10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2022 (So Far)
1. Jon Moxley Vs. Wheeler YUTA - AEW Rampage, April 8
Star ratings should be awarded in respect of the genre; just as a romantic comedy or a horror film can be as artful as a sweeping historical drama, the 12 minute TV match deserves as much praise for what it is as a 30 minute quest for an epic main event.
Jon Moxley Vs. Wheeler YUTA was a ***** 12 minute TV match.
To put it in its proper context, recall Mox's first two matches with YUTA. On October 16, 2021, Mox annihilated him in 47 seconds. On February 12, 2022, YUTA showed something more and fell to Mox in seven minutes and 29 seconds. Ahead of their next match, on April 8, YUTA faced Bryan Danielson in tags and singles matches. The latter, on March 30, was sensational. Danielson's total mastery of crowd psychology and match structure combined with YUTA's raw talent and fire to convince the fans to start taking YUTA seriously. By April 8, YUTA was made through this graduating masterclass of a fire walk.
In the opening second, YUTA brought the fight to Mox with a dive as Mox was still making his entrance. He was done taking a beating. He had learned that it was time to give one out.
Except it wasn't that simple. He was taking on the hardest bastard in the game. Mox taught him another lesson by slicing his forehead open on the steps, and from there, YUTA fought through a Muta of a blade job, a f*cking shower head at one point, to prove himself worthy of induction into the Blackpool Combat Club. Mox entered a tremendous individual performance, which should not go unmentioned in a review of a match known as YUTA's badass breakthrough. Mox held onto YUTA's arm as he made a pin attempt and maintained control with a seamless straight jacket the second YUTA threw the shoulder up.
Mox intelligently depicted himself as a master who gave nothing away so that YUTA would resonate as a somebody when he almost took everything from him.
Mox doing an incredibly theatrical shocked kick-out face would be a bleak disgrace in just about any context. He knows this. It's why he never does it.
He did it here because it could not have done more to put YUTA over as one of wrestling's next big things in what was the platonic ideal of a television wrestling match.
As special as the form gets.