Cook’s Top 5: Non-WWE Stories of 2022

With free agents available this year and borders ideally opening up, the landscape has changed. Let’s see where Cook thinks 2022 is headed!

It’s 2022, you know what that means! It’s time for your humble correspondent to predict the major stories of the upcoming year & just what’s going to happen in this crazy thing called the wrestling business. Today, we look at non-WWE business. We’re keeping AEW in this grouping for now, but perhaps that’ll change by the time 2023 rolls around. Let’s let it play out and see how it goes.

5. Does Ring of Honor come back?

We all know ROH is on a hiatus. As I write this, the official plan is for the company to return on WrestleMania weekend in Dallas with free agent talent. We’ll find out before WrestleMania weekend whether or not this will actually happen. Should it happen, it’d be a great opportunity for free agent talent. Say what you will about ROH under Sinclair Broadcasting, but the show airs on stations across the country & is a good chance for people to get exposure. WWE & AEW’s rosters both have plenty of names with ROH experience to their credit. It could be a great opportunity for new names to emerge and eventually move up to one of the top two North American promotions.

Or, maybe it doesn’t happen & those ROH tv slots either get filled with WOW or paid programming. I’m leaning towards ROH maybe having one or two shows before the plug gets pulled, but maybe the shows generate enough interest to keep things running. Final Battle seems to have done pretty well, maybe some momentum builds off that.

4. Will non-US promotions get back on the radar?

The pandemic pretty much derailed opportunities for foreign promotions to break into the US market. New Japan Pro Wrestling’s attempt to generate more business in America has certainly taken a hit. Its NJPW Strong show has met with critical acclaim but hasn’t generated a lot of interest outside the hardcore fanbase. Some of New Japan’s best did appear on American television regularly in 2021. Unfortunately for New Japan, some of the American names they had previously used to generate interest weren’t able to go to Japan. They hope that’ll change soon.

Then there’s the strange situation with AAA. They can get their titles on television via AEW & Impact Wrestling, but they haven’t been able to air their shows here. A lawsuit with their former partners in Lucha Underground has limited any gains AAA could get off of Penta, Rey Fenix and the rest of their talent making waves in the U.S.. They did manage to air TripleMania Regia on FITE TV, so maybe that’s a sign of things to come in 2022.

3. Will new feds emerge to take ROH’s spot?

ROH’s hiatus has already led to one new promotion. Jonathan Gresham’s Terminus Pro Wrestling will be running its first show in January, featuring many of Gresham’s like-minded pure wrestlers. Oh, and Bandido, who we assume will face Gresham in an ROH title match somewhere since they both have belts now. They’re even bringing in Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard, ROH’s announce team during what most people consider its creative apex. Terminus certainly seems to be positioning itself to be ROH’s spiritual successor.

Game Changer Wrestling isn’t a new fed, but it’s certainly seen a rise in prominence over the past couple of years. They’ve got a hold of the ultraviolent market, and now look to be expanding their horizons by bringing in non-hardcore ROH talent. They’ll be one of many promotions looking towards that talent pool to fill up their own.

2. Is Tony Khan doing too much?

The top 2 @AEW execs are brown (me & Megha)!! Jade, Bowens, Caster, Dante, Nyla, Isiah & Marq Quen all won on tv this month. The TBS Title Tournament has been very diverse. I let Swole’s contract expire as I felt her wrestling wasn’t good enough. #AEWRampage Street Fight TONIGHT! https://t.co/NprF6I7D6G

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) January 1, 2022

There’s a lot of different angles you could take the business with Tony & Big Swole that exploded on Friday. Most people are pushing the racism aspect because it gets clicks, but as a white boy from Kentucky I’m not even going to act like I have any knowledge or expertise that can be added to the situation. I think there’s something going on here that people are overlooking.

Think about it: Tony Khan is a pretty busy guy. He’s taken the AEW booking for himself with a little assistance. He’s also heavily involved with his soccer club in England & his American football team in Jacksonville. All three of these gigs involve more wheeling & dealing than most of us have to deal with on a daily basis. Tony’s still a young guy, which has positives and negatives. The good thing is that he has a ton of energy. The bad thing? He’s not the most emotionally mature person in the world. People that follow him on social media have seen that over & over again. Khan’s been known to go off on randos on Twitter that criticize his teams or his decision making. All it took was one clickbait headline for him to go off on how racially diverse AEW is and throw in a shot at an ex-employee for good measure.

Which leads to the following question: Is Tony Khan doing too much? Is he too wound up over everything going on? Aren’t there people in AEW that can take a few things off of his plate? Isn’t there somebody that could oversee his social media accounts? One of the things that could derail AEW’s momentum is for the company’s public image to take a gigantic hit, or a series of hits that all add up to people not wanting to support a company they hoped would be different.

Also, if he’s being stretched too thin, it’ll show in the quality of AEW’s television.

1. Which ex-WWE employees will shine?

It’s no secret that WWE released a ton of talent in 2021. Unless they all retire, there’s a pretty good chance that some of these people will have a big effect on 2022. So who are the names most likely to do so? We know Jeff Hardy’s heading to AEW to team with his brother against some of their top tag teams at some point. That’ll happen. As for people that haven’t been wrestling megastars for 20 years?

Keith Lee could be a big deal somewhere if his health holds up.
Mia Yim would fit in any women’s division.
Swerve Scott’s a pretty talented cat.
Toni Storm seems like a gigantic missed opportunity.

I haven’t even mentioned all the people that already got jobs somewhere. Bottom line: there’s a lot of experienced talent for people to utilize in 2022.