10 Wrestlers AEW Failed In 2022

8. Riho

AEW Failed CM Punk
AEW

From the heady heights of being the inaugural AEW Women's Champion, to the lows of padding out six-person tag matches on YouTube. That's unfortunately been the AEW career trajectory of Riho.

2021 wasn't a great year for Riho in AEW, but hope was high that the 16-year pro would be featured in a more prominent All Elite role in 2022. Sadly, that was far from the case.

The start of '22 did find Riho back on AEW TV, at least, with her unsuccessfully challenging Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. for the AEW Women's Title. While that January Battle of the Belts clash resulted in a collarbone injury for Riho, the 25-year-old was back in action by May as part of the Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament. Since then, though, the Japanese star has only had five AEW matches, and just one of those - against Jamie Hayter in October - was televised.

Of course, we'll never outright know whether Riho's lack of AEW action is down to the company or a decision from the talent herself, but it's damning to see that, when Riho has been on AEW duty across 2022, it's usually been - as was the case in 2021 - restricted to Dark and Dark: Elevation.

The fact that Riho held the AEW Women's Title for an impressive 133 days makes her recent use (or lack thereof) even more questionable.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.