AEW EVP Kenny Omega believes that Dave Meltzer was never quite the same after the Cleaner ‘broke’ the wrestling reporter’s much-discussed match ratings system.
For years, Meltzer used a standard five-star ranking, with one representing a terrible encounter and five representing the absolute best a match could be. For Omega’s Wrestle Kingdom 2017 showdown with Kazuchika Okada, Meltzer broke his ratings system and awarded the bout six stars. That same year, Meltzer would go against his own system again, awarding Omega Vs. Okada at Dominion 6.25 stars.
Ever since then, Meltzer has gone beyond his standard five-star rating, which has spawned a debate as to whether his previous five-star matches are now seen as less than perfect. Speaking on his Twitch stream, Omega took the blame (or credit) for breaking the ratings system.
“He’s jumped the f*cking shark so it doesn’t count for much anymore. He has jumped the motherf*cking shark, and guess who is to blame for that? Me. I’m the guy.
“I broke the scale, it f*cked up something in his brain where he doesn’t even know what good match is anymore… I think he just doesn’t understand it anymore, he cant comprehend what’s going on.”
Omega went on to describe his situation as akin to Pandora’s Box; which once opened, cannot be re-sealed. Meltzer’s highest-rated match stands at seven stars and saw Omega defeat Okada in a ‘No time limit two out of three falls’ match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion 6.9 in 2018.
As for when Omega’s next five-star (or more) match will be, that remains to be seen. The Cleaner has been out of action since late 2023 due to a battle with diverticulitis. Despite recently appearing on AEW programming, there’s no timeframe for when fans can expect the former AEW World Champion back in the ring.
Kenny Omega may also be thinking the rating of matches may have “jumped the shark” and that a few factors should be considered when doing it.
The former AEW World Champion was hanging out on his Twitch channel when the subject of match ratings came up. Omega laid out his own base vision of how a bout should be graded.
“Did it start a movement? Did it continue a movement? Was it something that became something that sort of etched in the annals of history for like all time? I believe that’s what an actual five-star match should accomplish.”
Omega has had his fair share of five-star matches courtesy of the Wrestling Observer, yet Omega does think that the stars shouldn’t be thrown around liberally.
“You shouldn’t just hand them out like candy. It shouldn’t be because the moves look good. It should be because the moves look like they hurt. It’s a perfect blend of everything that you try to do and accomplish as a professional wrestler and that’s without exposing the trade secrets.”
A WWE Hall Of Famer who happened to never receive a five-star rating from Meltzer is Kurt Angle. In the past, Angle has playfully dismissed the process, but on the very same Twitch stream that Omega critiques the ratings system, he also noted that ‘The Olympic Hero’ was his all-time favorite wrestler.
The Rock says ‘off’ is the direction the people who don’t like new avatar can … go. TKO Group is reportedly looking to lean more into the PG realm of content. The company official so was hoping that The Rock would be setting a good example, being a member of The Board Of Directors.
“The talent was told that because the company was publicly traded and the wishes of TKO management was to be TV-PG. The feeling was that if he’s on the board, if anything, he should be he one following the rules to set the example.”
Meltzer added that some people in WWE complained that select talent could get more traction with the handcuffs taken off. The roster was seemingly frustrated with the fact that certain people are allowed to break the rules that everyone else is made to follow.
The Rock’s Reply
The Rock has rocked ‘n’ rolled on both WWE programming and social media, using colorful language to further fuel his feud with Cody Rhodes. That led to The Rock himself addressing his own pushing the limits of “standards & practices” on social media.
This is not the first time The Rock and has camp have attempted to debunk reports about his current WWE run. In response to a recent report by Fightful stating one of The Rock’s promos ran long, former WWE head writer Brian Gewirtz fired back that ‘The People’s Champion’ was actually thirty seconds under his allotted time.
In a recent segment on Wrestling Observer Radio, wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer highlighted the possibility of two current AEW roster members making a move to the Stamford-based promotion WWE.
Meltzer identified Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews as the two wrestlers who could potentially transition to WWE. Both Black and Matthews are presently associated with the House of Black faction, alongside Brody King and Julia Hart, within AEW.
