The Top 50 Matches Of The Year: 5-1
Credit: Wrestling Resurgence
This was Charli’s return to Resurgence and she laid down the challenge to Cara Noir to face her for the title. Cara blindsided her at the introductions and started this match by brutalising her around the stage area, being viscous as he had recently turned heel in Resurgence
It was actually quite refreshing to watch Cara as a heel. Charli’s comebacks and offence were on point as well as the way she was bumping for Noir, especially off the German Suplexes.
These two worked so well together, everything they did was in sync, like it was a dance but still maintained that grit that gave this match the hook it had on the audience, an absolutely sensational match that I have very fond memories of.
4. Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) vs VeloCities (Paris de Silva & Jude London) - RevPro “Epic Encounter 2022” (22/05)
Credit: RevPro
This was the semi-main and Aussie Open came out as the fan favourites, being cheered overwhelmingly even though they were heels. I remember feeling really pissed off that Velocities weren’t getting a reaction, I was very invested in this match as you can tell.
Aussie Open absolutely dominated Velocities for the first part of this match, slamming them around. Davis threw Paris into the ring post, but when Velocities came back they came back in strong fashion. This started the wave of fans turning in favour of Velocities.
As this match broke down it became one of the most spectacular matches I’ve seen in York Hall; I remember the Shooting Star DDT from Paris so vividly, the crowd gave it a standing ovation before the match had even ended.
Aussie Open won this but the stars here were Velocities who had a good UK tour after, winning over a lot of people. I’m so fortunate to have seen this match live, and brought things full circle.
3. Miyu Yamashita vs Alex Windsor: EVE Championship Match - EVE Wrestling “WrestleQueendom V - Show 2” (13/11)
I covered the match with Millie earlier on the list so let’s talk about her second match that day in a Title Challenge against Alex Windsor.
This is another match that is less than 20 Minutes and absolutely delivers, these two are at the top of their game. Windsor took what she did in the VENY match and just turned it up to eleven, and Yamashita was there with her every step of the way.
Miyu’s striking in this match was top notch, and the nearfalls towards the end, once they kicked out of each other’s finishers, had the crowd reeling.
When Miyu won the shocked reaction was amazing. This is the high level wrestling I love watching live and really proves why 2022 was great for Alex Windsor.
2. Fuminori Abe & Shigehiro Irie vs Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku & Dominic Garrini): World Tag Team Festival Tournament Block B Match - wXw “World Tag Team Festival 2022 - Night 2” (02/10)
Credit: wXw
This match did start off very comedically with them kissing each other and showing that each team had more love, before the “Auf Die Fresse'' chants started kicking in. This led to Dominic asking what that meant.
All four of them took turns to battle in the ring before it was taken to the outside, where they took turns to run around the ring and finish with strikes before it got back in and got into why I love this match; the escalation of violence.
These four just keep going, getting more and more brutal with each other, before the climax of the the violence was Abe grabbing Ku and hitting him with a sickening headbutt that was loud inside in the venue and invoked such a raw reaction from the crowd including myself which led to the amazing visual of Ku’s bloody face and still trying to fight on.
This is quite simply one of my favourite ever wXw matches and made my weekend in Germany, a truly wonderful experience.
1. Will Ospreay vs Michael Oku: RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship Match - RevPro “High Stakes 2022” (29/01)
Credit: RevPro
This is the one, throughout all this time and the many matches I have seen, this match is the best that I saw in 2022, this match is an experience that I just will never forget.
I was so looking forward to this match, the build they gave it was really well done and got people in for this match, York Hall was very busy.
This truly felt big time between both of them, they walked out during their entrances looking like superstars, and the atmosphere was hot (even though we had one Ospreay fan saying some very inappropriate things to me and my mates).
The first half of this match is a really good wrestling match because it’s two great wrestlers. The match does go up to that next level when Oku is pushed from the top rope to the outside and crashes into the ringside table where Oku is busted open.
Ospreay takes advantage of this by punching at the wound, kicking at it and just generally wounding Oku further, he also does this all in front of Oku’s family and his Girlfriend Amira who would be a key factor to this match.
On the outside Ospreay is taunting Amira, leading to Amira throwing a drink into Ospreay’s face, Ospreay then drags her beyond the barrier which got a massive reaction from the audience.
This fires Oku up and he dropkicks Ospreay into the barrier, before diving onto him on the outside, this does lead to Ospreay being busted open as well once he’s back in the ring. From this point onwards, the crowd are electric for this match, completely living and dying at all times.
I genuinely thought, through a lot of this portion of the match, that Oku was going to win. When he had Ospreay in the Half Crab I was yelling at Ospreay to tap out, my personal emotional investment in this match was at an all time high, it adds to why I love this match.
Another thing I loved was the drama, especially surrounding Amira and Connor Mills. Amira tells Mills to throw in the towel but Mills is not doing it because of Oku saying he doesn’t want to be lose by knockout again.
Amira snatched the towel and threw it in, Oscar Harding was not able to do anything so Ospreay wiped Oku’s blood on the towel and just threw it at Amira right in the face, before hitting him with at least half a dozen Hidden Blades before finally finishing him off with the Stormbreaker. Amira, Mills and the Oku family coming into check on Michael.
When I checked Gagde’s tweets after and saw this match went 41 odd minutes, I could not believe it, it absolutely flew by, I don’t normally like long matches and much prefer matches that go 20 or less, but this match deserved the time it had and created a truly special match that I just will never forget at all, for one night, it felt like we was back in the BritWres boom again watching a match that the world will watch.
This is a match that makes me proud to be an independent wrestling fan and attend live shows to watch moments like this, that’s why it’s my number one.