The Top 10 Matches of 2022 – featuring the Blog of Doom Writers!

Howdy!

About a week or so ago, I was compiling my Top 10 matches of 2022 for another project, and it struck me that the BoD is home to some of the best writing about wrestling out there. And with that in mind, I wondered what everyone else was thinking about when it came to the best of what they watched this year.

And as it turns out, a few were willing to share.

So I sent out a few emails and got some replies; what struck me was how diverse in many cases the lists were! From WWE to AEW to New Japan and the like, the diversity of opinion here from the BoD writers means that there’s a richness to the writers who relate their views on this site, which only makes the site stronger. There’s something for everyone and things that not everyone has seen, and perhaps that will give out the impetus to do so, which is, after all, the main reason to even DO a Top 10 list in the first place. To share things that we thought were the best with those who love what we love so much.

Without further ado, here we go.

TOMMY HALL:

Everyone knows Tommy Hall, of course. The hardest working wrestling reviewer in the business (just picture a photoshopped James Brown with a laptop here), Tommy merely reviews Raw, Smackdown, Dynamite, Rampage, Impact, New Japan, AEW PPVs, WWE PPVs, Impact PPVs, independent shows from Wrestlemania weekends. He also became a father this year.

So obviously, I didn’t think he was going to have seen enough wrestling to put together a Top 10 list, but to my surprise, he came through and wrote about wrestling. Shocking but true.

Here is Tommy’s Top 10 List, with comments from the man himself:

10 Roman Reigns vs. Logan Paul – Crown Jewel

Ok so this one might not be the most popular option, but it deserves at least a mention due to the absolutely ridiculous over delivering. Was anyone betting on this match being pretty awesome with Paul looking more and more polished every time he’s out there? The interference in the end was a problem and there is no way this should be any higher, but dang they knocked this so far out of the part that it probably got back to America before the roster did.

9. Imperium vs. Brawling Brutes – Extreme Rules

This was the Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook and….yeah that’s what it was. These guys beat the living daylights out of each other until one of the people couldn’t get up. It’s a good example of giving the fans what was advertised and it was a great way to open the show. They had a heck of a fight and the props even worked well for a bonus.

8. Kazuchika Okada vs. Shingo Takagi – Wrestle Kingdom

It’s the main event of Wrestle Kingdom (or at least the first half because two day shows are a thing) and Okada is involved so this is certainly worth a look. While you have the also great match with Ospreay the following night, I’ll take this one as a more exciting match. That might not be the most popular opinion, but it was a heck of a back and forth fight with one of the best ever holding onto the title in thirty five minutes. That’s going to get some attention every year.

7. New Day vs. Usos – Smackdown – November 11

Yes we’ve seen it more times than anyone could ever reasonably need and yes I rolled my eyes when we got here again, but there is something about this rivalry that just works. Both teams are very good at what they do and they rose to the occasion again here. At the same time, it was to determine which team held the record for longest Tag Team Title reign. It was nice to have stakes, but it was even nicer to feel like the Usos’ titles might actually be in jeopardy for a change. It’s a great match and the respect shown after was deserved.

6. Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair – Wrestlemania

This is a good example of a match that worked because of the atmosphere. Lynch vs. Belair felt like a huge match taking place on the biggest stage after a long build. If it wasn’t for the other two options to headline the shows, this should have been in contention. What sticks with me is the image from after the match, with the defeated Lynch laying on the floor and looking up at the celebrating Belair. It was a great visual of the fallen former champion looking up at the woman who vanquished her. Heck of a match, but the atmosphere carried it that much further.

5. Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins – Hell In A Cell

Yeah you had to include this one, just for how impressive the injury makes it. Rhodes should have been recovering from surgery but instead he is headlining a pay per view in an outstanding match. The image of Rhodes’ chest being that many pretty colors is going to stick with me for a long time and you could hear the gasp when people realized just how bad things were. I completely underrated this the first time around and they blew it out of the park with how good this was throughout.

4. FTR vs. Briscoes – Final Battle

This was all about violence and that is what they delivered. The match was about beating the fire out of each other and leaving as much blood as they could in the ring. It might not have exceeded the other matches in the series, but it was different enough that I wanted to see what they were going to do next. The Briscoes had to win a match in the series at some point and they blew it off in grand style here. It takes a lot to make me uncomfortable with the violence but they pulled it off with this one.

