Dave Meltzer stuff

[goc]

TNAMecca vs. Reality - Feud of the Year

[goc]

Dave backing up his MeltzerMecca fan in his battle against TNAMecca

 

[...TG]

It's probably important to note that this week Dave Meltzer, professional wrestling reporter, has been in a twitter war with Billy Corgan, who has sold 20+ million records. What a strange world this is.

[Loss]

Dave the prophet. From the 3/23/98 issue:

 

 

In many ways, the success of WCW mirrors that of New Japan Pro Wrestling circa 1982. PPV didn't exist (and for all practical purposes still doesn't in Japan), but at the time New Japan was selling out nearly every house show, just like WCW. New Japan was on network prime time, often ranking in the top five and doing 20+ ratings. Indeed, its business was driven by the feud that set the stage for today's WCW vs. NWO, the Ishingun vs. Seikigun feud. And it had the same basic problem on top, with Antonio Inoki playing the role of Hulk Hogan to the disgruntlement of a myriad of younger and better workers who saw the big block at the top. Historically what happened there, and New Japan went in 1982 from being perhaps the most successful pro wrestling company up to that point in time in history, to just two years later being on the brink of folding with the vast majority of its young marketable talent going elsewhere, were things that the seed is being planted for happening in WCW.

[jdw]

It's probably important to note that this week Dave Meltzer, professional wrestling reporter, has been in a twitter war with Billy Corgan, who has sold 20+ million records. What a strange world this is.

 

Now now... Billy sold about 19 millions of those albums in the 90s. It's about like saying WCW did some big PPV numbers. They did: close to two decades ago.

[cheapshot]

 

It's probably important to note that this week Dave Meltzer, professional wrestling reporter, has been in a twitter war with Billy Corgan, who has sold 20+ million records. What a strange world this is.

 

Now now... Billy sold about 19 millions of those albums in the 90s. It's about like saying WCW did some big PPV numbers. They did: close to two decades ago.

 

 

There worldwide sales are around 32million for all releases.

 

There greatest hits which came out in 2001 sold around 3.2million worldwide, Zeitgeist was around 1million wordwide, Machina was around 1.8million world. Obviously the 90's was their peak but they've shifted about 7 million overall since then which isn't too shabby.

[jdw]

My bad memory: thought the Greatest Hits was between Adore (1998) and Machina (2000), not after Machina.

[sek69]

Yeah, when Billy shuts the fuck up and makes an album, it's usually still pretty good. In retrospect he should have gone the Trent Reznor route and done it all himself and just had touring musicians to play on stage.

[cm funk]

Adore is a pretty great album. I was pleasantly surprised by it when I first heard it, which was a couple years after it was released

[PeteF3]

Billy was clearly the driving force and I like Adore fine as well, but the band clearly lost a lot without Jimmy Chamberlain.

 

Er, pro wrestling only...sort of like the '90s Horsemen.

[hammerva]

Man they are really doing overkill with Tom Lawlor on their shows. I find Tom funny but it seems like he is on 2 or 3 times a week now. Hell even Lance Storm wasn't over done that much.

[Cox]

Serious question: how can people listen to the audio shows on the WON site? I've only listened to a handful, and it was enough to turn me off of the audio forever. Bryan comes off as the worst, most obnoxious AM radio host ever, and Dave often seems woefully underprepared for these shows. What really stands out to me is the podcast they did after the CM Punk interview with Colt Cabana. You have Bryan, in his awful, fake radio voice basically reading a transcript of the Punk/Cabana interview to Dave, because Dave hadn't bothered to listen to what was obviously the biggest piece of wrestling news anywhere in the world at that moment. As Bix has pointed out, it did lead to a funny moment of Dave's shock at finding out that Punk had been wrestling with MRSA, but overall, it's awful radio. It's not like these guys are new at this, as Dave has been doing this show since the late 90's, and Bryan has basically become a full-time podcaster at this point, so I'm shocked at how bad these shows are, and it stuns me that people can actually sit through this. At one point, I was listening to a call-in show with Bryan, and he was actually saying things like, "Who is this, and why are you calling?" You're spending all of this money on production, hire a goddamned phone screener!

[WingedEagle]

Dave is great when on with an interesting, engaged partner who can keep him talking about wrestling history. There is no value whatsoever to listening to Bryan Alvarez.

[C.S.]

