Top Matches I Watched in December 2022

Top Matches I Watched in December 2022

By Alex Kalil

The final month of 2022 and what a month it was! WWE coming in with some last minute hits. ROH giving us another great PPV and a third FTR vs. Briscoes match. AEW had the Best of 7 series between the Elite and Death Triangle, some excellent title matches and one of the best women's matches all year. Impact had one of their greatest matches of all time! NJPW, Dragon Gate, PWG and Stardom all giving us some last minute matches to enjoy. 2022 ended on a very high nope.

Smackdown World Cup Final Match: Ricochet vs. Santos Escobar at WWE Smackdown 12/2/22: A good back and forth match. Ricochet starts off hot but keeps getting distracted by Legado Del Fantasma until the referee sends them to the back. Santos goes after the back of Ricochet to slow him down and ground him while Ricochet keeps using his speed and quickness. Ricochet starts to pick up momentum so Santos tries to out-smart Ricochet by rolling to the outside and suckering Ricochet in. Both men land bigger and bigger shots before Ricochet is able to hit a crazy Bret's rope reverse rana and rocks him with a series of strikes to finally get him down and land the 630 to win it. Very fun match! ****

AEW TNT Championship Match: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Darby Allin at AEW Dynamite 12/7/22: A perfect monster vs. small guy match. Darby rushes Joe at the bell and starts throwing wild haymakers at him. Darby goes for a dive but Joe dodges it and Darby crashes and burns. From there, Joe is all over the smaller man and throws him around like a rag doll and just brutalizes Darby. Finally, Darby is able to fight through the pain to use his speed and agility to just throw himself at Joe and keep going for bigger and bigger bombs on the beast. Darby goes for the Coffin Drop to finish off Joe but Joe catches him in a choke. Darby tries to fight out but it's too much and Darby passes out to give Joe the win. Fantastic booking in this match! ****

AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: The Acclaimed (c) vs. FTR at AEW Dynamite 12/7/22: A great tag match. Both teams start off even and seemingly unable to get a decisive advantage. The Acclaimed are able to use their quickness to start to build something causing FTR to get frustrated and catapult Caster into the underside of the ring! Back in the ring, FTR isolates Caster and works him over for a while before Bowens gets the hot tag and runs wild. We get a really good back and forth as both teams go for their finishers but keep getting countered. FTR finally is able to hit The Big Rig on Caster but Bowens makes the save! Bowens hits the Arrival to Cash but Caster misses the Mic Drop! Cash unloads some clothesline on Caster and goes for a big powerbomb but Caster is able to roll through into a jackknife and get the pin! Huge upset! Match was even the whole time but The Acclaimed were able to just barely out-wrestle FTR to survive. **** Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita at AEW Rampage 12/9/22: A really great back and forth match. Both men start off trying to out-wrestle and mat wrestle the other. Takeshita is able to use his size and power to get the edge so Moxley switches to brawling more and making the match a fight. Takeshita is able to start dishing out the big strikes as well as some big bombs to get some big near-falls. Takeshita goes high risk but Moxley gets his knees up. Elbows and stomps by Moxley and he hits a Paradigm Shift but only gets a 1! Takeshita is able to counter a triangle attempt into stomps of his own but Moxley catches him with a boot right up into the jaw. Moxley starts to unload strikes and elbows to the neck and back of the head before finally locking in a sleeper. Takeshita tries to get to the ropes but Moxley has it locked in tight and Takeshita passes out. Great stuff! ****

ROH Pure Championship Match: Daniel Garcia (c) vs. Wheeler Yuta at ROH Final Battle 2022: A really good technical matchup. Both men come out swinging and use their one closed fist in the opening minute. Garcia is able to sucker Yuta to the outside and drop him, throat first, on the ring post. Back in the ring, Garcia keeps tieing Yuta up in the ropes, forcing him to use up his rope breaks, while also going to the throat anytime Yuta starts a comeback. Garcia locks in the Dragon Sleeper and Yuta has to use his last rope break to escape. With no rope breaks left for Yuta, Garcia keeps going for the Dragon Tamer but Yuta is able to keep countering out of it before finally able to mount a comeback. Lots of fired up strikes and offense before Yuta is able