10 Reasons 2022 Was Wrestling's WILDEST Year Ever

9. Reverse Exodus

Cody Rhodes
WWE

Since the dawn of the pandemic, WWE released north of 120 wrestlers, citing budget cuts while the company posted record profits due to a lack of travel costs. This was easily one of the biggest stories of 2020 and 2021, with the names filling many wrestling promoters’ wish lists.

But then a funny thing happened: Vince McMahon was ousted (more on that later) and Triple H (along with wife Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan as co-CEOs) took over the reins.

Almost immediately, Triple H began bringing back wrestlers previously released at an almost-unprecedented clip. We’ve all seen the Infinity Gauntlet meme – and we could debate the accuracy of those returning superstars giving Triple H the power to snap AEW out of existence (spoiler: they didn’t).

However, consider this abridged list: Hit Row, Karrion Kross, Dakota Kai, Emma, Tegan Nox, Bronson Reed, Johnny Gargano, Dexter Lumis, Candice LeRae, Mia Yim, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, and Braun Strowman.

While not a murder’s row of superstars, it’s crazy the sheer number of talent released that was brought back over the course of the past five months. These moves have added depth and skill to WWE’s rosters, which was sorely needed after years of trimming.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.