The 4 Horsemen of 2022
I liked more than four professional wrestlers in 2022. There are myriad great characters and acrobats who I show up to see. There are folks who I will turn on a program just to see them. They aren’t on this list. Possibly because they didn’t have full solid year. Maybe they only became something I got into late into the year. Sometimes, for as much as I may like them, I don’t have much to say on their behalf that isn’t otherwise obvious.
I liked wrestlers from more promotions than just WWE and AEW in 2022. I watched a lot of NJPW and indies on FITE. I’ve seen several MLW shows live. Konosuke Takeshita yelling “LETS FUCKING GO” in front of a handful of people in North Carolina is one of my favorite moments this year. But I didn’t want to write about Mircoman, or Joe Hendry here (though stay tuned because I likely will). The most important thing to me about even writing this list (or this blog) is that the opinions expressed here are ones I’d stand on till my knees buckle. I think most people would agree that, when it comes to being ten toes down on talking points, very few of them are worth arguing for longer than a cup of coffee.
Seth Rollins
At Clash at the Castle 2023, the first large WWE event in the UK in almost 20 years, Seth Rollins stopped his beating of bitter rival Matt Riddle to be serenaded for almost a minute straight by fans harmonizing his theme song. It felt like the first time that the on screen proceedings acknowledged what was becoming very obvious: people are simply done booing The Visionary.
He hadn’t done anything particularly different than he’d been doing the past 12 months. In fact just weeks beforehand, he would brutally mock a then fan-favorite Riddle’s tenuous home life in a tense and uncomfortable segment that called back to the iconic moment where his friend and eventual co-star Daniel Cormier would dress down a young Jon Jones, almost foretelling the superstar’s eventual self-destruction.
So why cheer? Because his dedication to this sinister character - The Joker as a paranoid IG influencer - and regular stand out in-ring performances are consistently the most memorable things about a notoriously inconsistent weekly television show. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Rollins reaffirmed a claim he’d made about himself several times before: he believes he’s the best wrestler in the world. In the same conversation he lamented that he’s never been THE GUY and likely never will. So in a way, dancing to the ring like no one’s watching, wearing the most egregious fits imaginable, and providing palpable chaos feels like a reaction of a man who knows that despite his talent and resume, he’ll be number 2 his entire career. And what does a crowd love more than an underdog?
Required Viewing: “Yo Riddle, you still there?,” CATC vs Matt Riddle, Royal Rumble 2022 vs Roman Reigns, HIAC 2022 vs Cody Rhodes
Sami Zayn
In both the build to and during the raucous No Holds Barred match vs Johnny Knoxville (and friends) Sami Zayn revealed he has one of the most broad and poignant senses of humor in the history of wrestling.
Not only is he reliable for Anchorman-levels of quotable dialogue, he’s become a master shit poster on social media. From more elaborate stunts like getting kicked out of the Jackass Forever premier, to masterfully memeing himself into the conversation between shows, Zayn cannot be out tweeted.
This seems like a backhanded way to bury his ringwork, but Sami has been a top tier performer between the ropes since his NXT debut. What he hasn’t always been until then past year or so was the most captivating character in every room he’s in. This is maybe in part to the strength of having The Bloodline as ever present foils to his nonsense, but he’s also seemed to finally found a way to weaponize his inner irreverent to become a sort of pro-wrestling Larry David: a man who’s entire personality lives in the subtle implications a weird look or out of place scoff can have on the success of every social interaction. If this current story doesn’t wrap up with him dethroning WWE God-King Roman Reigns, it will at least cement him as one of the most significant characters of this decade.
Required Viewing: “Ucey” Promo, SmackDown 2/11 vs Shinsuke Nakamura, WrestleMania 38 Day 2 vs Johnny Knoxville, Raw 12/19 vs AJ Styles
Jamie Hayter
If taking the spotlight by force had a face, it would be Jamie Hayter’s.
Not in a make-the-most-noise-when-the-camera’s-on a la MJF sort of way. More so that for the past year and a half Jamie has shown up and quietly put on the most consistent performances in the women’s division. Even in a division with its fair share of powerhouses, Hayter’s marauding muscle is as simple, stylish, and brutal. Until recently she was a woman of few words, the good Doctor Baker handling her team’s verbal spats so completely that most women just completely ignored the possibility that Hayter’s tongue even worked.
“Under used” is a meaningless term as far as wrestling discourse is concerned but if it COULD be defined, it would be by the raucous chants of Jamie’s name that would erupt when she would finally have one on one matches. These grew outside the boundaries of combat pretty quickly in 2022, if Hayter was in frame on screen or an accessory character in the ring, the crowd would threaten to hijack the whole segment with loud Hayter chants.
Maybe unintentionally then, the arrival of fellow workhorse Toni Storm and the impromptu nature in which she would come to put the division on her shoulders only served to further highlight the appreciation for the champion the people had already elected for that role. And now that she’s there, the division feels not only whole again, but full of a promise that hasn’t existed since before the pandemic.
Required Viewing: Full Gear 2022 vs Toni Storm, BOTB 3 vs Thunder Rosa, Holiday Bash 2022 vs Hikaru Shida
Gunther
There’s no one working on a nationally televised promotion that is more immediately believably threatening as Gunther. Wrestlers travel the world (along the same paths Gunther himself took, no less) getting their brains scrambled like a brunch protein by people who are already in the Tough Guy Club just to get their membership. Gunther was trained by one of those OGs (s/o Tomohiro Ishii) and likely went through his own rigorous dues pay process in Europe and Japan, but he could probably have also shown anyone one of his absolutely devastating chops and would have been comped one immediately.
The beauty is the simplicity. Gunther moves like a tank that just grew legs and learned to walk. He doesn’t so much move forward as much as his own gravitational pull moves things around him. Every step he takes up the turnbuckle is gasp-inducing. But everything he does for the purpose of pain. He doesn’t lift his hands if it's not to grab or strike someone. His feet are for two purposes: standing and stomping. His basic, brutalist style is so jarring that it's refreshing.
It stands out among the many hybrid athletes that fill the WWE roster these days. The Kofi Kingstons and Shinsuke Nakamuras who are as fast as they are technical as they are strong are all capable of making Gunther’s offense feel like the narrow end of a filter - flips and spins go in and powerbombs come out. Its the people who make his offense feel like a mirror, Sheamus specifically, that bring out the best in him. Gunther is the thousands of scorpions in an abandoned house of wrestling, and maybe my favorite Intercontinental Champion since Razor Ramon.
Required Viewing: NXT 4/5 vs Bron Breakker, Smackdown 8/12 vs Shinsuke Nakamura, CATC vs Sheamus