to rock Garcia and unload some Hammer and Anvil elbows to knock Garcia out! New champ! Yuta was at a huge disadvantage but was able to out-wrestle his opponent and get a KO to win. Love these matches! **** Double Dog Collar Match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship: FTR (c) vs. The Briscoes at ROH Final Battle 2022: A wild and bloody war! Both teams fight right at the bell and waste no time trying to hurt each other. Fighting on the floor, stage and even crowd and throwing everything that isn't nailed down at each other. Briscoes are the first to be able to mount any kind of double team offense before Dax is able to run Jay into a chair and Cash is able to pull Mark down by his chain. FTR takes over and beats the hell out of Dem Boys including hitting a Doomsday Device for a nice early near-fall. A blood soaked Jay starts swinging the chain around like a mad man to help the Briscoes take back over. Mark and Cash battle on the floor while Dax and Jay duke it out in the ring. All four men are covered in blood, even the referee gets caught in the crossfire and busted open! Mark is pulled off the top into a pile of chairs when going for a Doomsday Device! Jay Driller only gets 2 and so does a piledriver by Dax. A top rope piledriver is stopped and Jay superplexes both men onto a pile of chairs! Cash tries to get in the ring but Mark is holding the chain and preventing it! Jay starts to choke Dax out with the chain as the two partners reach for each other. Referee has to call it! Briscoes are the Tag Team Champions again after one of the most insane matches I have ever seen! *****

ROH World Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Claudio Castagnoli at ROH Final Battle 2022: A good back and forth match. Claudio is able to run wild on Jericho at the bell with his impressive power and strikes. Claudio looks to have the match all but won before Jericho hits a nice suplex off the apron to the floor and hurts Claudio's back. Jericho makes a target out of it and when Claudio tries to use his power, he is too hurt to really utilize it. Nice heel work by Jericho before Claudio is able to double leg him and goes for the Giant Swing but Jericho is able to roll out of it into the Wall of Jericho. Claudio barely makes it for the ropes for the save. The JAS runs out and gives Jericho the bat to hit Claudio for another nice near-fall. Jericho goes for the Judas Effect but Claudio catches him again and gets the Giant Swing! After 30 or so spins, Jericho has had enough and taps out! Claudio regains the ROH World Championship! **** Impact World Championship Match: Josh Alexander (c) vs. "Speedball" Mike Bailey at Impact Wrestling 12/8/22: A phenomenal match! Bailey starts off quick by utilizing his strikes on Alexander, who isn't focused on the match at hand. Alexander is able to get a hold of Bailey and uses his power to slow the match down and try to wrestle and ground the faster man. Bailey responds by going after Alexander's hurt shoulder to create an opening for Bailey to work over while also taking away some of Alexander's power. Alexander tries to fight through the pain and hit the C4 Spike but Bailey keeps countering out and going right back to the hurt shoulder. Alexander gets desperate for any kind of opening and resorts to dropping Bailey on the apron. With Bailey wounded, Alexander starts to go for the Ankle Lock. Bailey is able to counter one of the attempts and get Alexander on the ground to hit Ultimo Weapon but can't follow up on the opening because of his hurt knee. Both men are hurt as they start taking bigger and bigger risks to try and hit the one move to put the other away. 10 minutes left and Alexander goes back to the Ankle Lock and hooks it in deep. Bailey keeps fighting out of it only for Alexander to lock it back in time and time again before finally Bailey gets to the ropes. Alexander tries to go high risk but Bailey is able to fight through all of Alexander's shots and offense to hit a top rope hurricanrana! Ultimo Weapon follows up but only 2! Bailey goes back to his strikes and targets the shoulder of Alexander. Bailey goes for the Flamingo Driver but Alexander counters out and hits a Styles Clash right into an Ankle Lock! Bailey crawls to the ropes, only for Alexander to pull him up into a piledriver! Alexander FINALLY hits the C4 Spike with 30 seconds left. Alexander isn't done though. Another C4 Spike ends it with seconds to go. My God! What a battle! Near 60 minutes of amazing wrestling that told a story of two excellent wrestlers working all match to find openings and exploit them to their advantage. In the end, Alexander is able to fight through all the pain to finally hit his biggest and best bomb to finish off his challenger. ****3/4 Best of Seven Series Match #4 for the AEW World Trios Championship: Death Triangle (c) vs. Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks at AEW Dynamite 12/14/22-Winter Is Coming: Another banger from these six. The Elite start off quick and fast with the Bucks taking the lead for their team to work over Death Triangle. Nick goes high risk early and hurts his ankle on the landing. Omega and Matt try to keep the match in their control but the numbers game becomes too much for them as Nick is taken to the back. Death Triangle isolates Matt and works him over before Omega gets the hot tag and runs wild. Great fast paced action before Omega and PAC take each other out. Omega looks to tag in Matt but Penta takes Matt out. Omega is left alone to fight off the trios champions when Nick makes his return! Nick starts to clean house and run wild until it is just him and Fenix left. Superkick caught by Fenix and Penta runs in with the hammer and hits Nick's ankle! Fenix locks in an ankle lock and Nick has to tap out. The hammer once again is the difference maker as The Elite go down 3-1. **** Dynamite Diamond Ring 2022 Final Match for the AEW World Championship: MJF (c) vs. Ricky Starks at AEW Dynamite 12/14-Winter Is Coming: A great old school match with a modern twist. Nice even starting exchange as both test the waters against each other. Starks has the advantage in speed and picks up the pace to keep MJF on his toes. But MJF uses a thumb in the eye to give him an opening to grab Starks and slow him down. MJF goes after the previously hurt ribs of Starks to punish him but Starks is able to fire up and start building momentum and get some near-falls in. MJF responds by going after the left arm of Starks to set up for the submission. Starks knows he is hurt and starts trying to roll-up MJF and get the flash pin. Some great back and forth action from both men before Starks is able to nail the Spear! But Starks' hurt arm prevents him from going for the pin right away. Starks finally goes for the pin but MJF rolls right into the Salt of the Earth! Starks reaches for the ropes but MJF keeps grabbing his limbs to prevent the rope break. With Starks' last free leg, he gets the ropes! Awesome moment! The two go back to the basics of wrestling and try for roll-ups. MJF uses the referee as a distraction and kicks Starks low and rolls him up to steal the win and retain. Excellent match that left a lot of room on the table for more but established that Starks is on MJF's level. ****1/4 Iron Survivor Challenge Match for the #1 Contendership for the NXT Championship: JD McDonagh vs. Axiom vs. Carmelo Hayes vs. Grayson Waller vs. Joe Gacy at NXT Deadline: A really well done gimmick match. JD and Axiom start off the match and Axiom looks to use his speed and agility while JD goes after the knee of Axiom to slow down the high flyer. Hayes enters next and quickly is able to score a pinfall on Axiom. None of the men are able to maintain a real advantage before Waller enters and hits a double stunner on Axiom and JD for two pinfalls right away! Waller and Hayes go at it until Axiom exits and gives JD a beating on his way out. Axiom is able to score a roll-up on a distracted Waller and a second one on JD to tie it up. Gacy enters last and runs wild on everyone before scoring two quick points as well. Hayes gets his second point by tapping out Waller, giving everyone but JD two points. JD gets panicky and starts laying out everyone to try and score a pin but other opponents keep getting in the way. Everyone starts throwing bombs at each other to try and break the tie. Hayes finally hits a top rope scissor kick on Axiom, only for Waller to pull Hayes out of the ring and steal the pin. Waller is in the lead with seconds to go. He runs and dodges Hayes while keeping everyone from the ring to run out the clock and win. A great multi-man match that did an excellent job at keeping everyone involved and the action moving. The story-telling all match was super well done as well with the opportunist Waller being able to steal the win. ****1/4 "Speedball" Mike Bailey vs. Buddy Matthews at PWG Nineteen: A good story-telling match. Matthews jumps Bailey from behind much like their previous match and brutalizes Bailey's knee. The whole match plays out with Bailey trying to utilize his hurt knee to land strikes and his quick offense and Matthews just looking to torture and punish Bailey. Some great back and forth action and creative ways for Matthews to inflict punishment. Bailey goes for Ultimo Weapon at long last only to be caught by a knee