3. Sheamus vs. Gunther – Clash At The Castle I’m always a fan of matches where you’re told what you’re going to get and then have it delivered. This was never going to be a technical classic or anything close, but rather two big, strong guys beating the heck out of each other until one of them couldn’t get up again. That is tailor made for a brute like Sheamus and Gunther can do it with anyone. I wanted to see these guys beat on each other and that is exactly what we got. I’d watch it again and that isn’t something I want to do very often.

2. CM Punk vs. MJF – Revolution I couldn’t decide to go with this or their original Dynamite match but you could have flipped a coin and picked either. This feud was about these two building up their anger and hatred until there was nothing left to do but hurt each other. They did that in both matches, but this one was built around the violence and seemed to be setting up the final blowoff with MJF taking the World Title from Punk. Granted that never happened, but dang they might have had the feud of the year and this was a huge part.

1. FTR vs. Briscoes – Supercard of Honor We’ll start with the best/and then there’s this (depending on which way this is posted), as you had two teams stealing the show on the biggest wrestling weekend of the year. It was the match that I knew I had to see and it blew away any and all expectations. Throw in the fact that it was a clean match that ran almost half an hour and never once felt long and you know you have something special. I can’t praise this match enough as it more than blew away the considerable hype.

MICHAEL FITZGERALD

Mike writes all of the Mike Reviews columns here at the Blog, including Shows considered to be Stinkers and the Rebooking series. Mike’s work is exemplary, with a lot of deep dives into shows but also an understanding of what makes pro wrestling work – he is my favorite writer who isn’t Scott here on the Blog, so I’m more than a bit biased.

You’re up, Mike!

Thanks to Rick for bringing me on board for this. There was a lot of good wrestling in 2022 but I didn’t get to watch a lot of it due to struggling to find the time, what with the day job and watching a lot of classic wrestling for reviews on here. I barely watched any New Japan this year because I struggled with the no chanting rule. It’s not the promotions fault of course, but it saps A LOT of the enjoyment from the matches for me and I just haven’t had the impetus to watch much of the promotion as a result. I’m also not a Joshi Boy, so you won’t see any of that here. I watched a few of the WWE pay per views since Vince got put out to pasture and AEW Dynamite is the only wrestling show I really go out of my way to watch every week these days, so I’ve seen SOME matches this year but not as many as others will have, so if your favourite is missing then that’s why. I haven’t even watched Night Two of Mania this year either as nothing on it jumped out at me, although I stayed up for Night One and enjoyed parts of it. I might bother with both nights in 2023 now that Mr. Levesque has the book

Anyway, thanks again to Rick and here’s some matches I liked this year from the very limited sample size that I watched

10
Josh Alexander Vs Speedball Mike Bailey – Impact Wrestling
What surprised me about this one was how they were able to work at such a quick clip for nearly an hour. The level of fitness and athleticism were really off the chart in this one. It’s not a perfect match by any means, but it was the first Impact match in a long while where I watched it and thought it might honestly be worth giving the company another go. I’d heard that Bailey’s selling was a bit spotty, and there is some of that here yeah, but I was impressed with the overall effort levels and by the end this felt like the MOTYC I was promised by the hype.I don’t think I will become a regular Impact viewer just because, as this list shows, it’s not like I’m watching a lot of modern wrestling already as it is and it’s tough to find time to add any more to add in when I have my day job and real life stuff going on. Matches like this make me hopeful for the promotion though, because if they can deliver stuff like this on a regular basis then it’s definitely a benefit to the overall wrestling business if they can manage to survive. I’m glad they’ve still got a small, yet dedicated, fan base who were able to point me in the direction of this match.

9
Seth Rollins Vs Austin Theory Vs Bobby Lashley – WWE Survivor Series 2022
Despite his bizarre gimmick, Rollins delivered bigtime in the ring for me this year, with me enjoying pretty much all of his major matches. This one was a lot of fun, although I’m willing to bet it might be lower down on the overall standings for everyone else this year. I had great fun with the near falls and I thought all three wrestlers brought something to the table that made the match enjoyable. I really do think WWE has something with Austin Theory and it will be interesting to see what they do with him in 2023. Lashley being this good at his age after amateur wrestling, the armed forces, MMA and years of Pro Wrestling seems almost impossible. He’s a real freak athlete and he’s become a tremendous Pro in the ring. There’s an air of legitimacy to Lashley that so many other wrestlers don’t have and he’s incredibly effective when pushed correctly.