The wrestling journalist was talking about the recent cage match between House of Black and Daniel Garcia & FTR on Saturday’s episode of Collision. The fight was originally announced as an Elimination bout but later changed to an Escape the cage match. Meltzer implied that the change was due to the House of Black not wanting to be pinned during the bout:
“[…] Malakai Black never does jobs, and when this was going on and I am watching this, one of the things I was thinking watching this is like, these freaking House of Black guys never do jobs. And here is the other thing. I was thinking what if they win this match and they are just going, like, two of those three guys are going to the WWE.”
Meltzer also remarked that both wrestlers are reluctant to take losses as they aim to maintain the strong image of their characters once they become free agents. He questioned why AEW continues to book them strongly when they are expected to leave for WWE.
“I mean, they are going. As soon as they can go, they are gone. Even though they were treated like shit in the WWE, and they never do jobs here, and they are still going back to the WWE. And my thought is kinda like, why do you keep putting them over when you know they are leaving?”
House of Black Responds
Multiple members of the faction took exception to these comments from Meltzer and reacted on social media. Matthews responded to Meltzer’s remarks with a picture of his AEW stats, stating that Dave lacked research skills.
“For a ‘Reporter,’ he doesn’t know much or do ANY research! Lol,” he commented.
The attached image displayed Matthew’s career stats in AEW, revealing that in 2024, he won one match and lost three. Overall, in his career, he won 25 matches and lost 13. These figures contradict Meltzer’s statement, as Matthews has indeed lost a considerable number of matches, if not the majority:
Brody King explained that the format of the match was always going to be Escape The Cage. Will Washington, who works as a coordinator for AEW came to his support confirming the reason for the graphic change:
Funny how someone’s opinion just becomes fact because they’ve been watching wrestling a long time. The format and stipulation of the cage match was always what it was going to be. It’s not our fault the wording on the graphic changed. https://t.co/zGuNP61TxN
While the wrestling journalist has not responded to these remarks from the AEW stars, this discourse seems to be far from over. Stay tuned for more updates on the situation
Sami Zayn has given his all to advance his career in pro wrestling. Now, he is out of action for a while, but he requested that time off. That being said, his injury may be legit.
WWE will be missing Sami Zayn due to an injury sustained in a brutal attack by Drew McIntyre. The incident occurred during the December 4th episode of WWE RAW, leading to an injury for Sami Zayn, one that many believed was kayfabe.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that Sami Zayn’s partially torn meniscus injury may be legit. He also noted once again that Zayn requested this time off.
A partially torn meniscus isn’t a terribly bad injury. Healing could take between four and eight weeks. However, the time depends on the severity and position of the tear. Of course, a WWE Superstar like Sami Zayn may need to take a bit more time.
We will have to see if Sami Zayn can make a return by January 27th’s Royal Rumble event. At this point, anything seems to be on the table. He certainly has some payback coming for Drew McIntyre.
We will have coverage of WWE, and Sami Zayn’s eventual return, right here at SE Scoops. Keep checking back for more updates as they are made known.
Peyton Royce blasted Dave Meltzer on Twitter after hearing a clip of the wrestling journalist criticizing her appearance. On the August 9th episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer made a reference to Royce being a lot “lighter” while in NXT.
“I thought they had a cool act in NXT and on the main roster, I don’t get a thing out of them,” Meltzer said. “I think Peyton Royce’s transformation to look more attractive, I don’t know, I don’t want to say.”
When Meltzer’s co-host Bryan Alvarez questioned if Royce was more attractive in NXT, Meltzer answered, “I thought so, yes, to me yes. She doesn’t stand out to me; when she was in NXT she did. She was a lot lighter.”
Meltzer has since issued multiple apologies to Royce, but the damage was done and the backlash was significant.
I'd like to apologize to you. You are an exceedingly attractive woman. I do realize the lengths and pressures on women in the entertainment world to maintain unnatural looks at times and am glad you pointed this out. https://t.co/qkgOrpVQOX
What a true piece of sweltering hot garbage. You’re an angel too good for this earth. He’d be lucky if you gave him the time of day. Which you would, because you’re also a great person. Love ya girl. Let’s set better examples
This is unacceptable on so many levels. How dare you say that someone is more attractive when they are ‘lighter’. You have no idea how stupid comments like this can affect someone for life. @PeytonRoyceWWE is PERFECT just the way she is. A strong & beautiful WOMAN! https://t.co/1FDakcolpf
Longtime pro-wrestling journalist, historian, and expert, Dave Meltzer, confirmed today that Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada from Dominion last weekend was the greatest match he has ever seen. He awarded the match 7-stars out of what was originally only a possible 5.
