The 2022 Winter Wrestling Thread feat. Royal Rumble! WK16! AEW ON TBS! & more!

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)

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think that day one card looks alright tbf. obviously we’ve seen some of the matches before but they’re usually pretty good so idk, could be a decent show? are they finally doing something with ricochet or is he just there to take a pin

edge & beth vs miz & maryse at mania maybe? could be fun bollix

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Hasn’t Beth gone? Or was that just from NXT? Guess she’s on a legends contract come to think of it

think it was just from her commentary gig yeah but who knows what’s going on over there anymore

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I think those Wrestle Kingdom cards look about as good as could be expected with the talent available. But it’s a bit hard to get excited about innit? My big hope for 2022 is that they manage to lift the witches curse that hung over them for 2021. The way things have ggone in 2021 Okada will probably win the title, defend against Ospreay and then immediately have his legs fall off.

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Have a feeling they’ll do similar to last year and have Okada win night one and Ospreay night two, just feels like they weren’t finished with that angle when he got injured last time

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And also Ospreay finally conquering Okada would be a huge moment. Okada can always win it back at Dominion if they have enough of Billy Brexit

Seems absolutely wild their classic at WK was only a year ago :sweat_smile:

I can see them going that way too, it would probably make the most sense storywise, but after the past year I can also see them wanting to give it to Okada to steady the ship. Either way I think poor Shingo is going home empty handed. He’s had a pretty good run all things considered, consistently putting on bangers, but there’s only so much you can do when the rest of the cards are so poor.

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Pretty sure I said this word for word last time Shingo faced Okada actually so what do I know?

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Oh yeah I get that Okada ship steadying theory too, and thought they were going to do it before Ospreay got back involved, but just as I say have a feeling because they never really got his reign going they’ll give him another go for a few months. He has been doing a bit of a “belt collector” gimmick in the UK/Europe the last few months too so it would fit that. Okada will be next in line but I guess also depends if Ospreay is staying in Japan afterwards?

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Aye I think I remember agreeing with you as well :smiley:

It’s just… Takagi is a very good wrestler, I just find him a bit of a bland character? Aware I’m not necessarily the target audience though

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He doesn’t have much beyond being a lovable gruff bruiser type tbh. Which I dig, but he has felt like an interim champ throughout his run.

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Sat women’s Street fight was pretty good huh? Way above my expectations

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Ah yeah must remember to watch this but the bits I’ve seen have looked class

Reigns out of Day 1. Lesnar to be added to the four way

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Uh oh

Anyone up for this then

Well then, they missed her music cue :rofl:

Oh yeah and that “revamp” they promised is calling PPVs “Live Premier Events”… LPE! LPE! LPE!

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