Ten years removed from their WWE debut and one can make the argument that The Shield ran the wrestling world in 2022. Roman Reigns continued his utter dominance over WWE’s main event scene, Jon Moxley was the rock AEW needed in its hour of need and Seth Rollins slowly developed into the most beloved babyface on Monday Night Raw. But the title of Best Male Wrestler of 2022 wasn’t just a three-horse race as New Japan’s Will Ospreay seemed to produce a new in-ring classic on a weekly basis while Josh Alexander established himself as the face of Impact Wrestling en route to a record-breaking Impact World Championship reign. But only one can truly be called best of the year, and thanks to ComicBook’s staff we were able to determine which man stood out from the rest.
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And the winner of the 2022 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Male Wrestler is…
Roman Reigns!
“The Tribal Chief” is now the first man in history to win the award in back-to-back years, and it’s hard to argue against it. After crushing WWE’s main event scene in 2021, Reigns took things a step further by unifying the WWE and Universal Championships by defeating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38. He announced shortly after the event that he had recently signed a new WWE contract that would require fewer dates, which resulted in his championship defenses and television appearances becoming less frequent. And while that did initially result in backlash from fans, Reigns and the entire Bloodline were able to turn things back around by adding Sami Zayn (who was also heavily considered as a nominee for the award) into the group as the “Honorary Uce.”
Suddenly, every segment involving The Bloodline became must-see television and resulted in every member of the group stepping up their game in the acting department. But even without Zayn, Reigns still managed to have an incredibly strong second half of 2022. He and Brock Lesnar managed to win over fans with yet another match at SummerSlam, his bout with Drew McIntyre at Clash at the Castle is considered by many to be one of the best of the year and his defense against Logan Paul in Saudi Arabia managed to blow expectations out of the water. Fans are even chomping at the bit to see Reigns back in action this Friday on SmackDown when he and Zayn team up to face Kevin Owens and a returning John Cena.
Reigns is also in a prime position to go for a three-peat in 2023. He’ll surpass 900 days as world champion in mid-February and is gearing up for what could be one of the biggest WrestleMania matches in history against (reportedly) Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. And regardless of what happens at Mania, it doesn’t look like Reigns’ dominance over WWE will end anytime soon.
The nominees for Best Male Wrestler are…
- Josh Alexander
- Jon Moxley
- Seth Rollins
- Roman Reigns — WINNER
- Will Ospreay
