Recapping All of the Landmark Changes from WWE in Unforgettable 2022

If you thought 2022 would be a calmer period after the changes in WWE over the past two years, you were sorely mistaken.

The past 12 months have been a wild ride full of ups and downs, twists and turns that no one saw coming.

The leadership of the company changed several times, with the biggest transfer of power happening in July when Vince McMahon retired. Championships were also retired, and entire brands ceased to exist. Wrestlers took their final bows and others made triumphant returns.

It was such an intense year that you may not remember some of these things happening over the past 12 months, but we've got you covered.

Let's recap some of the biggest changes in WWE in 2022.

Above all other stories, 2022 will go down as the year when Vince McMahon stepped down from his all-powerful position in WWE.

The start of the year had seen Shane McMahon moved aside due to creative issues at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. During this time, Triple H also stepped away from WWE due to health concerns.

With Vince McMahon doing his first interview in many years on The Pat McAfee Show and even wrestling at WrestleMania 38, his grip on the company never seemed to waver.

However, two months after Stephanie McMahon announced she was going to take time off, everything changed.

Vince officially retired on 22 July, 2022. Stephanie became co-CEO alongside Nick Khan, while Triple H took over WWE Creative.

Understandably, after so many years with the same person in charge, WWE still feels as though it is in a transition period. But if the latter half of 2022 is anything to go by, many more changes are in store for the company in the near future.

Roman Reigns was already on a historic run with the Universal Championship before he clashed with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38.

With both his belt and The Beast Incarnate's WWE Championship on the line, The Tribal Chief etched his name further into the history books by unifying the titles to become the undisputed WWE universal champion.

Not to be outdone, The Usos followed suit by unifying the Raw and SmackDown tag team belts with their win over RK-Bro on the May 20 episode of Raw.

In November, Jimmy and Jey Uso also broke The New Day's record as the longest-reigning tag team champions in WWE history.

NXT went through considerable growing pains this year with more adjustments than any other part of WWE.

To start things off, the Cruiserweight Championship was unified with the North American title, which led to the cancellation of 205 Live. Instead of a dedicated program to the now-defunct cruiserweight division, Level Up was created as a supplemental training show for developmental students.

Then, an even bigger change when it was announced on August 18 that NXT UK was being put on hiatus. At Worlds Collide on September 4, all the NXT UK titles were unified and retired.

Plans for NXT Europe to launch in 2023 have been announced, but no start time or any other details have been confirmed.

Days after Worlds Collide, the branding of NXT 2.0 was also dropped in favor of reverting back to a standard NXT name, complete with another new logo.

Survivor Series has had many tweaks throughout the years, but 2022 took things to a whole new level as it became the home of the men's and women's WarGames matches.

No traditional elimination bouts took place. Instead, The Bloodline and Damage CTRL found themselves at odds with five opponents inside two rings surrounded by a massive steel cage.

It's unclear if this is the start of a tradition that lasts for many years or just a one-off with WWE deciding to revert back to the old formula for 2023.

While that remains to be seen, this year will at least mark the initial experiment.

One question that has always hovered around the Money in the Bank was the phrasing that it could be used for a title shot at any given time for any championship. That implied more than just the two world titles but never explicitly stated as such.

For the first time, 2022's winner Austin Theory took the terminology at face value and set a new standard for this gimmick by cashing in his opportunity against United States champion Seth Rollins, after having teased using it on NXT champion Bron Breakker.

A-Town failed to win the belt, but it can be reasoned that the men's and women's Money in the Bank contracts do in fact apply to any title within WWE at any moment.

This year saw some major returns to WWE, not least of which was Cody Rhodes.

After leaving WWE on May 22, 2016, wrestling on the indies and eventually helping to found All Elite Wrestling, Rhodes returning to WWE was a major deal.

Immediately, he changed the landscape of the main event scene, and will be someone to watch out for when he returns from injury.

When Triple H took WWE Creative, though, a flood of re-signings started to occur.

Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky were the first when they emerged alongside Bayley at SummerSlam in July. They were soon followed by the likes of Bray Wyatt, Johnny Gargano and Mia Yim.

