10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2022
2. Anarchy In The Arena - AEW Double Or Nothing
Wrestling is one enormous paradox - the idea is to simulate a fight while doing everything possible to keep one's opponent safe - so it's almost fitting that the closest the industry got to the feeling of a real fight this year was in a match that was soundtracked for six minutes and saw Chris Jericho wear a pair of comedy glasses.
Fights feel elusive. Real ones are over in a matter of moments, and you can barely see the decisive blow. The genius of Anarchy In The Arena - a more original and far better match than Blood & Guts, one that will hopefully become the standard when the next great faction war erupts - is that AEW captured that elusive feeling. The production made it seem like they were lucky to capture the action. At times, they were; the director only just caught the Street Sweeper with which Jake Hager was blasted through two tables.
The work itself was great, primarily because the brawling rarely felt like a work, but the short bursts of violence elicited that true thirst for blood that wrestling rarely generates. The genius of the stipulation also meant that the fans were never taken out of the action by watching plunder set-ups because the director, knowing that Eddie Kingston and Daniel Garcia were beating the piss out of each other, didn't have to shoot it.
Iconic from Justin Roberts' introduction, it was a joyous live action highlight reel of violence elevated by an almost impossibly great Eddie Kingston: never before has a man in the pro wrestling arena looked willing and capable of murder.
His psychotic zombie shuffle was mesmerising.