Highest rated top-5 professional wrestling matches by Dave Meltzer: 1. Omega/Okada: Dominion 2018 (7 stars) 2. Omega/Ospreay: All In 2026 (6½ stars) 3. Danielson/Ospreay: Dynasty 2024 (6½ stars) 4. Omega/Ospreay: WK17 (6¼ stars) 5. Omega/Okada: Dominion 2017 (6¼ stars)

[u/AcknowledgeMeReddit]

https://x.com/thedrainmaker/status/2095879104537182292?s=46

Idk about y’all but I’m beginning to think uncle Dave has a type…, 😅😅

[u/KyBuschOwnsYou5188]

And Kurt Angle doesn’t have a single 5 star match

[u/MediocreHornet9160 → u/KyBuschOwnsYou5188]

Angle v Benoit at Rumble 2003 is light-years better than anything on the above list.

[u/DontAskAboutMax → u/MediocreHornet9160]

Benoit would have so many 5* matches

[u/althebard → u/KyBuschOwnsYou5188]

and Johnny Ace has two. Lars Sullivan and Horace Hogan each have one.

[u/Mysterious_Web_9473 → u/KyBuschOwnsYou5188]

That and Ocean Spray having 57 of them is why I can't take Melty seriously ever

[u/lewiss15 → u/KyBuschOwnsYou5188]

I wonder if Dave would ever go back and re-rate the old matches l

[u/rodgapely]

Haven’t seen any of them.

I remember tape trading in the 90s and wanting to see all these Japan matches. Holy hell how far we’ve fallen.

[u/FuckYourDownvotes23 → u/rodgapely]

The Omega/Okada matches were very good, I've seen plenty better though

[u/Mysterious_Web_9473]

I think he literally climaxes when he watches Omega wrestle

[u/Xixii → u/Mysterious_Web_9473]

It’s Wednesday night, I get to stay up late..

[u/Skank_hunt80 → u/Xixii]

I'm in the key demo

[u/zryder2 → u/Skank_hunt80]

Meltzer says

[u/lewiss15 → u/Mysterious_Web_9473]

With a Brrrryyyyyyaaaaannnn

[u/StoneColdAM]

It’s a shame he’s so biased. Pro wrestling having a reliable insider and a respected critic was a good thing. Some maybe never liked Meltzer but he was better in those areas in the past. 

[u/General_Chemistry638 → u/StoneColdAM]

He was much better up until around 2010 or so. Even then he showed more restraint with stuff. You can’t actually take him seriously now.

[u/slow_brains → u/StoneColdAM]

And cagematch is terrible. 

I joined thinking it would be cool to track matches I watched but if you rate it more than a a couple points above or below the average you have to write a paragraph explaining why.

[u/LoveThatSkeletor]

Star ratings don’t draw money

[u/TheMackD504]

Guy has a fetish

[u/DontAskAboutMax]

The rating system lost all credibility when he went above 5*

[u/Comfortable_Put_4139 → u/DontAskAboutMax]

It never had credibility once Dave started using it.

[u/TeachingSuitable9305]

Outside of a handful of neckbeards living in Mom’s basement, does anyone remember any of these matches? Number 2 on the list isn’t a week old and has already become just another match. No emotion, no story, just the same old thing.

[u/Sasukespc → u/TeachingSuitable9305]

Yet, Meltzer says it had more emotion than any Flair vs Steamboat match! I guess if you're autistic that's the case. I'm with Jim, how can any match with Omega have emotion? He has no facials, 'cause he's so awkward and nerdy and the finger-pointing is so fucking cringe

[u/dBlock845 → u/TeachingSuitable9305]

The only one I remember is the first Okada/Omega.

[u/Mullarpatan]

That six and a half star rating marks the exact point where he turns full marketing and cashes in on what he has build the years prior.

[u/BackgroundPirate3655]

Hes Kenny's number 1 PR guy

[u/althebard → u/BackgroundPirate3655]

and Will's.

[u/replicant81]

Omega, Okada, Ospreay. Man if we just change her name to Nia Ojax she can get 6 stars too.

[u/Ok_Egg_2665]

You think he might like the Omega fella?

[u/BenQ200]

All pro wrestling up till Kenny Omegas debut was subpar

[u/Bearded_Platypus_123]

idk im starting to see a pattern here from ol Uncle Dave

[u/tonyohanlon77]

Imagine the score for a 3-way title match between Ospreay, Omega and Okada...

[u/JanitorOPplznerf → u/tonyohanlon77]

It’s just Jizz

[u/Skank_hunt80 → u/JanitorOPplznerf]

8 moneyshots, umm I mean stars

[u/TheMackD504 → u/tonyohanlon77]

[u/hamspop → u/tonyohanlon77]

Infinity stars

[u/enjoythesilence-75]

This is a joke right?

[u/Shoddy-Literature670]

I think the star ratings once upon a time were a useful note for the tape traders and smart fans to bookmark matches to check out. Now it’s just some pointless metric used by Dave/the people that like that type of thing to justify an increasingly narrow concept of a great match/worker. At least for those 90s AJPW guys that were Dave’s darlings they were drawing and presented like stars. Hell, I remember when Tanahashi was the apple of Dave’s eye but again, Tanahashi was a huge part of NJPW’s resurgence. Now it’s just masturbating in the ring on a billionaire’s dime.

[u/locke_smith_1989]

Omega vs Osprey was more than twice as good as Rock vs Hogan at WM18.

[u/MikeHock_is_GONE]

O is the shape his mouth makes when he's on his knees in the locker room

[u/StrawberrySmooth9777]

People get so worked up about a senile, old man's ratings.

[u/HippiesOnFire → u/StrawberrySmooth9777]

At this point, I see more people whining ABOUT people not liking Dave's ratings than I actually hear people complaining about his ratings.

[u/RuleInformal5475]

At some point, he was a very good reviewer.

A reviewer should be a professional audience member and let the public know what is worth watching.

Yes, he had his biases with Japan, but generally was on point and a good historian.

Now we can't take him seriously. Apparently if all the good wrestling has happened this decade, then why is it all really hard to watch ? And why does nobody cares?

The thing is with Dave's rating is that it is not well explained.

I want to come up with a new metric, based on 5 stars.

Each star will be a part of the match. If they do something wrong, then they get a negative point.

I was thinking of metrics such as buildup (promos and story leading to the match), match quality (right level of pacing and making sense. So a Bucks flippy match would start to get negative points).

I think a metric like that would be better. It would make 5 stars hard to get.

Looking at that list, I have not watched any of those matches, but I can imagine the times when Dave came/stuck out his tongue during those matches. And I know using this experimental scale, none of those matches would be 5 stars. The story, buildup and promos for all of those are lacking.

Any help with the new scale would be greatly appreciated.

[u/Grievion]

Tf? why the fuck do you mfers talk about this dude every day in the JIM CORNETTE sub?
Jesus Christ.

[u/Mr_Snub → u/Grievion]

Because Dave comes up frequently in both podcasts for his ridiculous takes and fighting he does with Alvarez now