The Top 50 Matches Of The Year: 50-41

Another year in the books and what a 12 months it’s been. As like last year, I’m here to pass over to Iwan Mackenzie to count down his top 50 matches of 2022. We’ll be releasing five per-article, per-day for ten days. So without further ado, over to you Iwan…

2022 is in the books and it’s been a hell of a year; from a brief COVID scare in January to the invasion of Ukraine; from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss to Rishi Sunak (in very quick order) to the cost of living crisis; The Lionesses finally bringing it home for England in the Euros to Lionel Messi finally getting a World Cup win with Argentina; to the death of some of most beloved entertainers to the death of the Queen; 2022 hasn’t been short for news stories and moments.

British Wrestling is in a strange position right now, the scene is still recovering from COVID and kockdowns, with a lot of people still feeling uncomfortable being at shows with large amount of people.

The scene is still recovering from Speaking Out, with several named individuals having returned to the scene and a lot of prominent names letting people down, I won’t go too much into it here because it deserves far more serious conversation.

And the thing that has been a stinger has been the cost of living crisis that’s hit the UK, that’s meant a lot of people are unable to go out to anything let alone wrestling, leading to a lot of shows being cancelled and a lot of promotions going on hiatus.

My fandom of BritWres has wobbled through the year. There’s been times where I’ve really enjoyed going to shows and watching certain wrestlers, and times where I feel pissed off at how much of a joke the scene makes of itself; that being said, I did 112 shows in 2022 and did watch a lot of great matches, so here is my annual list of the best live matches I’ve seen in 2022.

50. Demon Gym (Kid Demon & Kid Demon II) vs Sunshine Machine (TK Cooper & Chuck Mambo) - GOOD Wrestling “No Ring 3: Things That Go Bump in the Night” (04/06)

We begin this list with a match that is very different from nearly everything on this list. for some background, at GOOD’s “No Ring 2” show there was a match featuring Chuck Mambo, Gene Munny, TK Cooper, a bomb and a corrupt moustache that turned nearly everyone evil. This moustache had corrupted Mambo into rigging his Sunshine Machine partner TK with a bomb which, unfortunately, went off at the end of Munny vs Mambo with only Mad Kurt surviving the explosion.

Fast forward to this match, where Chuck Mambo had learnt some voodoo (not the wrestler) techniques to bring TK back from hell (yes you read that right). This involved everything from a plastic ball, (fellow GT reviewer) Dave Sewell’s sock and then the first line of Undertaker’s American Badass song which brought TK back to life. Unfortunately, he brought two demon’s with him, who looked and talked like Lykos Gym as they challenge the reunited Sunshine Machine to a match.

Now the match itself is completely hilarious, there is actually some good wrestling in this one with some inventive spots and moves working around there being No Ring, one of these moves featured Mambo walking along our laps to perform an Old School.

But the highlight of this match was Lykos performing a Coffin Drop off Dan Moloney’s back but completely missing his target and landing hard on the floor, which broke everybody, fans, wrestlers and ref included. This is one of the most unique matches I’ve seen all year and topped off the finest comedy wrestling show I may have ever seen.

49. Alex Windsor vs Emersyn Jayne: SHE-1 Series 2022 Final - Pro Wrestling: EVE “SHE-1 Series 2022 - The Finale” (19/06)

*Credit: @theheaddrop/Pro Wrestling: EVE*

The match itself started off hot with Emersyn attacking Alex before ring introductions and parading around in Alex’s jacket, before Alex fought back to make it an even contest.

From there it becomes a real back and forth with both women outdoing each other, trying to pull out their biggest moves and bombs in their arsenal in order to win, such a frantic pace was held here throughout the whole match, brilliant work.

48. The O.J.M.O vs Rhio - Purpose Wrestling “Everything I Love is Going to Die” (12/08)

*Credit: South of Heaven/Purpose Wrestling*

Rhio comes out with Jacobs & Ridgeway backing her up; OJMO acts like a massive prick at the start of this match with him asking Rhio needs the rules mansplained to her which earns him a massive slap.

Rhio from there spends most of this match just trying to give OJMO the beating of his life playing into the chickenshit heel vs dominant babyface but in a very different way.

OJMO’s persona in this match changes again when he realises this is an actual challenge for him and breaks down Rhio's leg and tries to weaken her with multiple frog splashes.

This is what I love about this match, OJMO’s character work is just brilliant, Rhio as a gutsy babyface is so enjoyable to watch and the crowd was so rowdy here that this had a hell of an atmosphere.

47. Greedy Souls (Danny Jones & Brendan White) vs Sunshine Machine (TK Cooper & Chuck Mambo): Street Fight for the RevPro Undisputed British Tag Team Championships - RevPro “Uprising 2022” (17/12)

The story for this match started off in October when the Greedy Souls ended Sunshine Machine’s nine-month title reign at the 229. a rematch was held in November with the Souls getting themselves counted out, then in the rematch in December, they got themselves DQ’d leading to this Street Fight at York Hall.

Now I’ll be honest, the matches leading up to this point felt underwhelming, and I really like everyone involved in this feud, but when it came to this stage, they really did deliver.

