Coffey

Dave Meltzer is one guy, sharing his own opinions and his own biases that are treated as gospel. Rotten Tomatoes provides access to 20 plus reviews for each movies, some from respected film critics at major publications, some from random random bloggers. If a consensus of the reviews are positive, the film is certified fresh, if a consensus of the reviews are negative the film, its certified rotten. In wrestling there is no consensus, its just Meltzer. With movies if you think the guy who reviews for one publication is an ass, you read the reviews from another publication. There isn't that in wrestling because there isn't anybody who does what Meltzer does on the same scale, so we are kinda stuck with the guy for better or worse. On Rotten Tomatoes, you look at the percentage. If it's good, it might sway your decision on if to see it or not. Meltzer praising a match is the same thing to smarks. That's what I meant.

I don't necessarily think that people care about the ratings of the matches per say, it's more what they represent. If Meltzer gave Omega/Okada 5-stars, yeah, OK, whatever... people would read it & move on. Maybe some would roll their eyes. But him making his scale grander to emphasize how great it was, that then changes things to the point where he's not saying it's just a great match, he's saying it might be the best match ever. And although *I* might not care about what Dave's opinion is, when talking about professional wrestling on-line, it's obvious that his opinion holds weight among the people we associate with online in our small, niche pro-wrestling circles. Dave Meltzer is respected in the wrestling business & he deserves that, as he's been doing this for a long time. Now though, it feels like he's just trolling half of the time & there aren't people that differentiate one from the other. Dave has his favorites: wrestlers, promotions, angles, etc. But I think that sometimes people forget that he's not totally impartial. And his opinions certainly influence other fans (and wrestlers, I imagine). Just go over on Wreddit and try to say that Okada/Omega wasn't great, in example. Dave Meltzer is to pro-wrestling what Rotten Tomatoes is to movies.

I've been watching wrestling thirty years. I don't need Dave Meltzer to validate my opinions on Twitter. People put too much stock into his opinion. The Miz is great.

Thought it was a pretty good show but the booking decision in the main event sucked a lot of the air out of the room. Here with my friend, it was a "welp, guess that's over" kind of moment. Which is a real shame. Also don't like how Alexa seemingly never loses. It's really unbelievable, even as far as pro-wrestling goes. First WWE show I've watched since SummerSlam.

Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor XV PPV is tonight in Las Vegas. Main event is Cody Rhodes Vs. Minoru Suzuki. http://www.rohwrestling.com/live/events/2017/sep/22/92217-death-dishonor-xv-ppv-las-vegas-nv

I actually really miss jobber squash matches. They were good for showing you the offense/moves of a wrestler & being able to see what their actual finish is. I have fond memories of guys like Rick Rude and Tito Santana beating jobbers on Saturday mornings as a kid. I'd certainly take that over another Dean Ambrose/Miz confrontation or whatever. Especially with those picture in picture promos on top of the match too.

Found an online review of this match here: https://ringthedamnbell.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/matches-from-history-the-rockers-vs-the-orient-express-at-royal-rumble-1991/

I would listen to this.

I loved Raven in high school during his WCW run. He's a big reason why I got into ECW too. It's funny because when I watch him now, I think his promos are corny & he's not a very good worker but back in H.S., I would even use the library to print out pictures of him DDTing people. When I got WCW/NWO Revenge for Nintendo 64, Raven was the only person I played for the entire first day. I even, shamefully, dressed-up in Raven attire when I met Disco Inferno at Origins in Columbus, OH. Not my greatest moment. A fat kid in cut off jean shorts with a flannel tied around my waist. Woof. Basically, I was a total mark. Now, Raven was not unsuccessful, nor unpopular, however he didn't ever win a world title (outside of ECW), but my fandom took it to an, ahem, extreme. I believe his in-ring days are over now. Only thing I ever see with his name on it now are shoot interviews and shit like that.

Well it certainly doesn't feel like Starrcade to me. When I think of Starrcade, I think more so about a time frame than an event, really. I think of pre-Hogan WCW. I think of Jim Crockett. I think of Dusty Rhodes & Ric Flair. I certainly don't think of WWE and Jinder Mahal. The Michael Hayes/Cody Rhodes interactions on Twitter are somewhat intriguing though. It would be cool if they brought in Cody Rhodes and had Goldust work as Dustin Rhodes on the show.

