After having an incredibly strong 2021, AEW has officially kicked off their 2022 year with a bang, featuring some great television matches in the early stages of the year with Hangman Page's incredible AEW World Championship Matches against Bryan Danielson and Lance Archer among the very best.
With AEW's Revolution PPV event headlined by the AEW World Championship Match between defending champion, Hangman Page, and the Undisputed Original, Adam Cole, the first PPV of 2022 from All Elite Wrestling is now in the books! It featured 12 total matches including the buy-in, that for the most part delivered across the board.
12 Hook vs QT Marshall
A match that has been built up primarily on AEW Rampage and through QT's appearances on AEW Dark, Hook finally got his hands on the leader of The Factory during The Buy-In. Hook remains impressive as always, though this was his biggest test, being on a bigger stage and not being a squash match, with Hook needing to do a bit of selling for QT. This ended up being nothing all too special, but it was nice to see Hook get a showcase.
11 Britt Baker vs Thunder Rosa (AEW Women's World Championship Match)
Almost a year to their famous Lights Out Match in 2021, Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa finally met in this long-awaited rematch, now for the AEW Women's World Championship, which also received a major face lift, now looking on the same level as the AEW World Championship. While it did not reach the level of their match a year ago, this was one of Britt's better defenses, on the same level as her matches against Riho & Kris. The biggest issues this match had were a fairly tame crowd and incessant interference from Hayter & Rebel, though it is likely to set up a rematch at St. Patrick's Day Slam.
10 Kris Statlander vs Leyla Hirsch
Kicking off the AEW Revolution Buy-In, Kris Statlander and Leyla Hirsch finally met as the two have been building to a match for quite some time across all of AEW's programming. For a match that some have been critical of over the build, these two went to war and offered up a very strong kickoff match, with Leyla Hirsch picking up a somewhat surprising win, though tainted through cheating.
9 Tay Conti vs Jade Cargill (TBS Championship Match)
Picking up back-to-back Championship Matches at AEW PPVs, facing Britt Baker at Full Gear and now taking on the undefeated Jade Cargill. Kicking off fast with Jade planting a kiss on Tay before going immediately for Jaded, with Conti then taking a bit of control with her judo-based and high-paced offense.
Not only was this a huge test for Jade, being her first PPV Title Defense, but it was also a test for Tay, as she was the more experienced wrestler for once. This was a good bout and was arguably Jade's best match to date, with her coming out of this 29-0.
8 House of Black vs Death Triangle & Erick Redbeard
This was one of the craziest pre-show matches that any company has done in quite some time, with wildly high octane action, with several genuine OMG Moments, like Brody King hitting a DVD on Redbeard and Penta nailing Malakai with a Fear Factor on the apron, even scoring a "This is Awesome!" chant from the crowd. Ultimately, House of Black picked up a win after misting Redbeard and nailing him with a few big moves to end the match.
7 Face Of The Revolution Ladder Match
Featuring six men, Orange Cassidy, Keith Lee, Rick Starks, Wardlow, Powerhouse Hobbs, & Christian Cage, this was the second ever Face of the Revolution Ladder Match, with the winner earning a TNT Championship Match. Including some innovative spots, including a fun one with Cassidy hanging onto a ladder monkey-bars style as Lee and Hobbs lifted it, Starks spearing Christian through the middle of a ladder, Wardlow powerbombing Starks onto a ladder, and Danhausen cursing a man, this offered a lot of variety, though it admittedly went a bit long.
6 Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, & Sting vs Andrade Family Office
Coming in as the semi main event for the show, this was the match that everyone labeled as a buffer/bathroom break match, and this was not that. This became an absolutely insane tornado tag match, with a Spanish fly off the entrance tunnel through two tables, Andrade looking like a beast, and Sting jumping off a balcony and putting Andrade through several tables.
5 Young Bucks vs reDRagon vs Jurassic Express (AEW World Tag Team Championship Match)
With AEW Revolution having offered one of the best tag team matches in history in 2020, with Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs the Young Bucks, putting on a 3-way match with three of the top teams in AEW, they had a lot to live up to. While this did not reach the heights of their 2020 predecessor, this was an unbelievably entertaining cluster of a match. Jurassic Express would end up scoring the win, adding a very impressive notch in their title reign.
4 Chris Jericho vs Eddie Kingston
AEW decided to kick off the proper PPV card with a hot match between Chris Jericho and Eddie Kingston, a feud that has heated up in recent weeks. This was a fight through and through, with Kingston showing a level of aggression similar to his feud with Punk, and Jericho doing his best to equalize his own against the younger man.
For fans of the Japanese style of professional wrestling, this fit in right at home amongst what fans could expect from promotions like New Japan and Noah rather than a typical AEW match. This was a very, very hot opener for the show and also allowed Eddie to finally win the big one!
3 Jon Moxley vs Bryan Danielson
Bryan Danielson has been preaching lessons in violence to the younger AEW roster, and finally got the chance to face off against Jon Moxley during their bout in the latter half of Revolution. Coming after the Baker v Rosa match, this had a lot of lifting to do after that match killed the crowd, and they did indeed wake them up with their own breed of violence.
Moxley stole the win, but the huge news coming out of this was William Regal making his AEW Debut and serving as a force to get Moxley and Bryan on the same page. Very, very exciting stuff!
2 Hangman Page vs Adam Cole (AEW World Championship)
Adam Cole has reached the level he was at during his peak in NXT, delivering one of the best AEW World Championship Matches against Hangman Page in the main event of AEW Revolution. Despite Page already having three amazing title defenses, this was his first PPV defense, and it delivered in spades.
Boasting an extremely hot crowd and offering some phenomenal in-ring action, this match deserved the main event slot. Easily Cole's best singles match since becoming #AllElite, and another amazing title match for the Hangman, this was the perfect main event to cap off AEW's first PPV of the year.
1 CM Punk vs MJF (Dog Collar Match)
Arguably the hottest feud in all wrestling so far in 2022, Punk and MJF met in a rematch from their bout in Chicago, this time in a Dog Collar Match at AEW Revolution. A serious tone was set for this from the jump, with Punk entering to his old AFI theme from Ring Of Honor, with a different mood than his Cult of Personality theme.
Mileage may vary depending on how weak your stomach is, with this match being a bloodbath, but this was an incredible payoff to not only the MJF vs CM Punk feud, but also MJF and Wardlow's relationship since 2019. CM Punk picked up the win after a war between the two men, thanks to an assist from Wardlow in another extremely strong match for Punk's AEW Career.