There is an awful lot of News in wrestling. Some of it is useful, a lot of it boils down to noise. Clickbait headlines or unsourced rumours are sadly all too common. Hopefully, this simple round-up of the week’s happenings can help cut through that. This column isn’t infallible obviously but every effort will be made to capture and cover everything, things will be missed but nobody’s perfect. Enjoy. We’re covering 24th / 30th January 2022, which covers the Royal Rumble 2022, AEW Beach Break 2022 and some BritWres with WrestleCarnival!
24th / 30th January 2022 | WWE
Raw featured more of the continuing listlessness that pervades the WWE product at the moment. Even as the go-home Raw before one of the biggest shows of the year nothing really broke out or made an impression – Alexa Bliss continues her ‘spooky’ return but ended up being nowhere near the Royal Rumble – The heel vs heel match-up of Becky Lynch vs Doudrop didn’t take an unexpected twist, meaning it went in the Rumble as a pretty cold rivalry – Bobby Lashley vs Brock Lesnar did the opposite and managed not to mess up what should be a simple rivalry – the best match of the night saw AJ Styles elevate a very game Austin Theory in defeat, a sign that the faith WWE are putting in the youngster isn’t entirely misplaced.
NXT 2.0 was more of the same without a major show to build towards – the Dusty Rhodes tag team classic continued with two first-round matches that saw MSK and the Grizzled Young Veterans both advance – Solo Sikoa paid tribute to his uncle Umaga during his victory over Boa – spoiled rich girl Tiffany Stratton lost just her second match since debuting, albeit to Io Shirai – Cameron Grimes became the number one contender to the North American title by defeating Tony D’Angelo – Singer Ollie Jayy gave a musical performance
Smackdown was the true go-home show for the Royal Rumble and continued to be slightly elevated above Raw in quality – Naomi finally got a match against Sonya Deville, one she won – Big E has been drafted back to Smackdown permanently, four months after he left for Raw – Sasha Banks returned one night before it would have been most impactful – Seth Rollins got under the skin of Roman Reigns by bringing up their extensive past and added more fuel to their title match at the royal rumble – four NXT wrestlers worked in dark matches before the show, Dakota Kai, Io Shirai, Roderick Strong and Tommaso Ciampa
The Royal Rumble is one of the most anticipated WWE shows of the year but expectations weren’t massively high going into this years event – Seth Rollins appeared for his match with Roman Reigns in full SHIELD attire and with the full entrance, something that added more bite to an entertaining match that ended when Reigns refused to give up a hold on Rollins and got himself disqualified – the woman’s rumble match was the more entertaining of the two, headlined by the numerous returning faces from the past and a victory by the also returning Ronda Rousey, as soon as she entered her victory looked certain – Becky Lynch defeated Doudrop in a match where the crowd was more interested by a small fire in the lighting gantry than anything they did, unfortunately – Bobby Lashley won his third WWE Championship after a hoss fight with Brock Lesnar that almost lived up to its billing, the headline though is Paul Heyman turning his back on Lesnar and helping Roman Reigns to interfere and cost Lesnar – Beth Phoenix & Edge vs The Miz and Maryse was inoffensive filler won by the babyface couple – the Men’s rumble was a huge letdown, with few memorable moments and a winner who’s victory was clear from the moment they entered, Brock Lesnar, who remains WWE’s preferred option when they aren’t sure what to do
In other news, the saga of Mustafa Ali requesting his release continues as he keeps asking and keeps being refused, why exactly a company that has let so many talents go over the last two years won’t let someone who wants to leave go isn’t exactly clear. Brian Kendrick has also requested his release, but more on that later…
24th / 30th January 2022 | AEW
Dynamite hosted a Beach break special that kicked off with it’s the best foot forward – Sammy Guevara became the undisputed TNT Champion in a hellacious ladder match against Cody Rhodes, both men taking huge risks in a contest that will be high on many people’s match of the year lists come December – Wardlow continued his turn by showing more dissatisfaction with MJF during an attack on CM Punk – Punk and MJF crafted another stellar verbal back and forth, and will face each other in a match on the very next Dynamite – The Inner Circle got a win over 2.0 and Daniel Garcia but the issues between Santana & Ortiz and Chris Jericho continued as the duo essentially ignored their ostensible leader for the whole match – Leyla Hirsch blew off her issues with Red Velvet with a win – A lights out match between Adam Cole and Orange Cassidy seemingly ended their ongoing feud, a fun brawl in itself most notable for the debuting Danhausen, a cult sensation who appeared to have been living under the ring
Rampage saw Jon Moxley return to the ring for AEW with a victory over a game Anthony Bowens – FTR defeated the improving duo of Brock Anderson and Lee Johnson – Jade Cargill kept her winning streak going with a quick victory over Julia Hart – Jurassic Express continued to be fighting champions as they successfully defended the Tag Team Titles against Private Party before being attacked by Gunn Club, who have been targeting the champions recently –
24th / 30th January 2022 | BritWres
MDRN NMD brought back TNG for a second time with a very entertaining card that featured a cross-section of the UK scene in a varied manner. The two major stand out matches were Kid Lykos vs Chris Ridgeway and Dean Allmark vs Martin Kirby, both were genuinely exceptional. Special mention must go to Gene Munny though as his noir detective persona remains one of the most fun things to watch, any chance to see this needs to be taken.
RevPro held one of their biggest regular events in High Stakes, a show that has got a lot of rave reviews from those that were there. No titles changed hands as Alex Windsor retained over Charli Evans, Sunshine Machine beat Aussie Open and Will Ospreay held onto his Heavyweight Title by beating Cruiserweight Champ Michael Oku in a match that went over 40 minutes.
One of the UK’s most quickly rising companies Wrestle Carnival crowned their first champions at the aptly named Carnival of Champions. Mr Charles Crowley overcame a stacked field to win the Men’s title, a man who embodies the variety show ethos of Wrestle Carnival (he can do it all) Crowley looks set for an entertaining title run. Alex Windsor won the women’s title in another stacked match as she continues to solidify her place as one of the top women in the country. The most notable other moments featured two returning hometown favourites coming back to Nottingham. Joseph Conners made a passionate address to the crowd where he touched on mental health and his long journey in wrestling and now looks set to face Nathan Cruz on his return to the ring. In an absolute classic Gabriel Kidd tore the house down with fellow New Japan dojo member Yota Tsuji. They traded dozens of hard strikes and showed the grit that defines the company they work for. Kidd won but, as he said in a post-match speech, these two are destined to do this for a long time yet.
24th / 30th January 2022 | US Independents
The biggest occurrence on the US independent scene was the return of PWG’s much-vaunted Battle of Los Angeles tournament. A typically stacked assortment of the best of the US scene was won after two gruelling days by Daniel Garcia who defeated Mike Bailey in the final to assert his growing potential as one of the up and coming stars in US wrestling.