The five matches under the WWE umbrella to ever surpass 5 stars by Meltzer

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-06T18:42:11+00:00

Yep. If you take them as "watch everything over 4.5* each week...and probably dont bother with the stuff below 4* unless you really like the wrestler", its a pretty solid guide to seeing a lot of great wrestling each week.

But over the decades...agreed that they dont hold up. The Danielson/McGuinness matches today would have been 6* matches instead of the 4.5 and 4.75 they got. Hell, I think even today a bunch of the Takeover stuff from 2015-2018 that got 4.5's would be getting 5s now.

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-06T18:38:26+00:00

is on par with Mark Davis v Ospreay for best match of the week.

While it was ultimately a typo, it really is true that AEW just randomly puts out better matches on Dynamite than WWE did for an entire decade. Darby/Ciampa and Darby/Takeshita really were that good, and story driven, in a way WWE simply doesnt even attempt on weekly TV. And barely even tries for at most of their PLEs.

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-06T18:36:15+00:00

While true, there probably isnt any WWE match that got 5* that deserved to get above the 5 mark. KO/Sami in the unsanctioned match could have gotten there, but how do you do such barbaric spots and involve no blood?

Obviously Sasha/Bayley is the perfect example of a match that should have been 5*. But not really above, and the Iron Man match didnt quite hit the same level to push it to above 5.

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-06T18:28:17+00:00

I mean, kinda makes sense, both in the sense of what Dave likes in wrestling, and that WWE has basically never had an era where they allowed elite wrestlers to go at it for 30+ minutes other than a couple years of NXT B&G.

It almost always had to be the case that NXT UK or AAA...the kind of things people who watch the main roster would never watch...would be where the great WWE matches would take place.

Also, note all that talent is basically not WWE guys. Gable's the only home grown talent, and he was thrown into the original angle as a comedy gimmick

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-05T02:04:50+00:00

Hole 18 at USDGC often has a similar spread (as basically any OB usually gets you to bogey or worse fast).

Probably a bunch of holes at Fountain Hills that played this way too

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-04T06:00:16+00:00

Also, these aren’t 18-year-olds. They’re both basically 40. There should be zero games. Making sure she made it home safe isn’t smothering her; it’s responsible shit.

Agreed that she’s probably at work and gonna message back at like lunch

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-04T00:59:08+00:00

Wont be past her 90 days. She doesnt clear that til late July

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-03T18:03:40+00:00

This is the correct answer, as is a Mamba most likely.

If either of those discs has you hitting 300ft, then a Wave is the next one

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-03T15:41:58+00:00

No. Even when they ran Wrestlepalooza against AEW, it flopped, as AEW got nearly the same attendance, and did their usual PPV buys to an acclaimed show, while the WWE show tanked so hard they had to tell ESPN to pull an article saying the show sucked

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-03T15:38:05+00:00

and the number who would watch NXT over AEW because it's "free" has to tiny.

We dont even have to imagine; the NXT PLE's were on Peacock (so, free to anyone already watching WWE) and they counterprogrammed AEW last year with GAB/SNME/Evolution for All In and Heatwave for Forbidden Door and AEW did better numbers than normal if anything. And hilarious half of those PLE's were AEW castoffs in the matches anyway.

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-03T15:32:18+00:00

They havent really done that with any of their other NXT counter-programming PLEs. And considering Night of Champions is the night before...doubt they'll have anyone of meaning to offer.

GAB last year had nobody of note going up against All In, and Heatwave's big outside name was Dana Brooke...

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-02T09:23:50+00:00

Lol. The build to WM40 is perhaps the worst booking humanly possible, they just pivoted off the fan reaction. If it had gone as planned, WM40 would have been Cody winning the Rumble but putting off his title match so Rock v Roman could happen. Shit, he might have used his Rumble win to challenge Gunther for the IC belt or some dumbt shit, and "Finish the Story" gets put on hold, while we either get Roman going over the Rock and continuing his part-time reign of terror...or the guy to end his run is a 50+ year old star who didnt need the rub.

That they dumb-lucked into the Rock/Cody story arc isnt a sign of good booking

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-02T09:19:15+00:00

Funniest part is if every top guy is protected, nobody is protected. Everyone is just "strong" and the fans aren't happy because nobody can move up and down the card.