All four matches between Omega and Okada have received a 6-star or higher rating from Meltzer.
While assigning a rating or score to a match is controversial, Meltzer’s rating system is the most high-profile of its kind.
Meltzer began reviewing matches with a star-based system back in the tape-trading era. For those unaware, this pre-internet period involved fans connecting via ads in wrestling magazines. Fans would tape (with a VCR) their local shows and mail them to fans outside of the market. Tape trading allowed fans to keep up with promotions from around the world before the internet did.
Meltzer’s match-ratings were originally just to let fans know which tapes they might want to trade for. It wasn’t meant to be used as a way to compare matches or wrestlers. All the same, a 5-star match is usually confirmation that something special has occurred.
Dave Meltzer’s Highest Rated Matches Ever
In total 8 matches have broken Meltzer’s 5-star system by receiving more than 5 stars.
Notable 5-star WWE matches include Bret Hart vs Austin at WM13, Michaels vs Undertaker in the first ever Hell in a Cell match, and CM Punk vs John Cena MITB 2011.
NXT has also produced several 5-star matches in recent years, including Takeover: New Orleans. The North American title ladder match and Gargano vs Ciampa matches from that show each earned 5-stars from Meltzer.
During Shane McMahon’s match with Kevin Owens, it is highly likely that the commentary team will say something along the lines of:, “This man has no regard for his body/family!”
WWE viewers are used to seeing Shane McMahon put everything on the line. Here is a key example from WrestleMania 32 against The Undertaker.
Sunday’s Hell in a Cell will be no exception as Shane takes on the former Face of America, Kevin Owens. In an unusual move, the match has been given the added stipulation that falls count anywhere. It is clear that something big is going to happen and it will be extremely shocking.
However Dave Meltzer has provided an explanation as to how and why Shane can pull off these risk maneuvers, giving him an unfair advantage over the full-time superstars like Kevin Owens.
Meltzer said that other wrestlers would often comment on how Shane could take a huge hit or bump and then have time off to rest and recover without making many appearances. This contrasts with full-time superstars who would be contracted to appear and possibly perform the following night or week.
‘Well, Shane’s gonna do one or two matches a year, and he’s gonna do this big bump, and he can get hurt and rest up. And he shows us all up that are trying to do big bumps, and we gotta come back the next day.’
The manner in which Dave Metlzer presented this information in TheWrestlering Observer Newsletter suggests that full-time wrestlers were annoyed by the way Shane could get away with these jaw dropping moments that create instant memories for those watching.
Opinion: I don’t think any superstars would openly criticize or comment on Shane’s apparent preferential treatment, however it will be interesting to see how extreme the match becomes and where this takes the feud with Kevin Owens. If Owens wins, SmackDown Live may need a new temporary commissioner to help Daniel Bryan run the show while Shane recovers.
Dave Meltzer noted on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that he believes that Baron Corbin is not ready to become WWE Champion. Meltzer stated that Corbin was getting a push because of WWE’s “fetish with tall guys” and that Corbin needed to improve his promos.
Here is what Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio:
“I’m not saying Baron Corbin should never get pushed down the line or anything like that if he improves, that is fine. But him as World Champion now, at least with Jinder there’s an excuse but Baron Corbin it’s just like it’s their freaking fetish with tall guys. It is like, what has he done? What great matches has Baron Corbin had with anybody? You know, nothing. What great promos has he done?
His promos suck. Has he improved? Yes, he’s improved a lot. Yes, he can be in a tag team main event when he’s in there with AJ Styles and Sami Zayn and do his part? Yes, yes he’s okay there with Kevin Owens as a partner. Can he be a bully to Sami Zayn in an undercard match and have an average undercard match? Yes, he can. That’s not a World Champion”
Corbin reacted to a tweet by WrestlingNews.co that quoted Meltzer:
The Chris Benoit murder/suicide tragedy occurred over the weekend of June 22-25 2007. Chris Jericho decided to sit down with Dave Meltzer recently to discuss Benoit’s career.