8
Claudio Castagnoli Vs Zack Sabre Jr – AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door
A Very European outing here, with Claudio making a big splash early on in his AEW career with a fantastic battle against ZSJ. I love technical wrestling and snug strikes, so this match ticked all the boxes for me and having Claudio in there made up for Bryan Danielson not being able to wrestle ZSJ as originally scheduled somewhat. That match still NEEDS to happen of course. Maybe at the next Forbidden Door?

7
Jamie Hayter Vs Toni Storm – AEW Full Gear
Hayter’s rise to the top of the division felt like a genuinely organic thing, as the AEW fan base got behind her and it became her time regardless of what else was in the pipeline. I went with this over the Hikaru Shida match just because I think that whilst that one had a great closing sequence, I thought the overall body of this match was better and the crowd reactions for this one were off the chain. AEW gets some somewhat deserved stick for not having as strong a women’s division as WWE, but they do have a core of very talented wrestlers and Hayter is definitely one of them.

6
Becky Lynch Vs Bianca Belair – WrestleMania 2022 – Night One
It always surprises me when people say they don’t rate either of these two as wrestlers, because I think both of them are darn good and they show it in this one. Bianca is an unreal athlete and she projects a genuine likability that really comes across when she’s fighting from underneath, whilst Becky may not be as athletically gifted but she’s one heck of a storyteller. I was very down on this feud because I thought they really flattened Bianca out after she failed to win the belt back so many times, but thankfully both wrestlers were able to rise above the bad booking and end up stronger than they were coming in thanks to their great in-ring performances both here and at SummerSlam.

5
Cody Rhodes Vs Seth Rollins – WrestleMania 2022: Night One
This was not only a great match but it was also the first big major jump from AEW to WWE, thus making it an historic moment. It was also great to see Cody basically come in with his exact AEW gimmick and it get over in a WWE setting almost instantly, showing that AEW probably has far more going for it than its detractors like to say it does. Big credit needs to go to Rollins in this feud as he worked super hard to make the new guy look good and he put him over clean as a sheet. Any potential issues that Cody might have faced with making the jump pretty much evaporated with Rollins doing an A-Class job of making him look like a star in their feud.

4
Swerve In Our Glory Vs The Acclaimed – AEW All Out
I liked every Tag Title match these two teams had against one another in 2022, with this one being my favourite overall just for the ridiculous crowd responses, with the fans having kittens at some of the near falls. Should they have changed the belts here? Maybe, but The Acclaimed ended up okay in the end and the resulting rematches from this match were all loads of fun, so I can’t really be too critical about it. I was sorely tempted to add the Full Gear match here as well because the twists and turns at the end really got me to bite and that doesn’t always happen these days. Big thumbs up here for this one. Tag Team wrestling really is great when done properly.

3
WALTER Vs Sheamus – Clash at the Castle
This was the hard hitting Strong Style battle that the main roster WWE hadn’t had for a while, as these two just beat the absolute chicken salad out of one another in a great match. There wasn’t much in the way of gimmicks going on either. These two just got in the ring and hit one another until one of them couldn’t keep fighting. Straightforward, brutal, unapologetically violent and utterly gripping. Silly new name aside, WALTER had a great year, with his new physique looking great and WWE doing everything within their power to make him look like an imposing star. Hopefully he kicks on even further in 2023. Special mention needs to go to Sheamus as well, as he really delivered the goods here and it immediately heated him up again after years of just being a dude in the mid-card who occasionally got some spotlight if Drew McIntyre was involved. Now he’s a legitimate star in his own right and matches like this are why. He had a very good year indeed and this match will rightly get a lot of votes for MOTY I bet.

2
FTR Vs Briscoe’s – Final Battle
What a rivalry these two teams had in 2022. Pretty much every match they had was great, with the Dog Collar match at Final Battle being a suitable conclusion. This match is a great example of how blood can be an excellent dramatic tool when used correctly, as it really added to the match here and helped make this feel like a violent fight between two teams who were leaving it all in the arena. Every match these two teams had on pay per view this year is worth watching, and to be honest you probably should watch the others before watching this one, as each match tells a story that gets continued in the next one.