Serious question: how can people listen to the audio shows on the WON site? I've only listened to a handful, and it was enough to turn me off of the audio forever. Bryan comes off as the worst, most obnoxious AM radio host ever, and Dave often seems woefully underprepared for these shows. What really stands out to me is the podcast they did after the CM Punk interview with Colt Cabana. You have Bryan, in his awful, fake radio voice basically reading a transcript of the Punk/Cabana interview to Dave, because Dave hadn't bothered to listen to what was obviously the biggest piece of wrestling news anywhere in the world at that moment. As Bix has pointed out, it did lead to a funny moment of Dave's shock at finding out that Punk had been wrestling with MRSA, but overall, it's awful radio. It's not like these guys are new at this, as Dave has been doing this show since the late 90's, and Bryan has basically become a full-time podcaster at this point, so I'm shocked at how bad these shows are, and it stuns me that people can actually sit through this. At one point, I was listening to a call-in show with Bryan, and he was actually saying things like, "Who is this, and why are you calling?" You're spending all of this money on production, hire a goddamned phone screener!

 

Wow, that sounds pretty awful...

 

How is the Torch's audio compared to the Observer's?

 

The Torch site is certainly much better, although the Observer site has improved slightly while the Torch site is a little too cluttered now.

[Loss]

Torch audio is worse. Dave is at least a walking encyclopedia. I usually enjoy WON audio as long as he is on it for that reason alone.

[RocketCrypt]

Based on Wade's free show, the Torch is much worse. Last time I listened, Keller spent the first half of the show bragging about his recent upgrade in audio quality, and the second half dealing with issues arising from said upgrade. It was quite the show.

 

And he loves to make a mountain out of a molehill. If his co-host has even the slightest hitch when it comes to audio, he forces them to hang up and call back in, wasting everyone's time to try and fix something that isn't even an issue. The irony is, his quality is usually worse than theirs to begin with.

 

Granted, I've never been a subscriber to the Torch, only listened to the free stuff. I would take Keller over Alvarez, but would much rather listen to Meltzer over both of them. If that means having to stomach Alvarez, then so be it.

[sek69]

One bonus to the daily WOL shows is they've started to use the number from his syndicator as well as the WON number. That one does have a screener so it helps. Someone asked Bryan why he doesn't invest in one for his own number, and his excuse was something about how he doesn't feel he needs to have one. Then after tons of complaints about how it's a negative impression on the show having the calls being dominated by creepy women's wrestling fetishists he started caring about call quality.

[kjh]

To be fair, the Punk interview landed on Thanksgiving, so I don't blame Dave for being underprepared then.

[shoe]

Once Alvarez and Dave became partners Alvarez has dragged down the audio. Back in the day Bryan let Dave carry about 90% of the shows, interviews etc. Alvarez knew his place. Now Alvarez doesn't, and we have a big drop in the quality.

[cheapshot]

Without Bryan I very much doubt we'd get as much Dave audio as we do now.

 

Remember before the merger he was on twice a month. Need my three Melty fixes a week now.

[GSR]

Once Alvarez and Dave became partners Alvarez has dragged down the audio. Back in the day Bryan let Dave carry about 90% of the shows, interviews etc. Alvarez knew his place. Now Alvarez doesn't, and we have a big drop in the quality.

 

Especially evident in the old Eyada shows that they used to do where you'd often forget that Alvarez was part of the show as he would be so quiet.

[hammerva]

Without Bryan I very much doubt we'd get as much Dave audio as we do now.

 

Remember before the merger he was on twice a month. Need my three Melty fixes a week now.

 

Without Bryan I am not sure Dave can figure out how to access the web site much less create an audio show and post for people

 

I might like the Wrestling observer Live show more if it wasn't every day or every other day as well. And they got rid of those idiot callers. I do like Mike Sempervive stuff.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

I canceled my sub a while back because I just didn't like the audio anymore. When I used to have a more... "smarky" attitude about things, I could enjoy shows complaining about everything for an hour a day, but it just got so tiresome that I wasn't even using my sub for anything more than the Board and the WON. I have a sub at the Torch at the moment because they ran a coupon when Todd Martin came aboard. After that month is up, I'll go back to being happily newsletter site-free.

[Parties]

Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome, but I enjoy (or at least mindlessly listen to) most WON radio. It’s more “talk radio” than “podcast”. Like all talk radio, it’s to be taken with a grain of salt.

Dave’s knowledge is the #1 reason to subscribe. His taste in what’s good is suspect, but him thinking Tanahashi and Edge are the greatest of a generation doesn’t really annoy me. Thinking Fujiwara shouldn’t be in a HOF because Fujiwara “held back” Suzuki and Funaki in PWFG is an example of Dave's odd, selective narrative of history, but his intentions are good.

