As 2022 comes to an end, several of the year awards like wrestler of the year, match of the year and rookie of the year are being talked about. In this particular case, we are going to tackle the discussion of rookie of the year and the favorite candidates to take this award.
The rookie of the year award is a two-horse race between HOOK (AEW) and Logan Paul (WWE). Those two are the favorites by most to win the rookie of the year award. There’s also a dark horse entry, but we’ll talk about that wrestler later here.
Logan Paul has picked up wrestling very quickly has impressed a lot of wrestling fans with how natural he is for the sport. His showings inside the ring have been good and exceeded expectations of most. His last match with Roman Reigns got get reviews by fans, even though taking the world champion to the limit was a bad booking choice, but that’s a different discussion. While he is the favorite to win rookie of the year, but an actual pro-wrestler should win the award.
HOOK of AEW is another major favorite to win the award of rookie of the year with the fantastic year he has had. HOOK has been a consistent wrestler when given something to do and keeps improving each time we see him inside a ring. His gimmick of silent killer has connected with fans and he is probably one of the most over guys in AEW.
As mentioned before, there’s also a dark horse on this race for rookie of the year; and that wrestler is Takuma Fujiwara of dragongate. Fujiwara made his debut in 2021 but 2022 has been his first full year as a pro-wrestler and he has been amazing to watch and his progression in just one year is truly remarkable. Fujiwara’s name isn’t talked as much as it should for rookie of the year and that’s a big shame considering the year he has had and the potential he has to be a big star for dragongate one day, if booked right.
At the end of the day, the race for rookie of the year will be between Logan and HOOK. Logan is the favorite due to being on the WWE platform and that helps a lot; and there’s no better example of this with Pat McAfee in 2020. A celebrity shouldn’t win this award but is inevitable.