On top of that, many Superstars saw a return back to previous characters.

Ezekiel reverted back to Elias. Baron Corbin dropped the Happy name. Max Dupri was ditched in favor of a return for LA Knight. Nikki A.S.H. is no more, but Nikki Cross is back. And Giovanni Vinci was reunited with Imperium.

After two years of gutting its roster, WWE has become a more stable home for many Superstars once more.

In early October, the broadcast team across WWE was given an overhaul.

Jimmy Smith was released from his position as lead play-by-play commentary for Raw and replaced by Kevin Patrick alongside Corey Graves.

Gone was the three-person announce team, so Byron Saxton was moved to fill in for Patrick as an interviewer for Raw. Cathy Kelley returned, with Sarah Schreiber working live events and other projects.

Wade Barrett made the jump from NXT commentary to SmackDown alongside Michael Cole, replacing Pat McAfee, who made the temporary switch to ESPN's college football coverage. Megan Morant and Kayla Braxton remained as the blue brand's interviewers.

NXT's only change was filling Barrett's role with Booker T, as Vic Joseph stayed put, as did McKenzie Mitchell as the sole interviewer.

While 2022 saw Triple H become the official head of WWE Creative, it also featured his in-ring retirement. Following his health concerns in late 2021 and early 2022, he left his boots in the ring during his introduction to WrestleMania 38.

Sadly, Big E remains out of action after he suffered a neck injury in a match against Ridge Holland on SmackDown in March.

Randy Orton is also a long-term absentee due to a back injury that has left him on the shelf since the summer, likely adjusting many of the ideas WWE had in mind for where he and Matt Riddle would go as RK-Bro this year.

In terms of releases, some of the most noteworthy were William Regal, Cesaro, Samoa Joe, Paige and Jeff Jarrett, all of whom eventually found their way to AEW. However, the former NXT general manager is set to return soon, per Mike Johnson of PW Insider.

Sasha Banks and Naomi also walked out of WWE in May after being unhappy at the creative route being taken by Vince McMahon.

Over half a year has gone by and there is still no definitive answer for if or when we'll see either of them back in WWE.

After a miserable three-year existence, the WWE 24/7 Championship was put to rest this year.

Originally, it was part of the laundry list of random ideas WWE tried to do to boost ratings like Raw Underground and the mysterious "gritty third hour" of Raw that disappeared after one week.

In theory, it could have worked. There were some funny moments with R-Truth chasing the title, pinning Jinder Mahal while he was asleep on the plane to Saudi Arabia and some random interruptions of matches for genuine laughs.

But the good moments were few and far between compared to the consistently terrible booking this title symbolized.

Then, on the November 7 edition of Raw, Nikki Cross defeated Dana Brooke to win the title, before symbolically attempting to throw it in a trash can.

The WWE playground has been a tight bubble for so long that it feels strange to see any expansion beyond its walls. Thankfully, though, that changed a few times in 2022.

Mickie James was allowed to enter the women's Royal Rumble match while holding Impact Wrestling's women's championship.

Shinsuke Nakamura will be allowed to wrestle for Noah on January 1, 2023, and Karl Anderson is expected to defend the NEVER Openweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 17 next month.

WWE crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in 30 years with Clash at the Castle from Cardiff, Wales being the first major event since SummerSlam 1992.

Even internally, the WWE ban on third-party platforms was lifted, allowing talent to again participate in Twitch streaming, Cameo, YouTube channels and even subscription-based VIP fan sites such as the one Mandy Rose promotes.

Many rules that were little more than semantics were thrown out the window with McMahon's departure.

The commentary team have been allowed more freedom to be themselves and acknowledge history that was previously shunned, such as The Bullet Club in NJPW.

Promos don't appear to be as heavily scripted anymore. Superstars have more room to express their characters without worrying about memorizing lines written by someone else.

A championship title can now be referred to as a "belt" again.

And some Superstars were able to regain their full names, such as Austin Theory, Matt Riddle and Tommaso Ciampa.

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.