Dave Meltzer: Strong Style Mark?

By Scott Keith on 3 May 2015

Hi Scott

I was looking over Meltzer's 5* match listings and was shocked by the matches left off the list (HBK/UT WM, Bret/Owen WM, Austin/Rock, Foley/HHH etc.) I get that it's subjective and all but to go from that list, from '97 to now, nothing was better than Punk/Cena MitB. I'm a huge fan of that match but can name 5 in that time period that are better off the top of my head.

Meanwhile, over in Japan, especially in the 90s, Meltzer was giving out 5*s left and right. What gives? Was Meltzer just a huge fan of the strong style? Was it an snob thing where people like to say, "US matches are nothing compared to what goes on overseas…" I'll readily admit to being bred on WWE style and not quite getting Japan, but come on, wasn't Meltzer being a bit biased?

I think Dave would readily admit to being biased towards Japanese strong style. And it's not like his star ratings are word of law or anything. That's what I'm here for.