Hola! This is week 3 of my year long series Wrestlers of the Week, Where I will be very bias every week and use these biases to decide who the best wrestler of 2022 is!
Currently the top 5 are
1) Alex Colon 24 points
2) Dragon Dia & Carmelo Hayes 20 points
4) Bron Brakker & Speedball Mike Bailey 19 points
Now let’s go over the rules
The rules are simple!
20th place gets 1 point 19th gets 2 points and so on.
Any match that was released weather live or not will count towards the rankings! For example BODYSLAM! uploaded 3 shows this week so everything from those shows is eligible to affect the rankings!
Now let’s see the honorable mentions!
Sadika
Raychell Rose
Sawyer Wreck
Tony Deppen
GUNTHER
Now let’s get into the rankings!
#20 Alex Colon
Alex Colon makes his 3rd appearance on this list after having a very fun Scaffold & Light Tubes match against Jake Crist. Alex also had a 3 way Marcus Crane tribute deathmatch that Colon lost and took the pin in. Overall not a super strong week but enough for him to increase his lead.
Total Points: 25
#19 Yuna Manase
Yuna Manase also had a 50% win record this week but had 4 matches instead of 2 but the main reason Yuna mad this list this week is she had a very fun match at DDT Ganbare Pro Yumehito Imanari Produce – Ganbare Prime 2022 against Totoro Satsuki. She also become a police woman which made her drop down a spot because we here at Parts Unknown Press hate cops. But nonetheless Yuna has still earned 2 points this week.
Total Points: 2
#18 Colby Corino
The first of many to come from Deadlock Pro Wrestling’s You Already know event. Colby had an impromptu hardcore match with Gringo Loco after Alex Colon had to pull out due to covid reasons (He’s fine though!) and Gringo also had to find a new opponent last minute after Frightmare tested positive. So with everything not in their favor these 2 decided to have a great hardcore match with eachother with a lot of doors, and a big fucking carpet strip bat. Colby got the win and got a big 3 points this week.
Total Points: 3
#17 Shoko Nakajima
The current number 1 contender for the Princess Of Princess Championship competed in Tokyo Joshi pro’s annual Futari No Princess Max Heart Tournament 2022 and made it to the second round before being eliminated by Hakuchumu. But Shoko picked up an important victory over Magical Sugar Rabbits who just so happen to be the Princess Tag Team Champions so Shoko looks to have a busy few months coming up with a lot of championships in mind.
Total points: 10
#16 Francesco Akira
Former All Japan mainstay Francesco Akira had a match of his uploaded to IWTV this week that might have been my favorite non title match of the week. Akira wrestled a dude named Ender Kara at BODYSLAM! Anarchy In The DK and it shocked me. I’ve never been huge on All Japan so I missed a lot of Akira’s best work but after this I pan on watching more when I have the chance.
Total Points: 5
#15 Calvin Tankman
The second DPW appearance on this list. Calvin Tankman had a very strong and hard fought victory over All Heart Blake Christian at Deadlock’s You Already Know event. This was 15 minutes of these 2 hitting each other with some of the most brutal shots I’ve seen and Blake Christian almost slaying the monster but Tankman overcame that and won in an amazing match.
Total Points: 6
#14 Ryo Mizunami
Once again another Deadlock entrant, the former Beyond The Sea champion came back to America to wrestle Yuu for the first time in America and once again defeated her. Ryo now is 3-0 against Yuu in 1 on 1 competition and all of the matches were bangers. Ryo looks to have an interesting year and I’m excited to see what she does next
Total Points: 7
#13 Kidd Bandit
Well would you look at that? Another Deadlock Pro Wrestling entrant, If you haven’t been able to tell this show was one of the best of the year so far. And a big part of that is because of Kidd Bandit who in my opinion is the future of American independents. Bandit scored their first victory in DPW against Dragon Gate’s #1 English commentator and 205 live legend Ho Ho Lun and cut an emotional promo before being attacked by Lucky Ali afterwards. I can almost promise you this will not be the last time we see Kidd Bandit on this list and I’m so excited to see more of them.
Total Points: 8
#12 Miu Watanabe
Miu Watanabe went undefeated this week first in a 8 women tag match and then in the second round of the Futari No Princess Max Heart Tournament. Miu not only stood out in both matches but got this high on the list because of the athleticism and strength she put on display during her match against Hyper Misao & Shoko Nakajima where she delivered a giant swing to both of them at the same time which blew my mind.