The topic of the podcast, for the most part, had little do with the Benoit murder/suicide. Rather Jericho and Meltzer discussed Benoit’s career.
This week on #TIJ: Wed- The Childhood Of Jericho…Growing Up Maaan w @holowatuk! Fri- Benoit- 10 Years Later w @davemeltzerWON
Chris Jericho and Dave Meltzer on Chris Benoit Highlights
Chris Jericho On Not Being Able to Talk About Benoit
“I’ve been wanting to do something like this for awhile, and it was just the 10 year anniversary of Chris Benoit’s death. It’s interesting Dave, obviously because of the horrific circumstances at the end of his life, his career up to that weekend has basically been buried. No one really takes about it.”
“You don’t want to ever demean or diminish those events, but i want to talk about Chris’s career. The reason for that is a couple of years ago they did another Jericho DVD, it’s the 3rd one they’ve done, and once again you choose the matches. I can’t choose those Benoit matches, nor do I think I’d want to. That’s like half-a-dozen to a dozen of my favourite matches that I ever had. For a lot of people, for all of Chris’ work, it almost feels dirty to watch them if you even can watch them”
Meltzer on Not Being Able to Talk About Benoit:
“It’s so hard to talk about it. You would feel guilty if you really talked about… because he was an incredible wrestler obviously. You know that better than almost anyone. But you feel guilty about saying ‘well, he’s a great wrestler” then it’s almost like you’re praising a murderer type of a thing.”
Vince McMahon made a surprise appearance on Monday’s post-WrestleMania RAW and dropped the bombshell that we’ll see a Superstar Shake-Up next week.
The RAW and SmackDown rosters will look very different come next Tuesday, with RAW General Manager Kurt Angle and SmackDown General Manager vying to beef up their respective rosters.
On a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed several names that are expected to be switching brands. It should be noted that Meltzer’s info is believed to be based on backstage sources speaking on condition of anonymity. He said,
“When I first heard about the plan, the key moves were to be Roman Reigns and AJ Styles, but I’ve been told that Roman Reigns isn’t moving but AJ Styles is moving.”
AJ moving to Raw would unite him with fellow Club members Gallows, Anderson and Finn Balor.
More Names Moving?
Meltzer continued that Raw would probably have to give up a big name to Smackdown to make up for losing AJ. He also speculated that Alexa Bliss and Charlotte will switch places, though he has not heard that is the plan.
“I’ve heard the New Day moving, which makes sense” – Dave Meltzer
Smackdown’s tag division could use a boost, considering the SD tag titles were the only main roster belts not defended at WrestleMania. Meltzer noted that that Andrade “Cien” Almas and Elias Samson are both expected to be called up to the main roster.
It should be noted that this Superstar Shake-Up is not being promoted as the official ‘2017 WWE Draft.’ AJ Styles and Roman Reigns would certainly create a number of fresh match-ups (and alliances), but we might have to wait until this summer to see a more dramatic reshuffling.
Discussion: Which WWE Superstars do you want to see switch brands next week during the Superstar Shake-Up?
While not a surprise in light of the news that WWE is preparing for a women’s tournament a la the Cruiserweight Classic, it looks like the promotion is hiring more Japanese talent to boost the talent level of the division. According to Dave Meltzer in the newest Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscribers only), Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo from the Stardom promotion in Japan are coming to WWE. However, Meltzer’s report is unclear as to if they will be in the tournament and then return full-time after (a la Akira Tozawa in the cruiserweight classic) or if they won’t be in the tournament at all.
Stardom is apparently asking them to stay, as along with Mayu Iwatani, they’re two of the top three stars in the promotion. There’s still a lot of time to go if they have’t actually signed, but the idea is that they will come to the United States after Shirai’s 10th anniversary show (March 20th) and Hojo’s “homecoming” show in April. While Stardom is the biggest women’s promotion in Japan, in 2016, that unfortunately doesn’t say much, and losing two of their three top stars would be a huge blow.
