I mean he did at first. He thought Naoya Ogawa was really cool and that NJPW were ahead of the curve by putting him over.

Considering how much Meltzer loved shoot style and Japanese MMA during its boom period, if he even sniffed for a second that there was money in pursuing this style, he would have been all over promoters telling them to book it.

He loves this stuff. But he will always point out if something isn't getting over with the people buying tickets because that's his job.

It's sad how easy it is to invent any position that you disagree with, pretend that Dave Meltzer holds it, and no one will challenge you over it.

Dave is a man who loved MMA so much that he combined it with his pro wrestling newsletter, convincing his readership that they were the same thing and leading to Kazushi Sakuraba getting into the HOF. He called AJPW 'a slave to workrate' in defense of NJPW's booking of Naoya Ogawa.

What in the absolute name of God goes into crafting a segment like this? It doesn't even have funny bad acting like Hogan and Warrior.

I don't necessarily blame them. WWE teaches its audience that nothing matters until the finishers/run-ins happen, and they build shows around giving the audience oppertunities to chant. AEW gets lazy like this as well sometimes. If you go the easy route with wrestling, this is the crowd you get.

My criticism here goes beyond them merely being quiet. This was a perfect example of a modern Pavlov's wrestling crowd:

Only popping for big spots. Doing WWE call-and-response stuff because they're bored. 'Fight Forever' during the government mandated fight forever spot.

Kyle vs Mox for example. I appreciated that it was a bloody match that didn't rely on plunder, but the crowd didn't give a fuck. They started singing the Seth Rollins song half way through.

The crowd didn't get excited for Fletcher and Briscoe until the tacks, tables and ladder came out.

The generation that came up with Russo? Forget about it. Lost cause.

When you listen to wrestlers from the 80s and earlier, they're quite mercenary but they sound sane, at least as far as their grounding in the wrestling business. They'll talk about how they left territories because the booker wanted them to do something dumb, and it will make sense to you.

A great match. Not necessarily one that's going to blow you away in terms of twists and turns but one that will blow you away in terms of execution. If you can find guys who do a faster counter spot into a GTS, I'd love to see it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEjq...

Miu could have stopped developing after the match with Yamashita in 2022 and still would have become PoP champion. She was already over with her strength and her personality. But instead she lived in the dojo and developed sick looking mat work.

Yeah, and that was what made the whole 'Rock is ruining WWE booking' thing so irritating to me. Triple H takes credit for every single signing, every angle, every twist and turn. But suddenly when the booking goes wrong it's not his fault? Come on.

There are a couple of spots per match where he tries to be Naito and he's just not built for that intricate stuff. The crowd likes it when he strikes and shows power.