“This Kills His Credibility” – Jim Cornette Blasts Dave Meltzer’s AEW Star Ratings

Written by James Holder • Published 6th June 2023
AEW Dave Meltzer

As has become tradition, Dave Meltzer’s match ratings from a recent packed weekend of wrestling have become a major talking point online.

While his ratings for Night of Champions and NXT Battleground largely passed without incident, the same can’t be said for his thoughts on AEW Double or Nothing. Although fans love to argue about the rights and wrongs of Meltzer’s magic stars, it was his rating for the Anarchy in the Arena match which sparked controversy galore.

The match was a wild affair straight from the off — hence the name — and featured barbed wire, exploding shoes, cutlery, and a leafblower being used as weapons, and the small matter of thumbtacks. Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Meltzer gave the match five stars, making it the highest-rated match on the card.

The ratings caught the attention of Jim Cornette who blasted Meltzer and the match itself on his Jim Cornette Experience podcast.

“How does he justify it, a f*cking mess where nobody even exhibited any wrestling talent because there was no wrestling to the thing. Exploding f*cking sneakers, god damn people falling over each other like drunks on a Saturday night all around the arena. Phony looking sh*t everywhere in a match. You can’t have a five star match with phony looking sh*t in it. Sorry. Case closed.

Call me irresponsible. Complete chaos for thirty f*cking minutes, you can send anyone out there and tell them “go have a f*cking garbage match for thirty minutes” it’s all gonna look the same. He knows that’s not five stars, that’s not the greatest match of all time, that’s not perfection.

What that is, is his friends are in it and he doesn’t want to hurt their feelings. Because they would never forget and they would pout and they might not talk to him anymore, not to give him scoops just to talk to him, tell him how much they like him, if he was actually honest and told the truth.”

Not content with deriding the main event, Cornette moved on to the AEW World Title Four-Way match between MJF, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, and Sammy Guevara. The legendary managed questioned how the match was given 4 3/4 stars, putting it on a level with some of the greatest matches in history.

“Good lord, doesn’t this kill the credibility of anything he’s trying to do. When, okay that was a fine example of modern four way gibberish alright and MJF’s great and nobody broke anybodies leg accidentally, but your telling me that that’s almost at the level again of a Flair and Steamboat.”

Dave Meltzer Offers Update On Bryan Danielson

In recent weeks it was revealed that Bryan Danielson will be working as part of the creative team on AEW Collision. However, it has been reported by Dave Meltzer that the star already has a considerable influence over creative, and is highly thought of backstage.

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