10 Best Wrestlers Of 2022
1. Jon Moxley
Jon Moxley needs a vacation.
The former AEW World Champion has had a chaotic year since returning so cathartically in January. Bouncing back from his time in rehab, Moxley kicked his 2022 off with a gripping, soul-bearing promo, alive once again and ready to reprise the form of 2020, when he stood as a bastion of hope for wrestling fans ground down by the grim pandemic era's rigours. A more perfect mission statement he couldn't have conceived - and if Mox is feeling exhausted right now, it's understandable.
His 2022 has been out of this world.
Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, and Chris Jericho are legendary names against whom great matches are expected. Moxley had those, though his resume runs infinitely deeper. Opposite Wheeler Yuta, he helped craft one of the all-time great elevator defeats, taking his young charge in as a boy and spitting him out as a beaten, bloodied man. The WrestleMania weekend brawl with Biff Busick was one of the most visceral, attritional wars you'll see all year. For the Wrestling Revolver, Moxley gave Mike Bailey, another of 2022's biggest hitters in the ring, one of his best matches ever. Whenever Mox stepped back between NJPW's ropes, it felt as natural as ever, leaving fans purring over the prospect of a potential transpacific comeback.
Universally excellent promos, a starring role in what started as an incredible stable in the Blackpool Combat Club, carrying his company through multiple crises, and reasserting himself as the coolest, toughest, most bellicose, flawed '80s action hero in professional wrestling make Jon Moxley 2022's Wrestler of the Year.
He has earned that vacation.