I’ve recently gone through listening to some old podcasts and I’ve just finished the Review-a-Wai of the Flair/Steamboat trilogy with Wai & Dan. They mentioned something that has been brought up a few times, do classic 5 star matches stand up today. So I thought about going through and trying to watch all matches Meltzer has rated 5 stars just to see. Although I didn’t realise how often he gave that rating out of the past few years (here’s the list)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_wrestling_matches_rated_5_or_more_stars_by_Dave_Meltzer
It doesn’t stop at 5, the maximum is 7.
The “highest” is 7. Dave has said there is no maximum. Theoretically there could be a 10 star rated match.
Its cool that Dave Meltzer rated matches over the years for this to be done
Yeah I meant at the moment the max is 7. I think when wrestlers will be flying and shooting fireballs with their ass, it will go above that.
Just had a look through the Wiki list, he hands them out like toffees these days eh.
I’m not one of the folks who lives and dies with Meltzer’s ratings (like the people who act like his 4.75 for Shawn/Taker means he hated it), but they’re still a solid resource for finding good-to-great matches you never would’ve seen otherwise.
When I first got the WWE Network, I watched all of the 4.5+ star WWE/WCW/ECW matches that were available. Some I liked, some I loved, and some I felt were just ok. But certainly not a bad match in the bunch.
It’s been an interesting watch so far. I was actually rather bored watching Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada and noticed that Dave liked him a fair few non-finishes early on but have watched some great matches so far. Tenryu vs. Jumbo and Flair/Windham being the standouts so far.
What’s annoying is that he is biased towards rating certain things a lot higher (ie Omega matches) and when people point this out he’s very defensive.
I like his ratings but three things really killed it for me
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Rating for Taker and Shawn not being 5 stars for match 1. He ignores how hot the crowd was and that this isn’t dinky PWG but a 60,000 people arena. Performing on a bigger stage should count.
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Rating for Shawn vs Angle at WM not being 5 stars. Greatest match Heenan ever saw
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AJ vs Cena not 5 stars at the Rumble. If anyone has seen this match then you know how biased this is
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Last year G1: Goto vs Omega at 5 stars.
This was the kicker. Called out by WH park for this. Evem Poluck said during the podcast that he didn’t think it was that great.
Yet 5 stars? For that? He rated that better than any of the 3 matches above that.
I challenge anyone else to watch all for of those and out Goto vs Omega as the top match.
It’s actually so ludicrously crazy
I mean it is opinion so I can see someone enjoying it more if those are the stars they are invested in. My opinion looking at his lists is that he really just isn’t invested in WWE and it’s characters and without that match ratings may suffer if part of the greatness is tied to emotion rather than in ring work. Any one persons rating of a match is highly subjective. Apps that gather ratings from a larger group of fans are for more likely to be a fair analysis of a matches true quality.
As Breng said, it doesn’t matter. It’s just one man’s opinion.
Yeah, as posters have said before it’s Dave’s opinion. I have agreed and disagreed with his ratings. But, I love the fact that we all have our own opinion and because of our tastes continually changing its cool to see what we think about matches from yesteryear etc.
Here is the proof. The only match he gave 5 stars too came in dead last.
It’s not fair to just say it’s his opinion. He’s not giving his opinion as a fan but rather as a critic. And if I critic can’t be fair or even ackloedge their bias when it’s this blatent that even WH Park is calling him out the yiu can’t just hide behind it’s my opinion.
More proof. It’s not about what he likes but how good it is. Then why is he so different that anyone else ?
Bro, you might want to take some time to yourself and come to the realization that people are allowed to have different opinions. Dave Meltzer doesnt have to think that a match is 5 stars, just because some nobody called @Alex_Patel on the POST Wrestling forums thinks that it is.
A critic is someone who gives THEIR OWN opinion on what they thought of whatever it is they are reviewing. They are not telling us what we should and should not like. There are movies that critics have given 5 stars and are oscar winners, that people will hate and there are those that critics have hated, that people love and give 5 stars.
I’m not sure why this is a difficult concept for you to grasp. If someone not sharing your opinion, is that annoying to you, then maybe you need to stop reading about what their opinion is.
The point of critic is to give THEIR opinions. These are not your opinions. Why do people get so worked up over someone having a different opinion?
2 Likes
Right on cue…
Meltzer is so Meltzer
Cornette is so Cornette
If I don’t like a match, but the majority likes it, I change my mind because I am a Lemming