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EditorialPro Wrestling Awards: 2022 AEW Edition

Pro Wrestling Awards: 2022 AEW Edition

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Continuing on with handing out well-deserved awards for wrestling in 2022, it’s now time to look at the best of AEW this year.

2022 has been sort of a rebuilding year for AEW, in large part due to behind-the-scenes drama and inconsistency in creative.

Without further ado, here are my official 2022 AEW Awards!

Male Superstar of the Year

The Nominees:

  • Bryan Danielson
  • Chris Jericho
  • CM Punk
  • Jon Moxley
  • MJF

AEW's Jon Moxley

The Winner: Jon Moxley. Despite MJF always stealing the spotlight whenever he’s on TV, Moxley has held down the fort for AEW all year. He not only won the AEW World Championship two more times (three-time champion overall), but he bailed the company out in many situations where it seemed like creative was desperate for someone to help hold everything together. He also had fun and competitive matches with the likes of Danielson, Punk, MJF, and even had stellar matches with AEW’s up and coming stars in Konosuke Takeshita and Wheeler Yuta. 2022 will go very much go down as Moxley’s best wrestling year in his entire career (WWE included).

The Nominees:

  • Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.
  • Jade Cargill
  • Jamie Hayter
  • Thunder Rosa
  • Toni Storm

AEW's Jade Cargill

The Winner: Jade Cargill. Cargill asserted her dominance over the AEW women’s division once again. She became is the current and inaugural AEW TBS Champion, capturing that gold in the beginning of the year, and also has kept her undefeated streak still intact. Cargill’s biggest issue has always been if she can cut it in the ring. And yes, whilst she is still green in that department, she has continued to show massive improvement and seems to be getting better with each match. It is expected that Cargill will continue to have a great AEW career in 2023, with hopefully the AEW Women’s World Championship finally becoming a reality.

Overall Superstar of the Year

Despite Cargill continuing to show improvement, and be entertaining in her own way, Jon Moxley clearly was Mr. 2022 for AEW. Since making his debut to AEW in 2019, Moxley has continued to raise the bar, putting out bangers, great promos, showing leadership in the locker room, and becoming AEW’s most reliable hand in the main event scene.

Tag Team/Faction of the Year

The Nominees:

  • Death Triangle
  • FTR
  • Jericho Appreciation Society
  • Swerve In Our Glory
  • The Acclaimed

AEW's FTR

The Winner: FTR. This was difficult, as The Acclaimed have had an exciting year as well, but despite not winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship this year, FTR dominated the tag team scene across the globe. Becoming ROH World Tag Team Champions, IWGP Tag Team Champions, and AAA World Tag Team Champions. FTR had awesome matches with The Young Bucks, United Empire, The Acclaimed, among others, and became even more of a crowd favorite. FTR continue to keep tag team wrestling relevant and are continuing to build their legacy as one of the best tandems to ever do it.

Breakout Star of the Year

The Nominees:

  • Daniel Garcia
  • Hook
  • Jamie Hayter
  • Powerhouse Hobbs
  • Wheeler Yuta

The Winner: Wheeler Yuta. Another difficult award to hand out, but Yuta has definitely emerged as a face to look at for years to come. His matches with Moxley and Danielson proved he has what it takes to go up against the best, and has continued to upgrade his character work, by being part of the Blackpool Combat Club. He is a young guy as well, only 26 years old. The future is bright for the young up-and-comer.

Match of the Year

The Nominees:

  • CM Punk vs. MJF in a Dog Collar Match at Revolution
  • Cody Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara in a Ladder Match for the Undisputed AEW TNT Championship at Dynamite: Beach Break
  • Eddie Kingston, Santana, Ortiz, and The Blackpool Combat Club vs. The Jericho Appreciation Society in Blood and Guts
  • FTR vs. Roppongi Vice vs. United Empire for the ROH World Tag Team Championship and IWGP Tag Team Championship at AEW X NJPW: Forbidden Door
  • “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Championship at Dynamite
  • The Blackpool Combat Club vs. The Jericho Appreciation Society at Double or Nothing

CM Punk vs. MJF

The Winner: CM Punk vs. MJF at Revolution. The overall story of this match helped give this match the victory here. Not only was the build leading up to this epic encounter great and worthwhile, but the storytelling continued to be a major factor throughout the match. This was simply a bloody masterpiece. Hard-hitting spots, an electric crowd, and the dog collar stipulation proved to not be a distraction, but rather a fun and effective addition in the grand scheme of things.

Rivalry of the Year

The Nominees:

  • Christian Cage/Luchasaurus vs. “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry
  • CM Punk vs. MJF
  • Jon Moxley vs. MJF
  • MJF vs. Wardlow
  • The Blackpool Combat Club vs. The Jericho Appreciation Society

The Winner: CM Punk vs. MJF. This was essentially the MJF category. Everything MJF touches is gold. This was also another very tough decision, but at the end of the day, the feud between MJF and Punk is still as memorable ever, impressive due to this rivalry being built in the early part of 2022. As previously mentioned, the storytelling was absolutely incredible. It was hard to look away whenever these two men entered our screens. MJF digging up his old childhood memories, looking up to Punk, him gaslighting Punk into thinking he’s the bad guy. This was A+ television.

Newcomer of the Year

The Nominees:

  • Konosuke Takeshita
  • Samoa Joe
  • Saraya
  • Swerve In Our Glory (Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland)
  • Toni Storm

AEW's Konosuke Takeshita

The Winner: Konosuke Takeshita. This pick may come as a surprise, but here me out. We all knew just how good Samoa Joe and Toni Storm were, they always showed they had potential in WWE. Swerve in Our Glory has been a fun tag team and they’ve had a solid storyline for most of 2022… but we knew how good Swerve and Lee were. And Saraya, she just came back and is still rusty after not wrestling since 2017. As for Takeshita, he has impressed the hell out of me. Takeshita was a new name for me to watch go out there and perform, and man did he. He had great matches with the likes of Adam Page and Claudio Castagnoli and has shown that he can handle his own in the ring. Also, he’s still only 27! Takeshita may be primed for a good run in AEW for 2023.

Moment of the Year

The Nominees:

  • Christian Cage turning heel on Jungle Boy
  • MJF’s promo about management and 2024 before going on a hiatus at Dynamite
  • MJF wins the AEW World Championship at Full Gear
  • Post-event media scrum after All Out
  • Tony Khan purchases Ring of Honor

The Winner: Post-event media scrum after All Out. This was obviously. Despite there being some really good and interesting moments in 2022, the infamous media scrum takes the cake. The media scrum dominated the wrestling news cycle for months on end…and still is. Punk’s harsh words towards Colt Cabana and The Elite sparked a reportedly intense brawl between Punk, The Elite, Ace Steel, maybe even a dog too. Punk was forced to vacate his newly won AEW World Championship and has also seemingly been fired from the company. It also resulted in The Elite relinquishing the inaugural AEW Trios Championship, and being suspended indefinitely, until making their grand in-ring return at Full Gear. This was the lowest point for AEW as a company, and a low point for wrestling in general. Thankfully, AEW has bounced back and got back on track since then, but we are still hearing the aftermath of this shocking media scrum.

There you have it folks! Who do you think had a great 2022 for AEW? Agree or disagree, leave a comment down below!

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