Dave Meltzer has given his thoughts on the recent AJ Styles comments seemingly directed at him.
In the latest instance of contracted WWE talents competing in outside promotions, The Phenomenal One was victorious in his match against Naomichi Marufuji at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s NOAH Destination pay-per-view on July 13th. Speaking in a post-match interview, AJ Styles took a shot at Meltzer’s star rating system by stating that “a lot of Japanese matches get 5-star ratings from people that really don’t matter.”
While discussing the match on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer praised the work of Styles and Marufuji, adding that Styles’ performance in the match was better than his recent matches against Cody Rhodes in a performance that reminded him of the WWE star’s run in New Japan. Addressing the star ratings comments from Styles, Meltzer stated that they “made no sense”:
“AJ was trying to knock me, it made no sense what he was saying, but he tried. His thing was ‘Oh this guy gives five-star matches to the stuff in Japan and it doesn’t matter and nobody cares’. But when you watch the matches, it’s like there’s a reason that they’re better here [in Japan] and it’s like, huh? He was basically saying the fans, because of what they like, they make a match better.”
WWE Star Previously Criticised Dave Meltzer’s Star Ratings
Meltzer’s star ratings have often become a topic of discussion in the wrestling world due to some of the all-time greats never receiving a five-star rating and some promotions seemingly more likely than others to have matches receive a higher rating. When a WWE NXT match received a lower rating than many expected, one competitor in the match let their feelings be known.
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