With 2022 officially in the rearview window, and all of the votes counted, the Wrestling Observer has officially released the results of The Wrestling Observer Awards, the long-running year-in-review that Dave Meltzer has been handing out since 1980. Though many of the awards were fairly predictable – Bryan Danielson won the Bryan Danielson Award, Tony Khan won Booker of the Year – one that has drawn a fair bit of controversy was Wrestler of the Year, which was won by Jon Moxley over Roman Reigns.
Discussing why Moxley deserved to win the award and why the multiple-time AEW Champion was so crucial to AEW on Wrestling Observer Radio with co-host Garrett Gonzales, Meltzer gave props to the second-time Wrestler of the Year.
“We talked about Wrestler of the Year before the voting, and I thought pretty solid that Moxley would win,” Meltzer said. “I mean it was Moxley and Roman Reigns and they finished one and two, so that’s fair, and you know, you take Roman… I mean look, you take Roman Reigns out of WWE, and their performance is very very similar with him or without him. You take Moxley out of AEW this year, and it would have been a really tough second half of the year. I mean, he saved their bacon twice.”
Though Gonzalez noted that another former champion like “Hangman” Adam Page or Chris Jericho could have stepped up and filled the same role when CM Punk got injured after Double or Nothing and then had to vacate his title once more after All Out, Meltzer suggested that it may not have been that simple.
“It wouldn’t have worked as well, and they were all put on… first of all, Hangman got hurt, so you can’t really say that, but Hangman wouldn’t have worked as good in that situation, and Jericho… he could have put Jericho in there,” Meltzer said. “We don’t know how that would have worked, but he (Tony Khan) chose Moxley and the fact is that when Rampage ratings went down, he moved Moxley to Rampage and those ratings went up. Granted, when he stopped featuring Moxley on it they went back down again, but you know, he was the pick and he was very successful and they… And plus, he had overcome the fact on the second thing, when Punk beat him, he had to come back from Punk beating him clean to being the guy, and that’s a tough situation, because he lost clean on the pay-per-view, and then had to carry the company when Punk got hurt and left, or was, whatever happened, Punk tore his triceps and got suspended. And that was a real tough period for the company because that also took out the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega for several months. I mean yes, you probably could’ve put other people in there, but I don’t know that they would’ve been as effective, and perhaps Jericho would have been, but I don’t think Hangman would have been at that point in time. I mean, later, when he was rebuilt up, but then he got hurt, so then you couldn’t do that.”
Though it wasn't intentional, Moxley found himself one of the faces of AEW in 2022 and helped to steward the company through one of the most contentious periods of its history. If enough fans felt that those contributions were worthy of winning Wrestler of the Year, then so be it.
Dave Meltzer provides context to the Jon Moxley Wrestler of the Year win.
Discussing Moxley's win further in The Wrestling Observer, Meltzer noted the historical importance of the win.
As expected this turned into a two-person race with Jon Moxley (Jonathan Good, 37) and former Shield partner Reigns (Leati Joseph Anoa’i, 37). The way I see the argument it comes down to Reigns as the biggest star of the year in pro wrestling, as WWE champion for the entire year and headliner on the biggest shows, during a year that got very strong for the company after April. He had good-to-great matches on top, which is a big part of the award. But the argument is Most Valuable. Reigns worked a very limited schedule and the company did roughly as well with him and not with him. The Smackdown ratings rise was as much tied to Sami Zayn and Jey Uso, who carried it to strong results when Reigns wasn’t around, as the weekly angle. Moxley was the more valuable, because he was twice, after injuries to Punk, called to lead the company. Had he been not around, the declines would have been greater than they were. Coming off rehab at the start of the year, he and Chris Jericho really carried the company during different periods when so many top names were out with injuries and later after All Out when Punk, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks were suspended. You take both out of the picture in 2022, and it’s AEW that would be hurt far worse. Having previously won the award in 2020, joins Harley Race, Ric Flair, Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Jericho, John Cena, Hiroshi Tanahashi, A.J. Styles and Kenny Omega as the only two-time winners in history.
Did Moxley really mean more to AEW than Roman Reigns did to WWE? It's highly subjective and worthy of discussing, as Reigns has headlined most of WWE's biggest “Premium Live Events” during the most financially successful periods in the company's history. Still, it's hard to argue that Moxley didn't do his part in AEW, too, as he worked his tail off when he was supposed to be taking a step back from the promotion for a much-needed vacation. Either way, it's clear The Shield still runs professional wrestling.
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