Dave Meltzer has broken down why the WrestleMania 25 classic between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker wasn’t given his famous five-star rating — and it’s not for the reason fans might think.
In early 2009, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels kick-started a rivalry that had begun way back in the late 1990s and had seen the pair compete in the first-ever Hell In A Cell match. This time, Michaels wanted to end Undertaker’s famous WrestleMania streak, and The Deadman was determined to prove he was still ‘the man.’
By the time the two men climbed into the ring — and descended from the rafters in HBK’s case — they were already certified legends, but once the final bell sounded they were now in the rarified air only reserved for the true giants of the industry.
Michaels and ‘Taker put on a clinic for a full 30 minutes, keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats. There were numerous twists and turns and unbelievable kick-outs, but when all was said and done it was The Deadman who stood tall.
The match is widely regarded as one of the greatest in WrestleMania history and a high point of the duo’s respective careers. However, it’s become almost a strange piece of wrestling trivia that it was never awarded a five-star rating from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Although the match scored highly with a ****3/4 rating, for many fans that’s just not quite the same.
Speaking in a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Meltzer has now broken down his thought process being giving the match the rating he did, and what prevented it from receiving five stars.
“There was, at that time, when I watch, there’s a couple of things. Number one, when I watched it, I thought this is pretty damn close. And whenever I say pretty damn close, that’s a 4 and 3 quarters star match.
I gotta be like, 100%. Okay, so, and I mean, two of the greatest wrestlers, literally, after that match, which just, you know, I mean, I’d already rated the match, but I just remembered, I mean, these are two of the all time greats. [Someone] Called me up you know, ‘what do you think?’ And I go, ‘I thought that match is freakin awesome. That match was fantastic.’ And it’s like, basically, one was if I tried to do a match like that, if I did a match like that, I’d have to fight my way out of the dressing room because so many guys would have heat for me for killing the finisher.
I mean, and you could say that about a lot of other matches too. But it was a perspective. And then you know, another one was just you know, and I think subconsciously, I thought the same thing.
When Shawn and Undertaker the first one, which was great and I almost did give it five stars. And some people think it’s because of the dive spot that went wrong. It’s like, it really wasn’t, it was, it was, I’m gonna say, there was a predictableness to it, that I could feel, like I knew what they were doing. And sometimes that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
But it was so long, and I always knew what they were going to do. And it was thrilling as hell. But it was not, it didn’t give me that, Oh, my God, this was brilliant. It was like, ‘Okay, this is what they were doing, my turn, your turn.’ And it worked. It was like, again, look it won match of the year, I easily could have given it five stars.
But whatever it was, you know, when it was over, it was like, I was debating. And I’ve done that at many matches. You know, I mean you know, where it’s just kind of like, you know, is it 4 and 3 three quarters or five? Well, that means it’s four and 3 quarters. When I say that, if I say five, no debate, then it’s fine.”
Dave Meltzer Defends Match-Rating System
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer recently moved to defend his match ratings and explain a little more about his system works. The veteran journalist said that people arguing over a quarter of a star difference between two matches at the top end of the scale are mostly missing the point, as both of the matches involved will have been amazing.
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