Exactly. For the past who knows how long, the guy wrestled 3-4 times a year. Who cares if he wants to come back and wrestle in some sort of special attraction type match, or whatever. Your garden variety WWE fan would probably want to see it, just not the hardcore fans who care more about the quality of the in ring product. Even the late stages of his career Undertaker, whenever he returns, is always entertaining. It might not lead to a match that's great technically, but WWE always turns on the showmanship for The Dead Man. Just the lights going out and the GONG! hitting is always a mark-out moment. Even for old man 'Taker. And The Undertaker himself has always adapted pretty well in switching up his character over the years. I could see him coming back again & working more submissions into his match, not just due to his love for MMA but also due to necessity because of various injuries & age, and proving people wrong. Of course, I also loved The Undertaker when he was doing to Big Evil, Red Devil biker gimmick and finishing with The Last Ride Powerbomb. If he wants to keep going, I say more power to him. Same thing I say about Terry Funk. You don't tell an all-timer that has given so much to your promotion/the industry no. If you're at a live show and you get a surprise entrance from The Undertaker, it's one of the coolest live experiences you can have. Just being in that atmosphere when the lights go out, the music slowly rises, the cell phones go on and 'Taker lurches toward the ring. I have seen it live twice and both times it was announced ahead of time, so I knew it was coming & it was still awesome. So I can't imagine how hard I'd mark out if it were a surprise.

I just finished Episode 17. Saw that Season 3 is apparently on episode 30 something now. How long is this season? The most consistent thing throughout the various seasons for me is my favorites and least favorites. Like, Pentagon and Mil Muertes are pretty high up there for me. I like The Monster Matanza too. Not high on Sexy Star, The Mack or plenty of others. Still quite like Drago and I'm a fan of Marty the Moth too. I just love the feel of Lucha Underground. Sure, it's over-the-top & ridiculous but that's part of the charm to me. Plus everyone in The Temple always seems to be having a good time - I'd love to see it live but living in the midwest, I'll never be in that part of the country. Good, fun pro-wrestling to watch though.

I remember really loving The Rockers Vs. The Orient Express from Royal Rumble 1991.

Just finished episode two and this shit is a joke. First episode wasn't that bad. I actually thought the first match was pretty good. But other things have been pretty sloppy. The Rachel Evers Vs. Marti Belle match in episode two though... that's everything that I hate about women's wrestling & why it has such a bad stigma in the United States. It looked like two untrained women just rolling around where one was hired because of her dad and one was hired because of her looks. I expected a higher level of work in this tournament since it was supposed to paint female wrestling in WWE in a positive light, with the whole women's revolution & what not... but I don't think I'm going to get that. I guess the UK Tournament set my expectations too high.

I actually couldn't finish the segment because it made me uncomfortable/embarrassed. I stopped at the part where Reigns was going to make a second point, stumbled & John Cena cut in to make fun of him forgetting his line. Not sure what the point of using insider terms & trying to cut down one of your top guys is. Nor why they continue to put Reigns in segments like that in the first place. RAW should build around the talent instead of trying to slot talent into predefined roles. Not everyone is meant to have 10-minute in-ring promo segments. Nor is everyone made for 20-minute WWE main event style. But they keep doing the same things over and over.

I don't know if there's a wrestling opinion I've read that I disagree with more than "Cena is way better at selling than Hogan." That was one of the things that I thought he was the best at.

Eh, I'm pretty excited for ReDRagon & Adam Cole. I'm glad that Bobby Roode is gone. Drew McIntyre is pretty good. The NXT Women's Division right now is going to be Nikki Cross, Ember Moon & then probably the likes of Peyton, Billie Kay, etc. But we'll probably get some of the Mae Young Classic women too.

Wouldn't be surprised if we saw Roman Reigns or John Cena Beachballs in the WWE Shop in the next couple of days.

It's my own fault for still trying to watch a show this long live. In this day & age, I should really know better. If I just wait until tomorrow, I can fast-forward through all the stuff that doesn't interest me. There's so much filler it's just exhausting. There's so many people that I don't care about getting TV time, that it just feels like a waste of my time. Like who wanted to see Big Show Vs. Cass with Enzo in a shark tank? Who was clamoring for that? Did we really need another Natalya title run? What was the point of that Rusev Vs. Orton match? It's just all nonsense.

Maybe they'll reunite with Roman too? Only way I'm going to care about these guys again, I think. They're all former World Champions now.

That was... really bad.

This first hour has been... woof.

This made me curious where he finished in the PWO GWE poll, so I had to go look. #259 - ahead of Stan Lane, below Kevin Von Erich. Did the next year really improve Omega THAT much? He's had some good matches in 2017, certainly, but the love from Meltzer is ridiculous.

I actually think Baron Corbin is one of the best heels they have going right now. Especially since he's on the Smackdown side. I don't get the flak that the guy receives. He's not "just a tall dude" & I'm not seeing this bland shit people are talking about either. I'd argue the only thing he doesn't really have going for him is that his hair is thinning & his outfits aren't very good. I think he's a good promo, I think he's a decent worker, he gets pretty good heat & he has a great entrance. I loved his chair match with Kalisto. His finish is sick.

How long until the second season though? If it's like the other Netflix shows, like Daredevil, Orange is the New Black, Stranger Things, etc. it's gonna be a year minimum. That's a long ass time to wait.