1
Jun Kasai Vs El Desperado – 12th September 2022
I heard a lot of noise about this one, which can sometimes be dangerous as it means it might struggle to live up to the hype when I finally get around to watching it. Certainly if extreme wrestling isn’t your deal then I doubt you’ll enjoy this one as it involves barbed wire, blood and just general nastiness. However, if you can stomach all of that then this is a great example of the genre. The match benefits from the fact that it isn’t just a display of gore spots but rather a proper match that just happens to have gore spots within it. I like how the brutal spots are built to and thus feel like they are “earned” rather than just being thrown in because a match like this demands that they be implemented. Desperado’s selling in particular is top notch as well, meaning that they make every ghoulish extreme spot feel like it matters. The fact the crowd can actually make noise really adds to the atmosphere as well, and the near falls are fantastic stuff. Jun Kasai coming seemingly out of nowhere to deliver a MOTYC after years of being typecast as a certain type of worker is almost romantic in its own unapologetically violent way as well. Hunting this one down was a bit of bollock, but I was glad I did. Both wrestlers choosing to wear white because they know there’ll be blood is an example of one of those small touches that really adds to the presentation of the match as well. Not for the faint heart, but if you can stomach it then there’s one heck of a match here to enjoy

JABRONIVILLE

Jabroniville writes arguably the most educational column here on the BoD, the Joshi Spotlight series. I’ve learned more reading his work than almost anyone else, which is something I welcome greatly. When I first contacted him, he worried that he wouldn’t have enough 2022 matches to list, but once I told him it was totally cool to go with whatever he wanted, he was in.

Take it away, Jab.

TOP TEN DYNAMITE MATCHES (2022):
* Hey everyone! Jabroniville here! So I don’t watch WWE at all and haven’t checked out Japan in ages, and I don’t get PPVs, but I can at least sum up my favorite Dynamite matches of the year, presuming I didn’t forget any of them! And my memory suuuuuuuuuuucks so that could happen. Like I looked at a list of matches and was like “FTR vs. Mox/Punk?”

10) DAX HARWOOD vs. CASH WHEELER (April 27th):
* Called a “Masturbatory Bret Hart Tribute Match” by Hangman Page in a particularly shitty promo callout that helped exacerbate the backstage feud between “Punk Guys” and “Elite Guys”, this match was FTR wrestling their hearts out against each other, repeatedly trying flash-pins that had taken place in famous Bret Hart matches (like the corner sleeper reversal against Piper & Austin, the sunset flip reversal by the Bulldog, or the victory roll reversal by Owen). While Dax is a much better worker than Cash, this was a great one still- even if you weren’t aware of the tribute, it fit because both guys were close friends and thus would be expected to try more painless pins than deadly finishers.

9) HANGMAN ADAM PAGE vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (July 13th):
* Takeshita came out of nowhere and immediately impressed fans, getting over in a single performance. With an unusual wrestler’s look (more of a swimmer’s physique), he had incredible athleticism, timing and moves. I’m not even that big a fan of Page’s stuff, but this match was great.

8) BRYAN DANIELSON vs. DAX HARWOOD (Nov. 30th):
* Dax was AEW’s most reliable workhorse next to Bryan, constantly being sent out to job in singles matches and put others over. So naturally he’d have a very good old-school match with Bryan.

7) BRYAN DANIELSON vs. LEE MORIARTY (Feb. 16th):
* Bryan segued from failing to beat Hangman for the Title into further ass-kickings of midcarders, putting over their strengths while acting like a monster heel who just happened to be a tiny technical wrestler. Moriarty put up a great fight but the uphill battle ended the way it always did- with Bryan capitalizing on a single mistake and kicking one’s head in.

6) DARBY ALLIN vs. BRODY KING (July 20th):
* An amazing Big vs. Small match from two guys who were masters at their own game- Darby is a fantastic underdog and this was a showcase of why he got so over in 2020-21. So naturally after this match both guys disappeared for a while and did nothing to capitalize on it.

5) JUNGLE BOY vs. KYLE O’REILLY (May 18th):
* Jack Perry pulled out some pretty great matches here and there as a tag guy- part of the slow build for him. O’Reilly also really impressed in this year- I’d never heard of him, and he rapidly and publicly outstripped his partner (Bobby Fish, who sucked at every aspect of being a wrestler) and started having great matches all over the place, with old-school tactics, great counters, and more. O’Reilly really impressed in this tournament… so of course he was promptly badly injured, his partner quit, and Adam Cole also got hurt, meaning all this work will have to be done all over again should he return.