Analysis: WWE does have a need for more veteran female workers, both on the main roster and on NXT, so this is a very good move. As good as the current crop of rising female stars in the company is, Asuka, Natalya, and Becky Lynch aren’t enough to help the less experienced wrestlers learn on the road.
The prospects for TNA surviving as a wrestling promotion in time for Sunday’s Bound For Glory pay-per-view event and the subsequent TV tapings appear to be getting more and more grim by the hour. First, on Wednesday evening, a report from WrestlingInc revealed that according to “a veteran TNA talent,” a number of wrestlers’ flights to Orlando for next week have been cancelled. It wasn’t made clear if this was any of the advertised talent for Bound For Glory or just wrestlers set to be in matches not yet announced for the show.
In addition, the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscribers only), there are arguably some mixed messages. Dave Meltzer writes that “the feeling now is [Dixie] Carter is going to make the best deal for her[self],” but that at least as of press time late last night, WWE, who’s in the best position for a mercenary deal like that, is not at the negotiating table. Of course, it should be noted that when WWE bought WCW’s assets in 2001, WWE had already passed on a buyout and stepped in when it became clear there were no other buyers. Like with WCW, if WWE were to get TNA, it would be expected that they would buy only the assets and not the company outright.
Meltzer added that TNA’s debt “is in the millions of dollars” with creditors including Billy Corgan, Aroluxe, and others, and the debt may very well be greater than the value of the company at this point. That gap is even more pronounced if the company can’t get the ~$600,000 they need by Friday: TNA will be in breach of its TV deals, quite possibly lose them, and literally lose all value other than that of the tape library.
As of this writing, TNA has 30 hours or so to secure funding. If they don’t, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the company doesn’t need to file bankruptcy. Even if the tape library and trademarks are sold to WWE, that most likely won’t cover all of TNA’s debt. For WWE’s purposes, with no rush on their side and no competition for the intellectual property if it went it’s not ridiculous to suggest that they could get a lower price that way.
Chris Jericho ended up in a backstage incident with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam last night as Jericho was concerned about Randy Orton’s condition.
According to Dave Meltzer, multiple sources report that the incident began when Jericho came to the gorilla position as Lesnar vs. Orton ended, to find out what exactly happened and to see if Orton was alright. Jericho asked Michael Hayes if that was the planned finish and when Hayes wouldn’t respond, Jericho said, “That’s bullshit.”
Lesnar came through the curtain, heard the “that’s bullshit” comment and thought Jericho was talking about the match. One version has Lesnar calling Jericho a “pussy” and the other has him saying “shut up” to Jericho, then telling Jericho to mind his own business. The two came face to face and had words, leading to Lesnar reportedly pushing Jericho with his fingers. Jericho then did a forehead press while another version has him shoving Lesnar against the wall. While the two were up against the wall, Lesnar reportedly told Jericho to kiss him or punch him. Triple H then jumped in and broke things up but the two ended up going at it again until Vince McMahon finally broke it up. Vince told Jericho that everything was a work and to be professional after Jericho continued yelling about Brock.
Triple H reportedly told Vince that Lesnar was to blame, and that Jericho was just standing up for himself. That was the end of the incident between the two. Jericho then saw Orton’s condition and got mad but Orton assured him that he knew what was coming.
Yesterday, we reported on how Chris Smith at Forbes had put together a list of WWE’s highest paid wrestlers. While lists of this kind have gone around for years, they’re usually of some nebulous origin or an incredibly unreliable source like CelebrityNetWorth. This is different, however: Not only is it from Forbes, the magazine of record for finance, but it’s also an actual Forbes staff writer as opposed to their larger contributor network. Nothing against them, but they weren’t hired with the financial angle in mind. Since it’s a Forbes article from a Forbes staffer, the list is being taken a lot more seriously than these things usually are.
In his article, Smith claims that “Over the last year we’ve pored over court documents, SEC filings and WWE’s booking contracts and spent hours speaking with industry sources, allowing us to construct the first ever FORBES list of WWE’s Highest-Paid Wrestlers.” Let’s take a look at the list again:
John Cena: 9.5 million
Brock Lesnar: 6.0 million
Triple H: 2.8 million
Randy Orton: 2.7 million
Seth Rollins: 2.4 million
Roman Reigns: 2.1 million
Undertaker: 2.0 million
Big Show: 1.5 million
Kane: 1.3 million
Dean Ambrose: 1.1 million
So, what do we know about the numbers on Smith’s list for Forbes?