Total Points: 9
#11 Adonis & Xander
The first ever tag team to get on because I genuinely couldn’t pick one over the other. Adonis & Xander also known as RandersPagne were a huge part of the 3 BODYSLAM shows uploaded onto IWTV this week. First they successfully defended their tag titles at BODYSLAM! Wrestling På Tobakken, Then they were apart of the winning Survivor Series team at BODYSLAM! Anarchy In The DK and finally they lost their tag titles to Michael Fynne & Tank at BODYSLAM! Piledriving Home For Christmas in a very fun match. RandersPagne become the first team to score points which will be handed out individually.
Total points: 10
#10 Asuka/Veny
ASUKA was all over the place this week with a 3/4 record this week all in tag tournament action as well. Asuka started the week defeating Cherry & Mizuki Watase then losing to Itsuki Aoki & Shigehiro Irie in the finals on the same show. Asuka then went over to Tokyo Joshi Pro where they got tag victories over Marika Kobashi & Raku & 121000000 (Maki Ito & Miyu Yamashita). Asuka looks good going into the future rounds of the tournament and could have their eyes on gold coming very soon.
Total points: 11
#9 Ace Austin
Ace Austin had a successful title defense against Alex Zayne, Blake Christian & Andrew Everett at Pro Wrestling REVOLVER Once Upon A Time In Iowa in what was a very fun 10 minute match featuring a lot of flips and a lot of cool other shit. Probably the best match of the night too.
Total Points: 12
#8 Tatsuhito Takaiwa
Tatsuhito Takaiwa had a successful Spirit Of Ganbare World Openweight Title defense against Ken Ohka DDT Ganbare Pro Tropic Thunder 2022 in a very fun match. This was a simple but hard hitting match. I don’t know much about Takaiwa but this was a fun introduction to him and I hope to see him more soon
Total Points: 13
#7 Yuki Kamifuku
Yuki Kamifuku had a big week this week. She won her 2 tournament tag team matches along side her partner Asuka but the bigger story of the week is Yuki Kamifuku pinned Maki Itoh which in my mind puts her in line for a International Princess Championship match in the future.
Total Points: 14
#6 Shigehiro Irie
Shigehiro Irie had a undefeated week this week with 4 wins all at Ganbare. He won the Hardcore Mixed Tag Tournament with Itsuki AokiThen won a tag match with Nobuhiro Shimatani and also won a match with Mizuki Watase all being good matches where he shined and usually got the pin for his team, Hopefully this is the year Irie comes back to America
Total Points: 15
#5 AJ Gray
AJ Gray is once again on the list and joins Alex Colon as the only ones to show up every week so far. AJ earned this spot this week by winning the GCW Extreme Title in a great and fun match with Canadian legend PCO. If you’re a og GCW fan like me this probably means a lot to you like it does to me. Now we gotta hope he get’s a shot at the world title soon. But for now AJ Gray moves up to first place in the rankings.
Total Points: 33
#4 Jonathan Gresham
Gresham once again proved me wrong this week during his 3 ROH world title matches. Gresham had a very fun match with 2 Cold Scorpio, then had a Incredibly disappointing match with Josh Alexander that was probably my least favorite match of the week that didn’t have Moose in it, Then saved his week by having the best match of the week in his pure rules match against Steve Maclin. If you aren’t a Impact watcher I recommend at least watching this match because it has to be my favorite Impact match in years.
Total points: 30
#3 Katsuhiko Nakajima
Katsuhiko Nakajima had an absolute banger with Masa Kitamiya. Might not be match of the year contender but it was a very fun match none the less. Nakajima overcomes the challenge and retains his title before being challenged by Kazuyuki Fujita who seems very likely to win the title in my opinion. But for now Nakajima stays winning and overcomes AJ Gray’s lead and is now in 1st place.
Total Points: 34
#2 Bojack
The final Deadlock competitor on this weeks list is your current DPW world champion Bojack. Bojack won the title in the main event of You Already Know against Andrew Everett in a absolutely amazing match up. He then went on to win a 6 man tag in Action right at the end of evaluation period and just had the most bad ass look during all of it. 2022 is Bojack’s year for the taking.
Total Points: 19
#1 AC Mack
AC Mack is the new IWTV champion! The first openly gay male world champion in wrestling history according to the standards set by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. AC Mack’s accomplishments made him undoubtedly number 1 this week. AC Mack started this week losing a 4 way to Chris Bey but his match with Alex Shelley and after match promo was his story this week. AC Mack is a world champion and is here to stay.
Total Points: 20
Thank you for reading!
