The Meltzer Thread

[BUTT]

Wrestlers are supposed to be judged on four major criteria, positive historical importance to the business, drawing power, in-ring ability and longevity. A Hall of Famer should be strong in all four of those categories, but if they were one of the dominant standouts on a worldwide basis is one of those categories they also should be voted in. Longevity, however, without having major positive historical importance to the business, drawing power and in-ring ability, should be viewed as meaningless.

Voters are usually in one of four categories, historians, reporters, and those who are or have worked in the profession.

However the 1996 inaugural class was pretty much selected entirely by Meltzer with assistance from Torch contributor turned annoying PWO poster John D. Williams.

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdxJIqPU8AEWbix.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdxJJRaVMAAgkvr.jpg

 

[BUTT]

The people constantly harping on the Mabel thing are missing important context. At the time from a storyline standpoint there was no expectation that the third man would be the leader of the group - only a defector from the WWF. Within WCW, Hogan only agreed to the turn about 11 days before Bash at the Beach. I can believe that Bischoff had discussions with Hall and Nash about who their partner would be, and I don't think he would have told them about Hogan until he was sure it was happening, so I can see him listening to suggestions regarding who was available and humoring Nash and Hall's ideas while knowing in the back of his head what the real plan was. Meltzer did report that Hogan was likely to be the third man the week before the event. This is not the trump card you guys think it is.

Very impressive that Bruce Prichard has ruined wrestling discourse online. I wouldn't have thought he would be the one to do it.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I learned to dislike Dave on my own. By giving him lots of money. And hearing words I didn't like. So I kept listening. Um.Um. Um. Um. YeahYeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeah. I was already told it was going to happen. Seven stars.

 

[vivisectvi]

Pretty sure he had said he talks and enunciates like that because of anxiety, no?

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

the mabel stuff is really silly. the people who constantly harp on it like it's some huge smoking gun are terrible and dave is terrible for constantly feeding them. If all Dave said was that Mabel was the top guy discussed by them in a meeting that really isn't anything like "Dave said Mabel was the third man" or anything near it.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Pretty sure he had said he talks and enunciates like that because of anxiety, no?

Bryan has been his radio partner for 19 years and he can't allow him to say a point during discussions. Granted Alvarez is out to lunch most of the time, but still.

 

[Fall of Epic]

https://twitter.com/EBischoff/status/1088996953575182336

 

[BruiserBrody]

Livin' it up in the MMA bubble:

https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1090675702427312128

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Anyone who thinks Ronda is more influential than Serena is probably a bit racist...which we already knew about Dave.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I feel like Mia Hamm kind of gets undersold there IMO. She was arguably the face of Women's Soccer at least in America for the entirety of the 1990s.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Always happy to shit on Dave for being racist, but I think this is at least as much a case of his obsession with combat sports

 

[AA484]

When it comes to who influenced more young girls/women to take up their respective sport? Serena is ahead in every other metric I can think of but this one may be closer than we think.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

If he had been specific like that he might have had an argument but Meltzer is never specific like that, which is why he's so frustrating. He just assumes everyone will know what he really means.

 

[muzzington]

Sounds like a most influential American female athlete discussion.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan need to be thrown in that hat. They made little girls believe for so long and actually got most who gave fuck all about ice skating to actually tune in. Also, Lisa Leslie also deserves a shout out.

 

[alkeiper]

Kerrigan and Kwan were good, but I don't know if they were transcendent. Serena Williams is iconic in a way that probably doesn't resonate as well with Caucasian males, but I can't imagine a female athlete who has attained a higher peak than her.

And Dave noted to today he did break his hand and is getting surgery today.

 

[AA484]

One could also argue that Serena was more influential than Ronda in how people view female athletes.

 

[BUTT]

Serena is more famous, and more people care about her athletic career, but Ronda was the main catalyst for the biggest league in her sport adding a women’s division. She isn’t more influential in the culture but it certainly can be argued that she is more influential in her sport. It’s probably best not to get too deep into these apples and oranges comparisons or else we will have a repeat of the PWO thread where they debated whether Hulk Hogan or Molly Ringwald would be more widely mourned when they die.

 

[909]

My counter to that is how many of the top young women on tour state very clearly that Serena Williams is/was their idol. There are also now many more black women on tour. I don't think Ronda will ever have any such influence, but that's something that can only be judged many years down the line. I would also counter that women would have been fighting in the UFC at some point anyway and that almost all the top women in this sport started fighting before Ronda did. Dave and others are skewed by the combat sports lens, but tennis is a bigger sport worldwide by some distance, and it's the only one where the major events guarantee equal pay for women. That was also because of the Williams sisters.

I would also say that these are the only two women's sports I can think of where there isn't a discernible difference in the entertainment value between watching women and men.

 

[Baby Shoes]

https://twitter.com/davemeltzerwon/status/924335844437082112

 

[Baby Shoes]

https://twitter.com/NiaJaxWWE/status/1104466845686472704

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

https://twitter.com/NiaJaxWWE/status/1104466845686472704

Except he's never questioned Roman's health. He was talking about the oral drug that Roman was taking. In fact, Dave was calling out people who were saying it was fake.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I'm not saying Dave is wrong to talk about Roman's health but he's done a lot more than that over the last month or so. He's been printing a ton of stuff about Roman's treatment and getting into fights with Leukemia survivors and the families of people who have had people that died and then said rude things about those people saying they have no clue what they're talking about. Even if that's true as far as it comes to his reporting it's a dick thing to say to people who have suffered and shows a lack of sensitivity that is common with him.

He's also talked about seeing the WWE medical report before when AJ Styles had a freakout about people falsely reporting he had a hernia, in order to defend why he reported it. Do members of the media have a right to report on peoples medical conditions? Yeah absolutely. But I think they need to show some common sense and kindness. Meltzer is not many steps up from a troll on twitter though.

 

[Valeyard]

After hearing the audio, I'm with Nia. I'm also just confused as to why people pay for such a shitty product.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/1104446876684713984?s=19

This is what Nia is angry about btw. Dave basically minimizes what Roman went through and then says that Roman is wrong about what his own medication is.

He apologized for getting the medication wrong but this stuff is pretty ridiculous especially after he's been all over twitter bragging on how he's been consulting medical experts on this stuff and arguing with people effected by cancer.

 

[Baby Shoes]

 

[909]

That guy is a fuckin moron.

 

[muzzington]

Maybe do better research.

 

[Valeyard]

I really hate him. Just on a personal level. He offends me.