from Matthews! Matthews looks to finish it but Bailey counters and rolls him up to steal a win again! Twice now Bailey has been able to out-wrestle Matthews at the right moment to get the win. Good stuff! **** PWG World Championship Match: Daniel Garcia (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita at PWG Nineteen: A very good back and forth match from two evenly matched wrestlers. The early moments of the match sees both men trying to out-wrestle each other. Takeshita is able to use his size and power to control the majority of the exchanges resulting in Garcia going after the knee of the larger man. With his knees compromised, Takeshita switches tactics and starts to throw wild lariats and strikes to rock Garcia. The two men are still even in terms of wrestling as they trade submission holds in an awesome exchange but Takeshita is still able to toss around the smaller man for big near-falls. Takeshita goes high risk for his top rope lariat but Garica is able to counter it into a slam! Garcia goes right into the Dragon Tamer. Takeshita tries to fight to the ropes but it's too much and he taps. Very fun match as both men played to their strengths but in the end, Garcia was able to pick apart a body part to get the win. **** WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: Gunther (c) vs. Ricochet at WWE Smackdown 12/16/22: A great match of a powerhouse vs. a high flyer. Gunther looks to grapple and manhandle Ricochet early and goes after the legs. Ricochet tries to use his quickness to keep Gunther off his game but is quickly shut down with a big boot to the face and being dropped on the apron. Gunther goes to work on the back of Ricochet to ground him and work him over. Ricochet does a great job of getting a shot or two in on Gunther to stay alive before the big man shuts him down. Ricochet keeps fighting out of and countering Gunther's big bombs to prevent him from being put away. Gunther gets frustrated and goes for a top rope splash but Ricochet gets his knees up. Ricochet has an opening now and goes for broke with his high risk offense but it isn't enough. Now, Ricochet gets frustrated and looks to slug it out with the big man. Ricochet goes for a dropkick but gets chopped out of the air! A big powerbomb by Gunther only gets a 2! Ricochet is still alive and gives Gunther a slap to prove it. Gunther has enough of this and nails the Last Symphony to at last put Ricochet away. This was a really well done and simple story-telling match. Gunther was the unstoppable monster and while the hero, Ricochet fought as hard as he could, it was too much for him. **** World Tag League 2022 Final Match: Aussie Open vs. Bishamon at NJPW World Tag League 2022 and Super Junior Tag League 2022 Night 17: A really well done back and forth tag match. Aussie Open looks to use their superior teamwork to isolate and work over YOSHI-HASHI, who does just enough to stay alive time and time again. Goto finally gets the hot tag and runs wild on Aussie Open for a while. Aussie Open responds by upping the intensity and slamming both men on the apron and floor. We get a great back and forth as Aussie Open continues to try and isolate one member while Bishamon looks to fight through the punishment. Some great near-falls for both teams before Bishamon is able to finally hit a full nelson variation of Shoto to get the win. Maybe a hair too long but a great match that kept the action moving and made both teams look fantastic. AEW Women's World Championship Match: Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Hikaru Shida at AEW Dynamite 12/21/22-Holiday Bash: A hard hitting and physical match! Hayter looks to use her forearms and lariats while Shida uses her knees and kicks. Both women go back and forth over who is in control and dish out huge bombs to each other. Shida hits a suplex off the apron to the floor on Hayter and wrecks the champion's back to give Shida a big opening. Hayter keeps fighting back and countering Shida's killing blow to stay alive. Britt Baker interferes and buys Hayter enough time to recover and counter Shida's top rope kick into a powerbomb. Hayter unleashes her lariats on Shida and ends it with a Hayterade in an awesome match! ****1/4 Open the Dream Gate Championship Match: Yuki Yoshioka vs. Ben-K at Dragon Gate The Final Gate 2022: A really good even match. Both men start out trying to out-wrestle the other. Ben-K looks to use his power to gain the advantage early on and goes after the ribs and mid-section of Yoshioka. A missed Spear runs Ben-K shoulder first into the ringpost and gives Yoshioka an opening, who goes right after it. Nice arm work by the champion before Ben-K nails him with a Spear out of nowhere! All this does is even the match back up as both men try to maintain the advantage. Yoshioka tries to pick up the pace and use his quickness but Ben-K is able to cut him off and nails a Jackhammer and Spear for a huge near-fall. Ben-K goes for another Spear but Yoshioka shocks him with one of his own! Yoshioka lands a series of big moves before hitting a Frog Splash but only gets 2! One more Frog Splash ends it and the champion retains. Very fun match! **** Best of Seven Series Match #6 Falls Count Anywhere Match for the AEW World Trios Championship: Death Triangle (c) vs. Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks at AEW Dynamite 12/28/22-New Year's Smash: An all out chaotic brawl! Match starts in the back with all six men fighting it out. Some nice use of the environment before they work their way to the ramp and to the ring. Tons of crazy action as The Elite up the intensity as they are in a must win situation. Lots of trash cans and chairs come into play as both teams throw their best offense at the other to try to get the win but pins keep getting broken up. A miscommunication has Matt superkicking Nick and getting locked in the Brutalizer by PAC. Matt tries to fight out of it any way he can but he is trapped. Meanwhile in the crowd, Omega hits an insane One-Winged Angel to Fenix through a table to get the win just before Matt taps out! Very creative finish and clever use of the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation. Very chaotic and wild match that highlighted how banged up The Elite are but how they have to keep going bigger and bigger to stay alive in the series. ****1/4 KAIRI vs. Utami Hayashishita at Stardom Dream Queendom 2022: A nice back and forth match to tease what these two could do in the ring together. Utami uses her power and size to try and ground the faster KAIRI. Every time Utami starts to build momentum, KAIRI uses her backfist and quick strikes to rock Utami and take over. KAIRI goes to the well once too often and Utami blocks a Sliding D and goes to work on the arm of KAIRI to neutralize her strikes and take away her Elbow Drop. Some nice back and forth as Utami looks to land a big bomb to put KAIRI away but KAIRI rolls to the apron to avoid the cover. A stunner in the ropes put Utami down and KAIRI climbs the ropes to hit the top rope Elbow Drop! But KAIRI's arm is too hurt to cover right away and time expires. Great match that I hope we get to see a follow-up to. **** Goddesses of Stardom Championship Match: Tam Nakano and Natsupoi (c) vs. Nanae Takahashi and Yuu at Stardom Dream Queendom 2022: A good story-telling tag match. The champions come in the underdogs due to the size and power of the challengers. Natsupoi comes out swinging but is very quickly shut down by her opponents, who go to work on her. The babyfaces do all they can to stay alive against the dominant heels. Nakano gets in the ring and is able to start lighting up the heels with her strikes and mount a nice comeback. Nakano and Natsupoi try to use their teamwork to isolate Yuu and get the win but Nanae reenters the match and takes out Nakano leaving Natsupoi alone with Yuu. Natsupoi tries for any kind of roll-up or flash pin she can find to get the win but the power of Yuu is just too overwhelming and a vicious powerbomb ends it. Loved the story of the babyfaces being down the whole time and having to struggle for any kind of opening and advantage but in the end, the sheer size and power was too much for even them to overcome. Wonder of Stardom Championship Match: Syuri (c) vs. Giulia at Stardom Dream Queendom 2022: A firey and vicious match. Both women start off looking to out-wrestle the other but very quickly it becomes clear that Syuri is the better technical wrestler and striker. Giulia gets frustrated at Syuri's submission work and drops her hard on the apron with a suplex before another into the crowd! Syuri is able to counter a piledriver into one of her own to drop Giulia through a table! From there the match becomes Syuri looking for submissions and using her strikes to rock Giulia who keeps fighting through all the pain. Knowing she is out-matched, Giulia has to go for big offense and bombs. Suplexes, DDTs and any other move Giulia can think of to drop Syuri on her head. Both women have a great back and forth as Syuri tries to finish Giulia with her own move while Giulia uses offense from both teammates and friends to try and give her the edge. As time ticks away, Giulia fires up and is finally about to hit her Northern Lights Bomb to at last put down the champion! An intense match as both women put on a show here. ****1/4