The only one whose pay would come up in SEC filing is Triple H, since he’s an executive officer of WWE under his real name of Paul Levesque. This does appear to be correct: If you don’t include stock awards, and Smith didn’t, he made $2,812,629 in 2015. That’s broken down as $573,269 in salary for his executive role, $526,000 in incentive plan compensation, and $1,713,360 for his pay as talent, $1 million of which is his contracted downside guarantee. There’s a note that “Mr. Levesque has out-earned this minimum guarantee in each of the past several years.”
Randy Orton and John Cena both had divorces, though only Orton’s finances went public as a result. TMZ reported that at the time of the July 2013 divorce, Orton was making $291,666 a month, or just $8 short of $3.5 million in a year. It’s not clear if that was his total 2012 pay or what, as the belief is that WWE’s downside guarantees never top $1 million. Cena did have his annual earnings pegged as about $10 million by Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer in January, while Meltzer has also reported Brock Lesnar’s pay in the past because he gets a flat fee per appearance. In the past, Meltzer has said something to the effect of how these days, it’s understood that The Undertaker’s $1 million guarantee is considered his WrestleMania payoff. With additional appearances headlining SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell last year, $2 million sounds reasonable.
It gets hazier after that as you move further down the line.
In a deposition that I cited in my January article for SBNation about Big Show’s flirtation with boxing, Big Show said that when he returned to WWE in 2008, he asked for $1.25 million and a $250,000 signing bonus…but that was eight years ago and it’s not clear in the public filings if he even got what he wanted. A deposition with his wife, who apparently handles their finances, had her testifying that she didn’t think he made any bonuses on top of his base salary. That would be unusual for a full time WWE performer, but it could also have to do with confusion over the nature of WWE contracts. WWE pay works two ways: You can just take your per-event pay and royalties as they come, or you can take your downside guarantee as a salary and get a balloon payment at the end of the year for what goes over the guarantee. Since he has little merchandise, $1.5 million doesn’t sound outrageously low, though.
Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kane, and Dean Ambrose all have little to no information out there about their pay. Kane recently put his home up on the market and it was huge, sprawling property with a house customized to his specific needs as a very tall man, but because he’s based in Knoxville, Tennessee, the price was dramatically less than you’d think, coming in under $1 million. The rest seem realistic enough.
What do you think of the list? Let us know in the comments.
It’s a bit strange that this wasn’t officially announced yet, but it’s hard to argue with the evidence: Dave Meltzer is reporting at F4WOnline.com that it looks like WWE may have found a way to quickly get some major historical figures into their hall of fame at this Saturday night’s induction ceremony. A WWE Hall of Fame class of 2016 shirt being sold at the WrestleMania store at AT&T Stadium includes not just the announced inductees, but also a “WWE Legacy Award” with Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Frank Gotch, George Hackenschmidt, Lou Thesz, Mildred Burke, Pat O’Connor, and “Sailor” Art Thomas all listed under that heading.
As of this writing, WWE has not said anything else about the new Legacy Award. The obvious inference, though, is that the company is addressing the long-held criticism that they won’t ever put in a number of deserving inductees due to the unofficial “quota” on deceased inductees for each year’s ceremony. This would be a simple way to solve that problem: Induct several missing historical figures each year as a group. If there’s something else to it, who knows? But it’s hard to think of any alternative scenario besides the one outlined here.
While the pre-television era wrestlers included here (Lewis, Gotch, and Hackenschmidt; Thesz and Burke straddled both eras) were never really considered realistic candidates to be inducted. Thesz not being in had been controversial for many years. It goes a bit deeper than that, though: When he and Wahoo McDaniel passed away within two weeks of each other in April 2002, neither death was acknowledged on WWE programming. The uproar online was significant enough that WWE eventually ran a quick feature honoring both. Given the alleged “death quota,” nobody ever really expected him to go in the Hall of Fame, especially after when happened in the first place when he passed away.
