MJF, The Bloodline and the Biggest Winners of AEW and WWE in 2022

Even in the scripted world of professional wrestling, wins and losses still do matter.

Everyone would rather be on the more successful side of life, capturing championships, putting on classic matches and receiving heaps of praise as top talent in their company.

Over the course of 2022, certain performers in WWE and AEW stepped up to the plate and hit the wrestling world's equivalent of home runs and grand slams, achieving career highlights and marking their names in the record books.

Let's look back on this year and hone in on the biggest winners in both companies and why they had the best showings in 2022.

The Bloodline had a great 2021, but they managed to kick it up another notch in 2022.

Roman Reigns unified his Universal Championship with Brock Lesnar's WWE Championship at WrestleMania 38 and continues to add numbers to his longest-ever universal title reign, currently at over 900 days. His WWE title reign specifically is already the third-longest since John Cena's 2006 run, only behind AJ Styles in 2017 and CM Punk in 2011.

The Usos also managed to unify the Raw and SmackDown Team Team Championships while beating The New Day's longest tag team title run in WWE history.

Solo Sikoa also leveled up to the main roster and temporarily won the NXT North American Championship in a match he wasn't even scheduled to compete in.

Outside of the titles, Sami Zayn has also been one of the most over acts in the company, stealing the show every week and acting as the glue holding The Bloodline together. He's arguably the best thing going on WWE programming these days and could be in store for great things in 2023.

The Bloodline won at WarGames, dominate every time they step in the ring and command more presence than anyone else on any brand in WWE.

In a year that was likely supposed to be all about CM Punk, the burden of responsibility fell on Jon Moxley to pick up the dropped ball and run with it.

Moxley stepped in to fill the void of not having a world champion after Punk's injury, represented AEW well at Forbidden Door and the subsequent months, and proved why he deserves a spot in the highest echelon on the roster.

In doing so, he became the first person to win the AEW World Championship twice.

Punk followed that up by beating him for the title at All Out, only to immediately get injured and suspended after the event, leading to Moxley again making history as the first three-time AEW world champion when he once more picked up the ball Punk had dropped.

Three of the women who saw the most success on Raw and SmackDown this year were Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan and Ronda Rousey.

For the second year in a row, Belair went into WrestleMania challenging for a championship and walked out with the gold around her waist. This time, she overcame Becky Lynch for the Raw women's title to offset her humiliating loss at SummerSlam 2021.

The EST of WWE has successfully defended that belt ever since, which has amounted to her strongest showing so far in her career.

In 2022, Morgan went from an underdog who had never even obtained a tag team title to winning Money in the Bank, cashing in on Rousey and winning the SmackDown Women's Championship.

She holds a distinction of technically having three wins over Rousey (two in singles competition, one in a tag team match), which no one else can say they've achieved.

Rousey herself, though, won the 2022 Royal Rumble, defeated Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship and won the blue brand's title back from Morgan for her third reign.

She's treated as being so far above everyone else at this point that she might as well not even defend her title for the next four months, as it is very clear she's not dropping it until WrestleMania 39, if not later.

As far as the top of AEW's women's division goes, Thunder Rosa was looking like a surefire candidate to be on this list at the beginning of the year when she won the AEW Women's World Championship, but her reign was lackluster and ended due to an injury.

In the meantime, Toni Storm stepped in, winning the interim title and defending it for 76 days until Jamie Hayter bested her at Full Gear.

Retroactively, both Storm and Hayter have had their status as interim champion upgraded to official after it became clear Rosa wouldn't be returning soon enough to justify why she hadn't simply vacated the belt in the first place.

It's been a rough year for the women's division in All Elite Wrestling, with not too many great things to show for all the struggles. But if any two women surrounding this belt deserve to pat themselves on the back, it is Storm and Hayter.

The only other success in the AEW women's division was Jade Cargill, who had a more impressive year on paper than anyone in the company.

She started 2022 by becoming the inaugural TBS champion and has maintained her undefeated record ever since.

It is growing harder and harder to imagine anyone being able to defeat her for the TBS Championship, which seems as tied to her as the Dynamite Diamond Ring is to MJF.

Cargill's still learning on the job, but she's improved steadily over 2022, too. She's at a better spot as a performer now than she's ever been, and her star power only seems to be rising.

