Happy new year graps fans and welcome to 2022! Let’s have another lovely year watching this silly ol’ BOLLIX we all love (and hate) for some reason.
It may be Day 1 (heh) but the first week of 2022 is in fact a pretty massive time for wrestling, let’s have a look!
Day 1, WWE, tonight (1am GMT)
Think it would be safe to say we’ve all collectively and steadily clocked out of WWE over the past year or so after the debacle that was Survivor Series (and Summerslam, but at least that was entertainingly so) and a year of brutal cuts in the roster, sometimes with an air of real nastiness about them, and AEW gobbling up the most exciting talent currently, it’s seemingly becoming increasingly difficult to stomach WWE’s bullshit and seediness anymore. So with that all in mind, let’s see what their first ppv of the year looks like!
Eschewing the, admittedly usually pretty shite and pointless, December PPV, Day 1 is being somewhat marketed as a revamp for the company’s product in what pretty patently is an attempt to still look exciting in some way. Let’s look at the card!
Oh. Reigns Vs Lesnar, is it. New Day Vs Usos aye? Righto then. Haven’t been watching any of the build really so can’t comment on what’s going on here, though it’s nice that Liv Morgan is getting a big PPV match, even though she’ll Inevitably lose. Edge Vs Miz is certainly… Something? And the big lad (and Seth four way for the title should be a bit of fun. Will probably watch it as for all their many faults WWE still put on some decent PPV matches, but having low to no expectations certainly helps too. Hopefully we’ll see a bit of momentum going for the Royal Rumble at the end of the month, which like a lot of the big shows this year, will now come to us on a Saturday in 2022!
Wrestle Kingdom 16, NJPW, Tuesday - Thursday
WK extends to an unprecedented three nights (sort of) as night three on Thursday sees an interpromotional NJPW Vs NOAH supercard! Not going to pretend I know loads about NOAH but the prospect of seeing Taka Michinoku teaming up with Suzuki and Okada face Great Muta is pretty exciting
Night one sees
Shibata’s WK return against a mystery opponent in a “pure wrestling match” (no strikes, basically), Takahashi Vs El Desperado for the Jr. heavyweight and Okada Vs Takagi for the big belt.
Night two:
Here we get a Stardom match on the main card (I think?), Tanahashi Vs KENTA for the Never openweight and the winner of night two’s world title match face Ospreay, making his NJPW return after never losing the belt due to injury and a sabbatical in the UK during travel restrictions.
As we all know it’s not been a stellar year for NJPW either, but the big night always delivers a couple 5*+ classics and so hopefully can steady the ship after a tumultuous couple years.
Over in AEW, no PPV until March but we do have Dynamite’s debut on TBS this Wednesday featuring the rematch between Page and Danielson and the crowning of the women’s TBS belt between Ruby Soho and Jade Cargill!
Let’s do it to it (grammar that is)