4) FTR vs. CM PUNK & JON MOXLEY (Feb. 9th):
* A great old-school tag team match between the best team in wrestling, wrestling’s best old-school guy and Mox (who I personally dislike the work of but will admit he’s been in some good matches).

3) HANGMAN PAGE vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (Jan. 5th):
* AEW started the year by having another Bryan/Hangman match after their 1-hour draw, this one being about half the length but about as good- it had less of Bryan carrying the less-skilled Hangman (there were a LOT of smoke & mirrors in the first one), a lot of Bryan’s amazing early-year heel work, and more.

2) THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND & KEITH LEE vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS & RICKY STARKS (July 13th):
* A classic “throw everything you got at your opponents” match which kept everyone guessing and had a lot of incredible double-teams and “saving the pin” spots. The shocker win of Swerve/Lee took EVERYONE by surprise, making the tag ranks a lot less predictable than they had been, with the Bucks proving to have a really short reign.

1) CM PUNK vs. MJF (Feb. 22nd):
* This one was a really interesting struggle based around old-school psychology and MJF’s cheating tactics. It was a really long match that kept fans guessing the entire way- which dastardly deed would MJF use to try and win, and could Punk surpass them? I wouldn’t want every match to be like this, and MJF often re-sets to this schtick to disguise his weaknesses as a worker, but it was never more well done than right here.

RICK POEHLING

I write about New Japan and stuff here. I’m also wildly inconsistent, as my work totally depends on how much my real life intrudes on it. That having been said, I watched a lot of wrestling this year, but most of it was puroesu, so my list is very naturally going to be tilted heavily in that direction. I also discovered Stardom this year and greatly enjoyed it, which will be very reflected.

All that having been said, let’s get rolling:

10. Starlight Kid vs AZM – Stardom Cinderella Journey in Nagoka, 2/23/22 – Stardom
I changed my mind on my #10 match a LOT while compiling this list – first, I had the NXT Men’s Iron Survivor match here (I really loved how intricate that match was), then it was the Syuri/Giulia title match from Queendom that just happened (I kept it out to avoid recency bias, but that match was really cool), but in the end, this was the choice because I really enjoyed so much of Starlight Kid’s work this year, I wanted to get her on the list. And then I thought about putting on putting on the 8 person mixed tag from the NJPW/Stardom XOver because that match fucking ruled, but that would leave out AZM who is really good and had a ton of great high-speed title defenses this year after this match. And after all that, I just said fuck it, this match is awesome, both women are awesome, and I’ve rewatched it multiple times because of how good it was. So it belongs here.

9. JONAH vs Kazuchika Okada – G-1 Climax, 7/8/22 – NJPW
When JONAH started in New Japan, I was more dismissive of his talents than I should have been, which was a mistake. This was the height of his New Japan run, a brilliantly booked and wrestled match against Okada, where JONAH played Vader and Okada worked underneath the entire match until finally, JONAH was too much and Okada took his only clean loss in the entire G-1. The entire crowd gasping as JONAH ascended to the top to finish the match was one of the best moments in the G-1 this year.

8. The Jericho Appreciation Society vs The Blackpool Combat Club/Eddie Kingston/Ortiz/Santana – Anarchy in the Arena – Double or Nothing, 5/29/22 – AEW
While it isn’t normally my style of match overall, sometimes these giant arena brawls are really fun and sometimes, I think they hit a different gear. This one, with the music cranked ECW style through the first part of the match, along with the insane visual near the end of Eddie Kingston stumbling to the ring covered in blood holding a gascan, this one was something special. In the insanity and chaos, they found a great match where one rarely is.

7. Giulia vs Suzu Suzuki – Stardom 5Star Grand Prix – 10/1/22 – Stardom
Suzu Suzuki is TWENTY YEARS OLD, which is simply insane to me. She works like a veteran far beyond that (mark my words, there is an amazing career blossoming before our eyes), and she was in there with Giulia, who is a master of melodrama and when it works, it works. The backstory to the match is a big part of why it works, with Suzuki and Giulia’s past in Ice Ribbon leading to the emotion underneath this one. While there were certainly better worked matches on the women’s side this year, this one hit the heart hard when you get underneath it.

