Ten favorite pro wrestling matches of 2022
Yes, you can skip this email if you want; see you next week
Not much on this list will be too surprising if you know my post-DVDVR taste (or know what “post-DVDVR” means.) Perhaps the biggest shock is that none of Villano IV’s matches in AAA’s Ruleta de la Muerte tournament made it, but while none of them were without flaws, they constituted the year’s best body of work behind Moxley’s (with one asterisk to be clarified below.)
1. Fénix vs. Hijo del Vikingo, AAA Triplemanía 10/15
With Fénix primarily wrestling in AEW, Hijo del Vikingo has become the top flippy guy in Mexico over the last three or four years. His uncanny balance and agility has generally led to better gifs than matches, and although Fénix has a much thicker singles resume (he did have the best singles match of the 2010s, you recall), you could certainly level that criticism at the endless series of Death Triangle 6-mans as well. Here, on Mexico’s biggest show of the year, they have match that I didn’t think Vikingo in particular had in him by going all out to the extent that they can’t help getting hurt—it’s hard to hit a Shooting Star to a prone opponent on the floor without someone coming off the worse for wear. This helps the selling and pacing, so that for once the escalating sequence of big moves is more a fight than a show, with the highlight being the semi-botch seeing Vikingo poison-ranaing Fénix on top of himself. Vikingo seems to have learned something from the experience, having nearly as good a performance a week later, though almost killing Laredo Kid might be going a little too far.
2. Blackpool Combat Club vs. the Jericho Appreciation Society, Anarchy in the Arena, AEW Double or Nothing 5/29
You could, if you wanted to be annoying, call this the poptimist version of the great Memphis and ECW brawls of the past. How do you make your blood feud seem wilder? Play “Wild Thing” on repeat (X’s version, thank you Tony Khan for getting John and Exene a social security supplement.) Maybe some of the furniture stuff was a bit too inorganic for this to be number one, but the effort of all ten men (even Jericho) can’t be faulted. Kingston, as usual, stole the show, and he didn’t even have to light Jericho on fire to do it.
3. Sheamus vs. Gunther, WWE Clash at the Castle 9/3
It seems like any two people who are 6’3” and 250 pounds could do it: have a great match by thumping and chopping each other repeatedly until one or both chests are blistered red. And indeed, both of these Europeans (non-derogatory) have had many excellent matches following this formula. This is the best of them, give or take an Ilya Dragunov mauling or two, partly because they’re evenly matched, partly because the format does show up the differences between Sheamus’s WWE-honed style and Gunther’s only-the-fundamentals. Occasionally Sheamus does try to do a very WWE move, and usually Gunther made him pay for it, and to see that in this promotion is spiritually fulfilling.
4. Jon Moxley vs. CM Punk, AEW All Out 9/4
The bout itself was soon overshadowed by the post-match press conference, featuring a bloodied Punk’s shocking endorsement of the cupcakes at Mindy’s Bakery in Wicker Park. But aside from 2021’s match of the year against Eddie Kingston, this was the apotheosis of Punk’s make-everything-count comeback style, not trying to do too much and letting his emotions (and yeah, the blood) do the talking. Moxley, to his immense credit, was an optimal foil, quite happy to temporarily play heel in Chicago, bullying Punk and not making too much out of his own superior athleticism. Punk in turn realizes he has to be at least kind of a dick to win, and well, that’s not a role he has difficulty playing.
5. Reyna Isis vs. La Jarochita, CMLL Aniversario 9/16
I was always disappointed that women’s wrestling wasn’t as central to lucha as Love and Rockets made it out to be, but here was a rare chance for two women to have a meaningful match on a major show, and it ended up being the best mascara contra mascara of the year. The one huge advantage they had was that unlike so many apuestas matches, it wasn’t obvious to the casual CMLL fan like me who was going to lose their mask. Both luchadoras are very aware they’ll never get a bigger stage than this, and are willing to take big dives and bumps to the outside. In the closing stretch, the desperation to win and to maybe get another chance at a match like this becomes dominant, with a career of frustration behind every expedient pin attempt, let alone the martinete.
6. A-Kid vs. Charlie Dempsey, NXT UK 5/26
One for the sickos, by which I mean me, as someone who has the interest in traditional British wrestling to pay cash money to have my favorite wrestling writer review some of the old matches. The bout in question here, which takes place in the dying days of the unlamented NXT UK brand under a slightly modernized version of World of Sport’s charmingly arbitrary rounds system, takes place between Spain’s former great young wrestling hope (now great slightly less young wrestling hope) and William Regal’s kid. We get three rounds of beautiful mat wrestling for us perverts before they start dropping each other on the head, as is the current fashion. The bullshit finish bodes well for Dempsey’s future as a sports entertainer.
7. Masa Takanashi vs. Choun Shiryu, Choco Pro 1/22
30+ minute Japanese puroresu epics? Tired. 30+ minute Japanese puroresu epics in an elementary school classroom? Yeah, sure, I’ll watch that.
8. Biff Busick vs. Jon Moxley, GCW Bloodsport 3/31
Two guys, born two weeks apart, who just love to no-bullshit fight in a context where they can do just that. It just so happens that one is on his last run before an early retirement and one is one of the biggest stars in American wrestling. Busick was a master of the hyper-intense ten-minute match and this was one of his best, giving and especially taking a huge amount of punishment in a compact time. He’s defiant to the last, and Mox doesn’t need to stop to say he loves him before sending him to his future endeavors at the WWE Performance Center.
9. FTR vs. The Briscoes, ROH Supercard of Honor 4/1
Jay Briscoe died in a car accident in January 2023, leaving behind a wife, three young children, and an oeuvre of work with his brother that puts them up with the best American tag teams ever. Their last great feud was with FTR, who, while they sometimes seem so self-consciously retro-Southern you’d think Dave Cobb was producing them, have as good an understanding of tag structure as anyone. This was the first contest of a trilogy; I prefer it to the second because FTR playing heel is just correct, plus it feels more like a contest, while the second is more of a (successful) attempt to have a “great match.” This one shows that if you do the little things like ring-cutoffs and hope spots right, all you need is a sick suplex to the outside to transition into a great match.
(The asterisk is that I haven’t seen the third match, regarded by many people who don’t habitually overrate Japanese wrestling as match of the year; I’m still waiting for it to show up on Honor Club. Come back in a month or two to see if I’ve surreptitiously edited it on to this list.)
10. Psycho Clown vs. Gringo Loco, GCW If I Die First 2/5
Gringo Loco had a huge proportion of the best brawls of 2010 during his run in IWRG before becoming the genial match facilitator for flippy guys in the indies. This was a throwback to his more violent days, with the added fillip of having tall sports equipment to dive off. You can sense the joy that Psycho Clown, arguably Mexico’s top draw, feels in getting the chance to be a lighttube-smashing freak in front of a crowd of hundreds at a gym in Dallas. One of us, one of us.