This was a proper brawl of a Street Fight, they made this mean something and the crowd got completely behind it, there was blood as well which really did add to it. Mambo with his short hair and blood was a hell of a visual as well. The Souls threw Mambo through the chairs where me and my brother was, only for TK to dive off the stage to take both of them out. Plus the finish of this made the Souls just look like complete killers.

46. Jordon Breaks & Nino Bryant vs Destination: Everywhere (The O.J.M.O & Connor Mills) - Purpose Wrestling “March of the Dogs'' (08/07)

These four men have been the highlights of Purpose Wrestling for me, in all the different matches between all the different combos, so bringing them together was a very smart idea from Purpose before the big tournament final in August and these four delivered a match that went above and beyond everybody’s expectations.

The creativity in this match with some of the combos and different styles were just brilliant to see, this is a match that you could see happening at one of the big promotion in Europe and getting over.

This was a fantastic match overall with a very smart finish indeed that led to the title tournament final the month after. This one may get lost in the shuffle but it deserves recognition for truly how great this was.

45. Sunshine Machine (TK Cooper & Chuck Mambo) vs The 0121 (Man Like Dereiss & Dan Moloney) vs Smokin' Aces (Charlie Sterling & Nick Riley): Ladder Match for the PROGRESS Tag Team Championships - PROGRESS “Chapter 135: Super Strong Style 16 - Day 2” (04/06)

The first of two ladder matches we’ll be talking about on this list, this opened PROGRESS’ first SSS16 since 2019 on the second day with one of the bigger attendances seen in the Ballroom in a while; this featured three teams who’s been prominent in making tag team wrestling work so well across a few promotions this year.

Right from the start, this was an action packed match and, for lack of a better way of putting it, it felt like a proper WWE Ladder match with the big bumps and work that make Ladder matches a special attraction if done right.

There was so much here to mention and everybody brought their A-Game, my personal highlight of the match was seeing TK Cooper’s nod to Cesaro and going on a run taking out everybody.

The moment of Sunshine Machine winning here as well is a happy one and something I had feelings for in a good way.

44. Alexxis Falcon vs Lana Austin: No Disqualifications Match for the TNT Extreme Women’s Championship - PROGRESS “Who Runs the World?” (22/03)

*Credit: @theheaddrop/PROGRESS Wrestling*

These two great wrestlers just went out there and killed it, they worked like it was a big show and it delivered for the audience and ended up being one of the best matches PROGRESS have had on their shows all year.

The feud was so well built in this match, the moves both with and without weapons delivered at full force and there was more hatred in this match than every Deathmatch I’ve seen this year.

Just one more thing to mention as well, it's clear that this match means a lot to Lana and Alexxis, from when I’ve spoken to them about this match in person and what they’ve said on social media. A true hidden gem that everyone should watch.

43. Luke Jacobs vs Man Like Dereiss: PROGRESS Atlas Championship Match - PROGRESS “Chapter 139: Warriors Come Out to Play” (28/08)

These two have been complete highlights of this scene this year, and they just absolutely smashed it out there, it was truly a great athletic sprint of a match with some big moments peppered in there as well, and the crowd was genuinely into it as well, meaning the atmosphere was really good in the Ballroom again.

These two worked so well together and if there’s one issue with the match then it’s the fact that nothing else on the show could follow this or match this match, it’s an absolute cracker.

42. Eddie Dennis vs Danny Jones - Defend Indy Wrestling “Oblivion at the Pavilion” (27/11)

*Credit: @blueradical/Defend Indy Wrestling*

Oblivion at the Pavilion is one of my favourite shows of the whole year, from top to bottom this was just a really easy show to watch with a great crowd, great venue and some of the best talents that Wales and the South West on display, and this just topped it off really well.

Seeing Eddie Dennis in his home town of Swansea was one of the drawing aspects for me to this show, and I don’t think I’ve seen a wrestler have more fun in a match this year than Eddie, he gave a truly wonderful performance and had a great opponent in Danny to create a great main event that everyone was into.

Great match throughout, with a very traditional story told really well and a fantastic finish with Eddie performing the Severn Bridge on Danny but throwing him in the ring from the outside.

41. ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey vs Bobby Gunns: #1 Contenders Match - wXw “World Tag Team Festival 2022 - Night 1” (01/10)

One of the stars of the wXw tag festival weekend was ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey, he had great matches over the weekend but I’ve chosen his first night battle against Bobby Gunns for this list.

The match itself is just great, these two were just made for each other as far as wrestling goes, Gunns is at his best when he’s systematically breaking down an opponent and damaging a body part which he did here by taking down Speedball’s knee; it eventually becomes a strike out competition between the pair, with neither giving in.

Speedball sold his knee in this match unlike most wrestlers can and even though he won this match, the injury built into the weekend and gave this match a bigger sense of purpose, credit to Gunns as well who was brilliant in this bout.

Check out entries 40-31 here

The Top 50 Matches Of The Year: 50-41

The Top 50 Matches Of The Year: 40-31

Grapple Theory End Of Year Awards 2022