Thesz was in the first class of the WCW Hall of Fame, but in the 15 years since WWE bought WCW and the 12 years since the WWE Hall of Fame was restarted, WWE never adopted WCW’s hall as their own. That would have been a quick way to add Thesz and McDaniel, among others.
One would think that the Legacy Award will be officially announced on this week’s edition of SmackDown. We should know that any moment now, as the show has already aired in Canada. If it’s not announced on SmackDown, this may just be a small gesture that WWE is making without a lot of fanfare.
Last night, using the hashtag #MilkIsForBabies for some reason, Rusev held an impromptu question and answer session on Twitter. Being Rusev’s Twitter account, it was mostly hilarious, favorably comparing Vince McMahon’s hugs to Bayley’s, claiming that a bear no-showed a fight with him in a WWE ring, and more. But it also took a turn when a fan asked him what his favorite moment in WWE was so far:
Then, this morning, after the Q&A, when a fan replied to the “reading lies” tweet with “I’ll trust @davemeltzerWON over a WWE employee who can & will be punished if he doesn’t say exactly what Vince tells him to,” Rusev quoted the reply and said this:
Of course, other than the injury issue (and even then, there are all sorts of degrees of injuries and it’s not as if there aren’t minor knee injuries that someone would be cleared to work on), he didn’t really call out anything specific. On Monday’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio for F4WOnline.com subscribers, Meltzer said this about Lana when going over The Rock’s segment on Raw (transcript h/t to Keith Harris at Cageside Seats):
By the way, there was another thing that happened with her and I don’t know all the details, but it has added to her legacy so to speak. Something happened where, you know, she said something. It’s probably nothing except everyone is talking about it and essentially she’s got the new round [of heat]. If people had calmed down about her and just said ‘well, OK, she made a mistake,’ well they haven’t.
[…]
I was just told about it tonight after the show and it was actually by someone who had not even watched the show, but had heard the story, just saying that like there’s a new round of heat, everyone likes Rusev and there was something, and, you know, they are just mad at her again.
This continues the recent trend of WWE talent attempting to refute rumors without actually saying anything. Plus, of course, it should go without saying, but Rusev’s choice of words implies that Meltzer just made up whatever story he was theoretically refuting, and even in the event the rumor was false, that’s obviously something Dave would never do. It’s disingenuous to even imply that about someone who’s been reporting on the business for decades.
There is said to be a lot of unhappiness within the main WWE roster right now regarding the way NXT talents are given the opportunity to go out and put on excellent matches while many of the main WWE roster talents are relegated to short, nothing-type matches on television, especially those in the Divas division.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer offered the following update on his message board:
“So story is accurate but it’s inherent. It was the same thing in the OVW days, well not exactly the same, but similar. I get DMs from people on the main roster always after those specials. It’s a common frustration. The top NXT performers are frustrated they aren’t on the main roster making money. Then they will get more frustrated when they realize their dream. WWE guys are frustrated they aren’t having the matches guys in NXT are when they know if they can perform before 400 fans in longer matches they can tear the house down.”
– The latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, which features Jericho talking about the end of his latest WWE run, is now online. The official description for the show reads as follows:
TIJ – EP76 – Y2J Says Bye to WWE & Kevin Smith Pt1
“He’s a pop culture lover, a film director, a die-hard hockey fan, a podcaster, a wanna-be Canadian, and now… he’s on TIJ! The long-awaited Kevin Smith sitdown finally happened and this is part 1! Stick talk (Kevin lingo for hockey talk), Degrassi talk (Canada’s version of 91210), “Clerks” talk, Kevin’s “mad money moment,” twinkies & Canadian Beer, the “Canada of America,” and the genius of Quentin Tarantino. And wait till you hear part 2…coming Friday!”
– The latest edition of Jim Ross’ “Ross Report” podcast, which features an interview with veteran journalist Dave Meltzer, is now online. The official description for the show reads as follows:
TRR – Ep32 – Dave Meltzer and Night Of Champions PPV Review
“Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter joins JR to break down the WWE’s Night of Champions PPV. Hear their thoughts on The Usos, Cesaro, Chris Jericho, AJ Lee, Brock Lesnar, the meaning of titles & belts, and long term planning in pro-wrestling storylines.”