Alvarez is wrong most of the time and has a bad voice for radio, but he rarely irks me. He’s a blowhard, but he’s the one driving the bus. Seems to have matured some in recent months: screaming less, less off-base fantasy booking, handing his newsletter over to Bix, etc.

SportsByline has a call screener/producer, though he may be useless as you have the same pathetic goons (Ed in San Antonio, John from Memphis, Ryan from Maryland, James from Kentucky) calling every day. I believe some annoyed listeners even offered to donate $2/day to Whitney's whale watch for every show where Ryan wasn't the first caller, and the dude still does it every day. They need to get those buffoons to ease up, but I’m not sure if it’s that those guys are the only ones calling, or if they’re just obsessively first in the queue and SB doesn’t care enough to skip them. As I understand it, Alvarez has actually contacted each of them and asked them to call less often, but they’re such creeps that they don’t abide. Still, Bryan should just pull a Howard Stern/Tom Scharpling and get them off the line ASAP.

“Who is this and where are you calling from” doesn’t feel overly unprofessional to me and I’m never paying attention to who’s calling from where. These shows aren’t being done at a radio station with legit resources. They’re being done with zero overhead in a homemade studio at Bryan’s house. But sure, if there’s an easy tech fix that would solve it that Alvarez isn’t making, that’s stubborn foolishness.

Sempervive is a good co-host, better than Bryan is most respects. Better voice, better humor, better off the cuff, more knowledgeable of wrestling, other sports, the media landscape, etc. Lance Storm is mediocre. When he’s presenting a veteran worker’s knowledge of the business he can be great. When he’s nitpicking RAW he’s a joke. Steve Sims can be boring/repetitive in his views, but he’s only on 1-2 times a month, and without him and Zellner the site would have zero lucha coverage. Todd Martin is a trifling nerd and they're better off without him, but I do miss his "Observor" recap segments. I've only listened to Coughlin's show once, and it was so awful that I never went back.

Totally disagree with the prior dislike of Tom Lawlor. He's definitely not on 2-3 times a week. He's there once a week, and the day shifted from Mon. to Weds. this week to accommodate his schedule. Yesterday’s show with him was the best WON in weeks if not months: Dave and Bryan were much more upbeat than usual, and the MMA/wrestling split was well balanced. I find Lawlor to be witty, and it’s cool that a legit UFC fighter can offer both his experiences of Fertitta meetings and weekly analysis of stuff like Lucha Underground/WWE Superstars.

Vinny has gotten pretty bad, and now sounds like he’s just there to collect a paycheck. Too negative/bored by everything: his apathy is a chore to listen to. But when he finds something he likes, like the rediscovery of early Nitro, he can be very enjoyable. And in general as a character he's someone I used to root for, as the put-upon but amiable target of Bryan's wrath. And I enjoy Craig a lot: comes off as a good dude, usually much more fair than B&V are, has some good one-liners. Granny is a complete embarrassment, but listeners like myself can easily just fast forward 20 mins to get past her segment.

TL;DR: WON radio shows are a mixed bag (and the diehards who call in/frequent that cesspool message board tend to suck), but I enjoy listening and think most of the hosts’ hearts are in the right place.

[Ryan Faulconer]

"I'd like to ask about Survival Tobita and Ken the Box..." - caller from DVDVR chatroom

"Oh come on guys...no more Tobita." - Meltzer

 

The controversy over the DVDVR 500 was one of those rare times that I heard Meltzer get annoyed with callers back in the Eyada days. I guess talking about wrestling on a wrestling radio show was taboo unless it was about the dying WCW or Chyna or Vince Russo.

 

James from Kentucky still calls in to wrestling shows? He used to call in on WCW Live and the WON Eyada shows. I guess wrestling shows are his anti-drug.

 

Then there were the pot bangers. They grew up a lot didn't they? God - I am so old.

 

Alvarez always seemed pretty lazy when it came to history or analysis. One episode he seemed shocked that someone dedicated an entire webpage to a wrestler...not realizing that there is this thing called wikipedia and every wrestler to lace up the boots or tape his feet has some sort of representation. That's only wiki. There are the OWW/Puroresu Centrals as well...which we all know about but someone who gets paid to write and/or talk about pro wrestling does not.

 

I enjoyed the little lucha and japanese wrestling content that they had on the podcasts but I've never subscribed for more than a month at a time.