10 Wrestlers Having An Incredible 2022

Before Being The Elite was even a twinkle in a Young Buck’s eye, Zack Ryder was building a cult following with his own YouTube series Z! True Long Island Story. He rode its success all the way to a U.S. Championship victory, only to find himself buried for the unforgivable sin of getting himself over.

Unable to recapture his brief success in a broken star-making system, it looked like Ryder would see out his career at a lower midcard stalwart. That was until the sweeping 2020 releases that helped multibillion company WWE balance its books whilst delivering record profits.

Reverting to his real name, Cardona made a handful of appearances for AEW but did nothing to suggest there was a career renaissance around the corner. Soon however, Cardona was reinventing himself as the ultimate Sports Entertainer, trolling the GCW audience as “The Deathmatch King”. He also added some desperately needed vibrancy and irreverence as the one good thing in EC3’s otherwise grim and self-serious Free The Narrative.

This year has seen him go from strength to strength, picking up his first Impact title as well as the NWA Worlds title as part of an ongoing belt collector gimmick. All the while he remains an absolute riot. Even an injury that forced him to drop he NWA belt can’t undermine his ongoing success. Never the sort of super worker expected to thrive on the indies, Cardona has nonetheless made his WWE release the best thing that ever happened to him.