WWE Announces Bracket for 2022 ESPYS Awards' WWE Moment of the Year
WWE will once again be featured at ESPN's annual ESPYS awards this year as fans will get the chance to vote for the Best WWE Moment. The 16 nominations were announced in bracket form via WWE's YouTube page on Tuesday and fans can vote for each via ESPN.com. The opening round voting will take place from June 28 to July 5, the Elite 8 voting from July 5-8 and on July 8 the final four will be announced and voting will begin. The 2022 ESPYS is scheduled for July 20 on ABC.
The WWE award has previously appeared at the 2019 and 2021 ceremonies, with Becky Lynch's WrestleMania 35 win and Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair's WrestleMania 37 match taking home the awards. Below are the 16 nominations for this year's award:
- Brock Lesnar wins 2022 Men's Royal Rumble
- Bianca Belair wins Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 38
- John Cena returns at Money in the Bank 2021
- Ronda Rousey wins 2022 Women's Royal Rumble
- WWE welcomes back live fans
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin stuns Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 38
- Roman Reigns becomes the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 38
- Cody Rhodes returns to WWE at WrestleMania 38
- Big E cashes in Money in the Bank and wins WWE Championship
- The Miz turns on Logan Paul at WrestleMania 38
- Becky Lynch returns at SummerSlam 2021
- The Undertaker gets inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame
- Edge defeats Seth Rollins in Hell in a Cell at Crown Jewel 2021
- Wee Man bodyslams Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 38
- Brock Lesnar returns at SummerSlam 2021
- Steve Austin wrestles at WrestleMania 38
Given its placement in the bracket, Steve Austin's surprise final match will likely be a frontrunner to win the award. Austin has since talked about his decision to wrestle one last time (a No Holds Barred Match with Kevin Owens) in various interviews.
"I'm 100 percent," Austin said on The Brewbound Podcast. "I picked up a little bit of a cold the other day but I'm back home in Nevada. Shoot, [Saturday], I was 100 percent and of course went back in action on Sunday, did a little extra physicality as a part of the show but, you know, it's just an exciting time for me to back to a business that I really, really love and you know, I never thought I'd be back in a ring but, there we were headlining, main event for the -- headlining WrestleMania for night one and it was just truly an honor to be out there and really excited to be out there to -- just like the last few times I've been able to drink our beer, Broken Skull IPA out in the ring. Couple of years ago, we got a lot of exposure from that and just a real proud moment because when El Segundo and I decided to come out with a Lager which is what everybody was wanting, which is really satisfying because I've drank everybody's beer in the past. I've been drinking beer my whole life and I don't speak technical beer language but we've given all those other brands a little bit of a rub by using their beers. So, to go out there and drink our own beer was very satisfying."