Jon Moxley is the 2022 Wrestler of the Year: Wrestling Observer Radio

Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed Jon Moxley winning the Wrestler of the Year Award on Wrestling Observer Radio.

Friday afternoon’s show had Meltzer and Gonzales discuss the top award of the 2022 Observer Awards, which went to Moxley with 3,101 votes. Roman Reigns came in second place with 2,216 votes.

“I thought pretty solid that Moxley would win,” Meltzer said. “It was Moxley and Roman Reigns, and they finished one two. Look, you take Roman Reigns out of WWE and their performance is very similar with or without him. You take Moxley out of AEW this year and it would have been a really tough second half of the year. He saved their bacon twice.”

When Gonzales brought up people suggesting perhaps Hangman Page or Chris Jericho could have filled Moxley’s spot, Meltzer wasn’t so sure.

“It wouldn’t work as well,” he said. First off, Hangman got hurt, so you can’t really say that. Could have put Jericho in. We wouldn’t know how that would have worked. But AEW chose Moxley.”

Meltzer pointed out that when Moxley was put on Rampage, ratings went up, but went down again when he was taken out.

Other people who placed in the top five include Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, and Syuri.