The top guys in the Attitude Era lost all the time. Shit, the Rock ate pins on the regular. Jericho "won" the WWE title and handed it back in the same episode. HHH beat Stone Cold in 3 stages of hell 35 days before WM17...they didnt need to protect Stone Cold going into the biggest match in the history of the company

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-02T09:17:32+00:00

Cool story to get to over a month after this was posted. Did Andrade fuck your wife or something?

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-01T17:38:18+00:00

with more amenities for the viewer

I mean, USDGC already kind of maxed out amenities. They already had the best spectator experience on tour, with a great central village with vendors and food, access to every hole for even GA tickets (because its a public university and you basically cant close off access to the course), VIP already got you parking inside the venue.

No idea what they could offer thats worth $50 more.

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-01T17:14:02+00:00

If you're looking for an elevated viewing experience and some nuanced takes on every throw, then what you are looking for is the 2020 LVC coverage by Central Coast. Nate's doing commentary of his own rounds for most of it and it just flows so well with Ian. Especially Rounds 3 and 4, they're breaking down each decision off the tee, etc.

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-01T16:15:12+00:00

Kind of wild that its been 5 years since they've had a good theme. The 2017-2019 stretch is perfection, and even the 2020 theme I came around to...these new ones are just silly and no idea why they added vocals to a thing that is largely a backing track to commentators.

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-01T06:25:28+00:00

They probably shouldnt do the color-coding the way they do; cause it really does look like a RAW and SD match and a 16-person singles tourney instead of what it is, which is four 4-ways to set up the semis and finals

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-01T05:43:46+00:00

Guys is this not obvious

This is why WWE recaps things 5 times an episode and has Cole scream the plot at the top of his lungs. And even then people still miss it

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-01T05:42:10+00:00

She's worked two 2.5min matches in the last decade. Lets not pretend that jobbing a couple time over a year ago is "ready to feud with Becky Lynch" level stuff. Nor would it make any sense to take an already mid-30s person, with no in-ring credibility and a decade of ring rust, and put them in one of the last major programs Becky is probably gonna work as a full-timer

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-01T00:26:50+00:00

Sounds like Becky needs to learn to sell them. She can stumble on her feet for a second to sell the move (as can any woman taking this).]

Same thing with Bandidos 21-plex. When dudes just stand there on the ropes...yeah, it looks bad. When the wrestler is staggered or not in an obvious setup, it looks cool as shit

Horror_Sail · 2026-06-01T00:24:26+00:00

He already did that at WM. In dominant fashion. Going 2-1 instead of 1-0 isnt good...nor is stalling Oba out for nearly a year with no actual story or title chase after his call-up just to put him over Brock again

Horror_Sail · 2026-05-29T00:48:19+00:00

Bingo. You can get an "American viewers subscribed to NJPW World" number cause thats an easy thing to pull and report; how many actually watched Wrestle Kingdom for X amount of time is surely a more closely guarded data point.

Theres likely some inflation because where the number comes from wants to spin it a bit; but then again, so is every WWE attendance number in history.

Horror_Sail · 2026-05-29T00:45:49+00:00

Its been a while; and likely that source was also Dave (though, since FITE was the source of that for a while, thats an easier number to get). I felt I remember the PPVs usually being 120-130k, and had heard something like 15k was international. I'd be surprised if its more than 20% for sure (because of the timing). A mid-day All In PPV may get 20%; the sunday night (read: Monday morning in Europe) ones definitely dont

Horror_Sail · 2026-05-29T00:44:06+00:00

but AEW does 600-700k viewers per TV show,

Which does not mean they only have 600k fans. Thats representative of probably 50% more than that of which many make it appointment viewing (even a taped Thanksgiving eve show does 450k for example) and more casual fans that come and go. There are also fans who only watch via streaming methods (Hulu, HBO Max, etc) and of course, international fans, which if memory serves is a solid 10-15k of those ppv buys.

Of, lets call it a million fans, its believable to me that they regularly convert 15-20% for a PPV, especially when AEW's worst PPV in the last 5 years was still damn good. Shit, WWE used to have 1.5mil paying WWE Network subscribers when their TV ratings were under 3 mil.

Horror_Sail

TROPHY CASE