Switching over to the NXT women's division, only four women have anything much to show for themselves.

Toxic Attraction stole most of the spotlight with Mandy Rose's near record-setting title reign atop the roster, which maxed out at 413 days—just three shy of besting Shayna Baszler's length.

Had it not been for her release, she might have held it even longer than Asuka's 522-day run.

Alongside her were teammates Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne, taking up a good amount of screen time and attention while holding the tag team division in the palm of their hands as they became two-time champions.

One of those losses was to Roxanne Perez, who only held her tag team title for a few days before relinquishing it—a disappointing feat, but an accolade nevertheless.

Thankfully, she made up for it by being the one to take down Rose, becoming the Iron Survivor Challenge winner at Deadline and using that title opportunity to win the NXT Women's Championship on December 13.

Perez and Toxic Attraction are the biggest winners for NXT's women's division, but for the men, no one comes close to matching the level of success Bron Breakker achieved in 2022.

Starting off the year, he beat Tommaso Ciampa at New Year's Evil to win the NXT Championship. That in and of itself is a major accomplishment.

He dropped the title to Dolph Ziggler two months later at Roadblock but won it back the following month on Monday Night Raw.

Since then, Breakker's been unstoppable, taking on all challengers and proving he's the man.

In the process, he's unified the NXT UK Championship with a win over Tyler Bate at Worlds Collide, beaten former intercontinental and United States champion Apollo Crews and positioned himself as the fourth-longest reigning NXT champion in combined days, with that total only climbing.

Soon enough, he'll surpass Ciampa, if not also Adam Cole, on his way to possibly overtaking Finn Bálor's record if he lasts until June 21, 2023.

Based on his performances in 2022, that may very well happen.

Championships are some of the easiest ways to measure success, and Death Triangle has certainly tasted some gold in 2022.

The Lucha Brothers started off the year as tag team champions. Though they would drop the titles to Jurassic Express, they'd eventually win the AEW World Trios Championship alongside Pac, which they currently hold.

Pac also was the inaugural All-Atlantic champion, winning that title at Forbidden Door and holding it for 108 days before losing it to Orange Cassidy.

There's crossover between those title reigns, though, wherein Pac became the first AEW star to hold two championships at the same time.

MJF is better than you, and if you didn't know it, he proved it this year.

Outside of the confines of kayfabe, MJF renegotiated a better contract for himself that nets him more money while not having to add more time to his deal, keeping The Bidding War of 2024 in tact.

This was following some stellar performances that would be on anyone's highlights of the year, such as his Dog Collar Match against CM Punk.

Upon his return, he then won the Casino Ladder match and rolled that into becoming world champion, finally ascending his rightful spot atop AEW's roster.

Most recently, he had his first successful title defense against Ricky Starks, simultaneously retaining his Dynamite Diamond Ring, which he'll wear for the fourth consecutive year.

MJF is AEW's top talent on the mic, continues to be great in the ring and is still the hottest prospect for pro wrestling's future, while most others are just mid.

Rounding out this list are some honorable mentions who have had some major wins this year worth calling attention to, but don't quite compare as much to the other entries.

The Acclaimed went from having a rough 2021 to becoming not only one of AEW's most over acts right now, but the top tag team in the division, capturing the titles from Swerve in Our Glory at Grand Slam. They get some of the biggest pops each week and are only getting better and better.

Gunther graduated to the main roster, reformed the best version of his Imperium faction and won the Intercontinental Championship. So far, he's been a dominant champion with all the potential to do even greater things in the future.

Carmelo Hayes is arguably NXT's best performer. He unified the NXT Cruiserweight Championship at the beginning of the year, won his second North American Championship not long after losing it the first time and is one of the fixtures NXT television revolves around.

Merely getting healthy enough to step back between the ropes is enough of a win for Saraya, even if she's struggled with her promos and hasn't quite shaken off the ring rust.

Finally, Bobby Lashley won his second WWE Championship this year, as well as another United States Championship. He even got to have some of his long-awaited matches with Brock Lesnar. Though the WWE title reign was short and he didn't win all those encounters with The Beast Incarnate, those are still achievements worth celebrating.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, Spotify and everywhere you find podcasts. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.