Those are all like a full star too high

LOLWTF. Honestly I think the women's match is the only one he got even close to right.

Agreed. Let it be said, that now, he no longer has a bias against WWE. He just comically overrates it to make fun of them.

Wow, it's actually pretty crazy that if you take away exactly one star from each match, you really do have about perfect ratings.

I don't think it's that bad, could probably knock half a star off the preshow stuff and the ladder match, but aside from that i'm not sure what the big deal is? orton/rollins was very good, cena/rusev maybe not a 3.5* match but it's not like it was terrible, main was great - what's the issue? he's inflating a small amount of a card on account of it being a great card?

3 1/2 stars for the ME would be a travishamockery

I assume he's just grading on one hell of a curve there.

Ladder Match - ****1/4
-Was the same overbooked sort of thing you're going to have whenever you put 7 guys in a ladder match. It's never really going to be workable. Ambrose spot was great, headbutt challenge was stupid, Bryan winning was fine.

Orton/Rollins - ****
Match wasn't anything incredible until the final spot, but both guys did well so 3.5/4 seems fine. Might've been the best example of wrestling/psychology of the night.

HHH/Sting - **1/2
This one is impossible to rate. On its wrestling merits, it gets no stars. On the story it told, it gets no stars. If you view it as a comedy match, hell, it might get 4-5 stars. Just crazy on top of crazy.

Divas - **1/2
Whatever

Cena/Rusev - ***1/2
Match seemed mostly meh. There's RusevTank.jpg then there's a bunch of other stuff.

Taker/Wyatt - **3/4
Ew

Lesnar/Reigns - ****1/2
This rating seems the most defensible of all of them, even if it's probably too high. 4* seems better here. Everything was competent during the 1v1 portion of the match. Had no issue with Reigns smiling because it felt like a "This guys going to kill me, but I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry" kind of thing. The wrestling wasn't really of note, just Brock throwing dudes around, but it looked good, and "Suplex City Bitch" was fantastic. The cash-in and finish was brilliant and perfectly booked.

I personally think that Santino routinely worked comedy matches that were a notch above that HHH/Sting nonsense.

I did like Cena/Rusev enough that I thought it was at least a three-star match.

Is Santino still gainfully employed?

Can someone tell me why we should even care what Dave Meltzer or anyone else rates the matches from WM? How does that change our own persomal enjoyment or non-enjoyment of the PPV? I seriously doubt anyone in WWE is going to look at his ratings and say " See, we have something here!". If they are going to listen to ayone outside of their own bubble, and that is a huge IF, its going to be the live audiences long before Meltzer, Bauer, Keller, or any of the the other "journalists"

What?

Retired briefly due to neck injury, possibly attempting a comeback after surgery last fall

They actually do miss him, though of all people Axel is finally sort of filling that role

Cena-Rusev was fine, kind of a dumb ending
Divas was fine
Orton-Rollins was solid, all the way through with a fun finisher
Taker-Wyatt, awful
HHH-Sting, best viewed through the lens that it was a non-wrestling sketch and works fine in that context
Main event was good but not great, but the ending added about 1.5* by itself


Basically, I like Meltzer's ratings RELATIVE TO EXPECTATIONS, but otherwise I'd give the main like 3.5*, probably Orton-Rollins too, Cena-Rusev a touch less and same with the divas

If we were going with "relative to expectations" then I'd certainly have the ladder match lower. It was a fine match, but IMO it definitely delivered at the bottom of its expected range.

Completely forgot about the ladder match. I'd put it in the "fine" category, on par with the divas or so.

Meltzer has had a cough for about two months, so maybe he got some really good medicine so he could handle the busiest weekend of the year for him. Could have added to the enjoyment of the show.

He also was at Wrestlemania, and later on after watching the Sting HHH match with the announcers said "God did that commentary ruin a bout super heat"

I'm rewatching the main event and when Reigns comes out he gets a tremendous amount of boos. After about 10-15 seconds of this the crowd is suddenly silent. Vinny Mac cutting them mics after all them boos? Sure seems like it.

They have been turning down or up mics during Raw, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Rewatching the ME again, lol people hating Reigns' work in that match.

The opening spot is great, Reigns trying to start fast and Lesnar just having none of it. The expression and body language from Reigns after the first bit of offense and F5 is great. The shaking, stunned facial expression. Dude looks like he just realized he doesn't stand a chance.

