Oh and one star for HHH/Rollins seems quite low, I'd give it like **3/4 or something.

That one I'm standing by. Absolute snoozefest. Wasn't engaged at all.

Orton Wyatt was absolutely brutal to sit through. And I feel like the worm stuff is worth a half star penalty at the very least

Wrestlemania 33:

Neville/Aries - 3.25
Battle Royal - .25
Corbin/Ambrose - Don't remember at all, not even who won
AJ/Shane - 3
KO/Jericho - 3
Raw women - 3.5
Ladder match - 3.25
Mixed tag - 2
Rollins/HHH - 2
Wyatt/Orton - Didn't watch
Lesnar/Oldberg - 2.5
SD women - Didn't pay attention.
Roman/Taker - DUD

WM 33 wasn't very good

Man, I've been way off of everyone else here so far this year. Loved AJ/Cena at Rumble. Really enjoyed Rollins/HHH as well. I thought it was the best match on the main card by a small margin over the AJ/Shane and Ladder matches, with Neville/AA as the best one overall.

That was a strong back and forth match, had some great spots with the knee buckling on multiple high flying attempts like the top rope powerbomb he hurt himself on initially before hitting the Phoenix Splash and Steph's table bump, was a heel zones in on a faces injury story which was executed solid despite being rather ABC, and the ending sequence with all the pedigree attempts was great I thought.

mind you I rarely rate so probably not calibrated


Neville/Aries - ***
Battle Royal - *
Corbin/Ambrose - didn't watch
AJ/Shane - ****
KO/Jericho - ***
Raw women - ***
Ladder match - ***1/2
Mixed tag - *1/2
Rollins/HHH - ***
Wyatt/Orton - *1/2
Lesnar/Oldberg - **
SD women - *
Roman/Taker - **


I ended up with AJ/Shane as MOTN.

Gave the ** of the *** for the Rollins match were for the ending ... it dragged badly in some places

The selling was awful. Seth's psychology, "I'm going to do every single move I normally do but I'm going to grab my knee for a few seconds afterward because I'm injured.". The knee buckling when he went for the sunset-flip powerbomb had me just rolling my eyes. I know there's a story there but by that point there was too much stupidity. I say all that and I've said many times on here that limb matches are my absolute favorite type of match.

The match dragged on. The finish was awful. Having the same finisher and continuously going to a move that can't be hit from different angles or instantaneously is dumb. The Stephanie bump seemed way out of place and to be done for nothing but a pop and Seth's pedigree looks awful.

Last but not least, let's not forget that HHH got the go ahead (somehow ) to take a chair to the head.

All this typing is making me think my two star rating is being too generous.

Meltzer says:

Neville/Aries - 3.75
Battle Royale - 2
Corbin/Ambrose - 2
AJ/Shane - 4
KO/Jericho - 3.5
Raw women - 3.25
Ladder match - 3.75
Mixed tag - 2.25
Rollins/HHH - 3.5
Wyatt/Orton - 1.5
Lesnar/Oldberg - 3.5
SD women - 1.5
Roman/Taker - 3

That Roman/Taker rating is pretty damn odd considering the usual Meltzer tendency of judging so heavily just on ringwork; I can't imagine that anyone thought that the ringwork of that match was anything good or even non-terrible. If someone liked the story then that's more understandable.

That really isn't a thing. Meltzer is always influenced by the crowd (e.g., the meme of Tokyo Dome adding a half star) and the story (e.g., Punk/Cena was not a 5-star match based purely on in-ring work, he gave it 5 stars because of the story.)

Admittedly I've drawn my own inferences from his ratings and don't have any statements on his end to back it up; I'm just surprised by the many matches that (in my opinion) he overrates that (again, in my opinion) only have the good attribute of ringwork that is well-executed but that is sterile and offers no real story and doesn't really succeed in engaging the crowd.

Obviously people change over the course of three decades, but the fact that he gave Hogan/Andre negative stars seemed like the height of someone being a myopic technical ringwork snob, so it has always shaped how I look at his approach.

He did revise that negative rating (to one star) a week or so after saying that it was -****.

That is to his credit that he rethought the dumb first rating. If he would have just given one star to begin with then it never would have particularly stood out to me (though I would rate it more highly).

Although I seem to remember that he wasn't a big fan in part because the story was a complete lie.

Yea, all hyperbole aside. Since I started watching wrestling again 3-4 years ago that Wyatt/orton match may be the worst I've seen

I'm pretty sure that Wyatt/Orton was the only match I didn't watch at WM. I had WM on the whole night, but I hardly paid attention to Wyatt/Orton at all. Strange how I was more into a thrown together multi-person Smackdown women's title match than I was the title with the longest lineage in the WWE.

Meltzer's ratings for Payback

• Enzo and Cass vs. The Club 2
• Jericho vs. Owens 3.25
• Aries vs. Neville 3.5
• Hardys vs. Sheamus/Cesaro 3
• Bliss vs. Bayley 3.25
• Orton vs. Wyatt House Portion No rating
• Rollins vs. Joe 3.5
• Wyatt vs. Orton Ring Portion 0.5
• Strowman vs. Reigns 3.25

He also gave Miz/Rollins/Balor a 4.25

Meltzer ratings for NXT Chicago and Backlash:

Takeover
Strong/Young: 3.25
UK Title: 4.75
Women's Title: 3.5
NXT Title: 4.25
NXT Tag Title: 4.25

Backlash
Dillinger/English: 2
Ziggler/Nakamura: 2.75
Tag Title: 2.5
Corbin/Zayn: 2.5
6-woman Tag: 2
US Title: 3.75
Rowan/Harper: 2
WWE Title: 2.75

I didn't see everything he rated, but of what I did see, the US Title match is a bit high and the six-woman tag is about a full star high.

I'd probably go lower on the NXT Tag Title match as well, though it was still really good.

I half-watched Ziggler/Nakamura and then tuned out; if that was truly the second best match on the card I have nothing but pity for those who actually bothered with the rest of the card.

Meltzer's ratings for Extreme Rules

Kalisto vs Apollo Crews - 3.25
Ambrose vs Miz - 3.25
Swann/Banks vs Dar/Fox - 2.5
Alexa vs Bayley - DUD
Shesaro vs Hardy Boyz - 3.25
Neville vs Aries - 3.25
Fatal 5 Way - 4.5

That women's tag getting 2.5 seems goofy. That match was wretched.

Didn't watch. Are the ratings for Alexa/Bayley and the main event accurate?

Based on seeing reactions to Alexa/Bayley, I'd say that's what most people think. The 5-way seems a bit overrated but I've seen a bunch of ***3/4-****1/4 for it. But lol didn't watch.

4.5 stars for the main is at least a half-star too high for my tastes, but shrug.