has been defeated! For too long Vince has been the thing that has held WWE back for so long. Yes, that may sound stupid of me to say but the amount of talent that got buried, storylines dropped or people not pushed to the top all because "Vince didn't see something in them" is long enough to fill a book. With Vince gone, Triple H took over and the enjoyment for WWE went up significantly. I still refuse to watch weekly WWE TV but we got a nice raise of importance in the US and Intercontinental championships, new talent pushed and so many bad gimmicks dropped. Summerslam and Clash at the Castle were both great shows and we even got WarGames on the main roster! PLUS no more gimmick PPVs. Triple H taking over WWE has been a real game changer to the world of wrestling and so far a very positive one. Here is hoping Vince stays gone.

The Top Worst Things in 2022:

-Injuries: The amount and timing of injuries this year sucked! Off the top of my head we had Cody Rhodes get hurt right in the middle of his big return to WWE. CM Punk hurt right before the Summer of Punk in AEW started. Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson and Adam Page all had serious concessions at points. Kyle O'Reilly and Robert Roode both had neck surgery. Matt Cardona won the NWA Championship and was giving that company a much needed boost before injury took him down. Kris Statlander's push was cut off by an ACL injury. It was a never ending list of people getting hurt and it sucked!

-Returning WWE talent doesn't deliver: I was very happy to see so many talented people return to WWE. People like Gargano, Bronson Reed, Bray Wyatt, Karrion Kross were all people I thought did well in the WWE system and would continue to do well. Turns out I was wrong because none of the returning talent have set the world on fire. Gargano, Dexter Lumis and Bronson Reed are all in a meaningless feud with The Miz. Kross has gotten over like a fart in church and his matches have been dull. Bray Wyatt got a massive pop for his return and has done nothing since then! Just more rambling promos and spooky images. Hopefully Hunter can find the magic to make these guys work going forward.

-NJPW stays stale: How the mighty have fallen. NJPW has been my favorite promotion for years. 2020 and 2021 were rough for them but I was hoping that it was more the fault of the pandemic than anything else. Looks like I was wrong because NJPW ain't done much to stand out this at all. While the match quality, like always, has remained incredible. The feuds and storylines are dull to nonexistent. Okada became champion again at the Dome only to lose to Jay White before the G1 Climax and win that again. Now going into the 2023 Dome show, Okada is facing Jay White, who has done nothing as champion, which is sad for one of the best heels in the business. Naito and Shingo are just there on the roster. The biggest storyline was the Bullet Club feuding with Tama Toga and his brothers, which no one really cares about. Hopefully the shake up of Suzuki-gun breaking up and Omega coming back can breathe some life into this promotion. Time will tell.

-Ric Flair's Last Match: On the surface, I shouldn't hate this match or show as much as I do. Ric Flair wanted one more big payday and to be the star one more time. Nothing wrong with that. The match was what it was. It was sad to see Ric try to be The Nature Boy at his age and the fact that he didn't die in the ring is a modern miracle. My biggest issue with this show was what this show could have been and how it failed to stand-out. I wanted this to be the model for a real modern day NWA. Wrestlers from AEW, NJPW, MLW, Impact, ROH, GCW and everywhere else come and wrestle together on these big shows to a hot crowd. We didn't get that. What we got were average matches to a crowd sitting on their hands that only popped for the old stars that came out to hit their one move and leave. The one cross promotion match between Impact's Josh Alexander and MLW's Jacob Fatu ended in a no contest because of course it did! While the main event was an embarrassment to all of wrestling, what this show could have been and ended up failing at is a far worse thing to me.

-Punk/The Elite's fight: Yeah, we all knew this was coming. This fight was the biggest and dumbest thing all year in wrestling and that is saying something. Everyone involved in this situation is at fault. Tony Khan for not squashing this issue in the crib early on. Punk for publicly attacking the EVPs on the company he works for and the company itself. The Elite for going to talk to Punk with everyone BUT Tony. Ace Steel for throwing a chair and not being a professional and calming things down. This was a clown show of all clown shows. To top it all off, we had Punk and The Elite off TV for months and maybe even be the reason for Punk leaving the company. What a mess. There was no babyface in this situation. Everyone was at fault and they all suck. I hope we never had some childish bullshit like this in wrestling again. Fingers crossed that somehow, someway cooler heads prevail and we get some kind of feud out of this on TV. .