The 2022 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Awards Nominees for Wrestling

2022 was a chaotic year for professional wrestling. While the COVID-19 pandemic no longer halted promotions from touring, both WWE and AEW had to deal with backstage turmoil while trying to put the best possible product in front of fans. And in so many ways, they succeeded. New champions were crowned, blood was split, stars were born and unforgettable moments were made. 

To celebrate the best of 2022, ComicBook has once again assembled its team of wrestling writers to announce the 2022 Golden Issues Awards. Below you can see all of our nominees in this year’s Wrestling category, including Best Male Wrestler, Best Female Wrestler, Best Tag Team, Best Rising Star, and Match of the Year.

Best Male Wrestler

This November marked 10 years since The Shield first debuted on WWE’s main roster. Ironically, a full decade later and one could make the argument that the wrestling world was run by the same trio. Roman Reigns’ unstoppable run as “The Tribal Chief” only increased as the year went on, combining the Universal and WWE Championships, expanding The Bloodline to include Solo Sikoa and Sami Zayn (who was also strongly considered for this list) and had his world championship reign extend past 800 days. 

Meanwhile, Rollins’ development of “The Visionary” eventually turned him into the top babyface on Monday Night Raw and his United States Championship victory made him the second man in company history to become a two-time Grand Slam Champion under its current format.

Finally, Jon Moxley was the one constant in what was otherwise a chaotic year for AEW. His interim AEW World Championship reign helped steer the company through a massive injury bug over the summer and his record-breaking third world championship reign helped the company get past the infamous “Brawl Out” incident. He even put over MJF on the final pay-per-view of the year, setting up AEW’s entire main event direction for 2023. 

Will Ospreay makes the list thanks to the slew of Match of the Year contenders he put up along with his jaw-dropping crossovers with AEW. Impact’s Josh Alexander also gets a nod as his Impact World Championship reign will officially become the longest in company history in early January.

• Roman Reigns
• Jon Moxley 
• Seth Rollins
• Will Ospreay
• Josh Alexander

Best Female Wrestler

Bianca Belair may have lost a step in momentum due to the booking of SummerSlam 2021, but she managed to bounce back in a major way with yet another show-stealing WrestleMania match and a Raw Women’s Championship reign that just broke 250 days. 

Elsewhere, Jade Cargill continued her undefeated run as TBS Champion, Mandy Rose utterly dominated the NXT Women’s Division before her sudden release, Toni Storm had a valiant run as AEW Women’s World Champion and Becky Lynch got the chance to show off her acting chops as both a babyface and heel throughout the year.

• Bianca Belair
• Jade Cargill
• Mandy Rose
• Toni Storm
• Becky Lynch

Best Tag Team

In many ways, the tag team scene was a two-horse race in 2022. FTR found themselves drenched in gold as they held the ROH, AAA and IWGP World Tag Team Championships consecutively throughout most of the year, all while putting on a trio of all-time classics against The Bricoes. But on the other side you have The Usos, who not only unified the Raw and SmackDown tag titles but set the new record for the longest WWE tag team championship reign of all time. 

But there were plenty of highlights for other tag teams around the world. The Acclaimed’s Max Caster and Anthony Bowens became the surprise breakout stars of the year for AEW, Swerve in Our Glory had an unlikely tag team run that produced some killer matches and Jay & Mark Briscoe found success not just in ROH but Impact and GCW as well.

• FTR
• The Usos
• The Acclaimed
• The Briscoes
• Swerve in Our Glory

Rising Star

2022 proved to be a breakout year for many young stars, making this one of the hardest categories to narrow down to just five nominees. Carmelo Hayes set a new standard for the NXT North American Championship across his record-breaking two reigns. Jamie Hayter provided AEW’s Women’s Division with one of its best moments of the year by beating Toni Storm for the AEW Women’s Championship. HOOK went from being a meme to one of AEW’s most genuinely popular stars and the FTW Champion. 

Roxanne Perez was the ROH Women’s World, NXT Women’s Tag Team and NXT Women’s Champion all within the span of the year (and is only 21) and Wardlow finally saw his years-long storyline with MJF culminate in a dominant win at Double or Nothing and a reign as TNT Champion

• Carmelo Hayes
• Jamie Hayter
• HOOK
• Roxanne Perez
• Wardlow

Match of the Year

The best matches of 2022 were all a combination of violent and emotional. CM Punk and MJF ended what is arguably AEW’s best feud to date with an incredibly bloody match, Gunther and Sheamus beat the tar out of each other in front of a white-hot Cardiff, Wales stadium crowd, Cody Rhodes gutted his way through a torn pec to beat Seth Rollins inside Hell in a Cell and Bianca Belair finally got her hands on Becky Lynch at WrestleMania to win the Raw Women’s Championship.

But then there’s FTR vs. The Briscoes. Both their initial match and their Two-out-of-Three Falls encounter were high on the nominations list and the Dog Collar Match might have blown past both of them if it made it before the nominations deadline. But we decided to stick with their first bout at Supercard of Honor, since there’s always something special about a first-time matchup.

• CM Punk vs. MJF (Dog Collar Match) at AEW Revolution
• Gunther vs. Sheamus at Clash at the Castle
• Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell
• FTR vs. The Briscoes at Supercard of Honor
• Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 38