After watching this again it seems like people that didn't like the smiling just wanted to hate whatever happened anyway. The first time he smiles it's after he's eaten a ton of offense and is slumped over against the turnbuckle. He's not smiling and no selling, he's resigned to his fate, "This guy is going to kill me, but I won't give him the satisfaction".

Towards the end of the 1v1 part of the match, Roman is smiling again, but it only came after some slaps. Right before, he took the 2nd F5 and just laid there, but once Brock starts slapping him, he starts smiling and daring him to do it again. That makes sense for the same psychological reason. Brock keeps on being awesome and, pissed off from the disrespect, hits Roman with suplexes 8, 9, and 10 and a third F5.

The booking sort of sucked with that third F5 because Reigns can't eat the pinfall, but kicking out seems to be overdoing it. Should've just had Brock keep beating him without going for a pin. After that they go outside and the ref just opts not to count until the ringpost spot when he starts suddenly, which again, ****ty storytelling. Getting color was a great choice for this one though, blade rules be damned.

Reigns offense (SP, SP, SP countered by Brock, elbows, SP) is sold well enough by both that it seems like the last ditch effort of a guy that's hurting and just realize he fluked a concussion on Brock and needs to capitalize. Reigns does a better-than-average job selling the fact that he's still hurt between punches. The the duel Spears, same story, both guys sell well. The kickout at two is great because I think everyone expects the fall there and Roman to get his crown. After that tho, Reigns does a great job selling exhaustion and just falls over, while Brock keeps selling hurt.

Low point of the match is probably right after when Reigns gets in the fist cocking thing. In a match this "heavy", especially after you were smart enough to forgo the theatrics early, that seems corny. But still, it allows Brock to recover and set up the counter F5 which leads to both men down and Seth's cash in.

Still a great match that all three men did really well in.

Agreed. Everybody says, "omg they're booking Reigns stronger than Taker because Taker fell to the third F-5". Really? How many people really think this? Like the 1% of diehard smarks? Despite me not liking Reigns, I don't see this. It was overkill, but in no way am I saying or thinking, "Vince wants us to think Roman > Taker".

About the first smiling. It's cool you think of that nuance, I just take it as disrespect to Brock. Will just agree to disagree there. Had he only smiled at the end of the match, it would've been a lot better.

I haven't mentioned this before but, I thought Reigns' spears looked AWFUL. The dreaded running hug by Edge rings a bell here. I think that the camera angle has a lot to do with it though. They had diagonal camera shots for those and I'm just going to assume it's usually horizontal.

Yeah, and the thing is, rewatching it, it was set up perfectly for Brock to just pummel Reigns for a few more minutes and then transition to the outside ringpost spot. No need for the F5->kickout. You just had Brock take the gloves off, the slap spot, so now have Brock beat him up for a bit then end up outside and let Reigns lucksack the ringpost hit.

We'll obviously never know what was going through their heads, but I think the body language helps clear it up. It's a little bit like HHH's crotch chop at Taker towards the end of their WM 28 (?) match. Neither was "hulking up" they were just saying "You can beat me, but you can't break me", which in each case made sense. HHH is the boss and an egotist, so he'll never yield and Roman is a cocky young guy that's been built up and told he's the best.

The thing that made it a positive for me what that he didn't even really make eye contact with Brock. He sort of looked off and smiled like "Well, I guess I have to get my ass kicked now". I would've hated it if it came right after an F5 or a bunch of suplexes, but he seemed to keep it to mostly spots where the preceding offense was "light" (as compared to Brock's other stuff).

I agree with all of this, and I actually think that this match that everyone will point to when talking about how Reigns finally got over with the crowds.

I will disagree with one small point. I dont think that color was a blade job. I really think it was a "hardway". I never saw him actually use a blade, and never saw him drop it or pass it off to Heyman. Plus if you saw his stitches the next night, only an idiot would cut themselves the way he was cut. I think it was just dumb luck that led to that blood

Did you see the ref pass to Reigns? Almost surely a blade job. What else would ref hand Reigns? Brock coincidentally bleeding a minute after? Though, I missed the opening segment on RAW so I missed his cut.

I didnt see the ref pass anything. Ill have another look. His cut started just above his hairline and went down about 2 inches. And it was legit stitches, not just the standard Band Aid covering the wound. Now obviously that could have been faked, but it looked pretty real