8 HUGE WWE Day 1 2022 Predictions You Need To Know

Perhaps this is too generous a take, but when weekly consumption of the WWE product barely offers crumbs of comfort let alone some actual entertainment to feed on, one has to take what one gets, so here goes; isn't it interesting that WWE are doing something new?!

A January 1st pay-per-view is a first in company in history, and allegedly the latest of the Nick Khan changes to take effect that thankfully isn't as brutal as cutting 100+ names off the bottom of a spreadsheet in the last two years and threatening to extend existing WWE shows beyond their exhausting runtimes.

As is the way with WWE firsts, they've gone big in an effort to establish Day 1. This is a big card with at least one big match, and reports have suggested that it could well have WrestleMania implications. The company's steadfast method for producing television has resulted in the same old December churn in the go-home weeks, but typical post-Survivor Series doom was at least briefly assuaged due to the need to build things before the Royal Rumble and here we all are.

Can the show deliver on fairly lofty expectations? There'd be no better way for WWE to kick off 2022 than by erasing the malaise hanging over everything at the end of 2021, but will this be a Happy New Year or another case of old acquaintances we'd rather forget?

For a first-time-ever show that has the stated aim of kicking WWE's 2022 off with a bang, there's a decidedly repetitive flavour about this pre-show affair.

Back in their unfortunately natural positions as good-match-havers on SmackDown, both Ricochet and Cesaro seem destined to spend another year doing this specific sort of midcard dithering as desperate and disparate fans call for them to get more. There's another conversation to be had about that (boiled mostly down to "give up on that, they obviously have"), but in the meantime they might as well join Sheamus in earnestly trying to help elevate Ridge Holland.

Called up early from NXT when he'd have probably fit quite nicely as Rugby Ridge on 2.0, Holland's greener that Sheamus' old tights but big and bullish enough to get plenty of chances to harness his act into something a little sharper.

Nobody will ever remember or rewatch this, but the components are there to make it better than the average time-filler. And though it's Day 1 for WWE, it's Day 4568 for Sheamus. That he can still command any attention at all is to his immense credit.

Winners - Sheamus & Ridge Holland