6. El Desperado vs Kazuchika Okada – New Japan Cup – 3/2/22 – NJPW
It amazes me how this one has been forgotten. As is tradition in New Japan at the beginning of the year, the Junior champion faced off against the heavyweight champion, but this time it was in the first round of the New Japan Cup. This was a match where Okada did Okada things, but Desperado truly arrived for a lot of people. There wasn’t a ton of doubt that Despy was amongst the top Juniors in the company, but here he proved to be amongst the top overall workers regardless of weight class and really cemented his place in NJPW. A brilliant match where the teased upset could almost be believed in a few spots.

5. El Phantasmo vs Robbie Eagles – Best of the Super Juniors – 5/26/22 – NJPW
In all of New Japan’s tournaments, there is at least one match that stands out, where you point at it and say ‘THAT is the match that this one will be remembered for’, and for the BOSJ this year, it was ELP vs Eagles. The story between the two and their time in Bullet Club before Eagles left the group was an underpinning to crazy action between the two, as this was a true example of a kitchen sink match, where no one left anything out in a display of one-upsmanship that built and built to a shattering climax. This match really encapsulated everything possible, with high-flying, limb work, and a marrying of the styles in a way that worked.

4. Jay White vs Kazuchika Okada – Dominion – 6/12/22 – NJPW
Jay is the best overall wrestler in the world and that Okada guy isn’t bad either, appearing for the third time on my list. Everyone pulled out their tricks in this one until Jay finally snapped off the Blade Runner to gain the IWGP World title. White’s pacing in the ring is what I marvel at so much, as he’s a perfect heel who never stalls long enough to lose the crowd and Okada is the perfect top babyface to work that style against. It set up the WK title match by having Okada do a clean loss and was the most perfect World title match I saw on the men’s side of the graps this entire year.

3. Syuri vs Utami Hayashashita – Stardom Gold Rush – 11/19/22 – Stardom
Holy shit, this match. I mean, these two are absolute magic in the ring together. Utami has pretty rapidly become my favorite women’s wrestler in the world and Syuri is such a fantastic worker; they mesh together so well, it’s like watching Okada/Tanahashi. This was only hurt slightly by the fact that I never really though Utami could win as Syuri’s date with Giulia seemed well-established, but on the night before the NJPW/Stardom crossover, the two of them decided to outshine everyone. Hard-hitting with big moves and two women who understand how to work with each other magnificently, this would be the best match a lot of wrestlers would ever have in their careers, yet for these two it was only the 2nd or 3rd best match they’ve had against each other!

2. FTR vs The Briscoes – Supercard of Honor – 4/1/22 – Ring of Honor
I was glad I watched this one live, because I didn’t have expectations outside of knowing that both teams were talented wrestlers; but even if the match would have been built up to me, I doubt that it could have been ruined considering the quality that we got. The two teams worked brilliantly together and what I liked about the match was that it hit a lot of pro wrestling highs along the way, with a hot crowd that reacted to each. The double downs, the chests to chests, the double teams, the hot tags, the cutoffs – this was tag wrestling on a clinical level that proved that all of those things can work in 2022 if you do it correctly. I have yet to watch the dog collar finale, which has been lauded by some as the best of the trilogy, but boy do I find that hard to believe considering the quality of what we got here.

1. Zack Sabre Jr vs Shingo Takagi – New Japan Cup – 3/26/22 – NJPW
My favorite finishing sequence of the year. It was all I could talk about in wrestling for days afterwards, much to the annoyance of many; but still, this 20 minute masterpiece that ended via ref stoppage was an almost perfect match as ZSJ fought from underneath against the larger, harder-hitting Takagi and finally gained a leverage advantage that negated Shingo’s power. Near the end, as Zack clamped down in a desperate attempt to put Takagi out, the match’s storytelling could have gone multiple ways, with Shingo powering out or succumbing and it would have worked in both aspects, because of the groundwork laid by the match that came before that sequence. After every single match this year, I mentally asked myself “was that better than ZSJ/Shingo?” and my answer always came back “no” – as such, it is my #1 match of the year.

And that’s that!

That’s what your Blog writers thought were the best matches in 2022. This project turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be and all the writers came through big time, so thanks to Tommy, Mike, and Jab for taking the extra time to do it.

Myself, I really want to see what you all thought were the best of 2022, so post your lists in the comments. I really am curious.

And continue to love good pro wrestling and enjoy the Blog. We write for you and appreciate all of you. Here’s to next year’s Top 10 lists!

As always, thanks for reading this thing I wrote,

Rick Poehling
@MrSoze on Twitter
[email protected] for email