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The Meltzer Thread

Angle-plex

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I hope someday I can get to a place where Bryan and Dave's obvious bias doesn't trigger me.

The Bryan I spent 10+ years paying to listen to rant about WWE and TNA would NOT have blown off the ending bump of the Blood and Guts match.

/ugh.
If you don't like it, don't watch pal!

Alvarez and Meltzer are not very smart people. I'm not saying that to be mean or because they have different opinions. They don't have critical thinking skills, especially Alvarez, who argues on emotion more than anything.
 

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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It's funny that AEW bent over backwards to win over the IWC and now half of the IWC hates them. Tbh, I feel like Meltzer would be a lot better off if he was at least transparent about his bias and not keeping up this objective wrestling journalist ruse.
 

Angle-plex

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It's funny that AEW bent over backwards to win over the IWC and now half of the IWC hates them. Tbh, I feel like Meltzer would be a lot better off if he was at least transparent about his bias and not keeping up this objective wrestling journalist ruse.
It's fine, people are so desperate to have a good American wrestling promotion that it gets overrated and it's many flaws get overlooked. Compared to WWE, AEW is good. Compared to the rest of TV it's below average.
 

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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If you're comparing pro wrestling to scripted primetime dramas, I don't think problem is with pro wrestling. Even in the '90s when scripted television was not nearly as good as it is now and pro wrestling was way better, I wouldn't try to say Monday Nitro or RAW was objectively better than ER or Homicide: Life on the Street!
 

geniusMoment

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If you're comparing pro wrestling to scripted primetime dramas, I don't think problem is with pro wrestling. Even in the '90s when scripted television was not nearly as good as it is not and pro wrestling was way better, I wouldn't try to say Monday Nitro or RAW was objectively better than ER or Homicide: Life on the Street!
How about this? Was Raw better than The Mommies in the 90s?

 

Angle-plex

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If you're comparing pro wrestling to scripted primetime dramas, I don't think problem is with pro wrestling. Even in the '90s when scripted television was not nearly as good as it is now and pro wrestling was way better, I wouldn't try to say Monday Nitro or RAW was objectively better than ER or Homicide: Life on the Street!
Yeah I wasn't saying that. I'm saying AEW is good compared to other forms of American wrestling. But you don't have to like any form of American wrestling. Some people want to like it so much they'll overlook a lot of things and lash at out those that don't agree.
 

geniusMoment

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It is crazy how divisive AEW is. You go to any major wrestling site like wrestlinginc.com and any article involving AEW (especially if it's about ratings or something Tony Khan said) and there are usually over a thousand comments, all of which are people acting like AEW is great or the worst thing to ever happen to television.
 

geniusMoment

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On Meltzer, I think it's a combination of him having an obvious bias, but also people not understanding AEW's success or having an agenda against AEW (Cornette cult people or WWE stans). And some is just people being trolls.

You see people all the time mention how TNA was doing better ratings 10 years ago. But, that doesn't provide any context to the environment in which we currently live. Due to viewership falling across the board you can't compare a rating on a 1-to-1 basis. You have to compare against other shows in the current environment. If AEW had been around 10 years ago their adjusted ratings would probably be closer to 3 million. So, because of that people get pissed when Meltzer mentions how successful they have been (ratings, ticket sales, buyrates) because they perceive it as a bias without fully understanding the context.
 

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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That just reminds me of amusing irony of #1 Meltzer Hater Eric Bischoff always blathering about how "context is king" on his podcast then alternately puffing his chest or scratching his head over how much lower the ratings are now Vs Monday Night Wars or even 2010-11 TNA.
 

strummer

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It is crazy how divisive AEW is. You go to any major wrestling site like wrestlinginc.com and any article involving AEW (especially if it's about ratings or something Tony Khan said) and there are usually over a thousand comments, all of which are people acting like AEW is great or the worst thing to ever happen to television.

I've noticed this as well. You didn't really see this with TNA or whatever but just a mention of AEW seems to ignite and trigger everyone in both directions
 

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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I think it's just a sign of super divisive times rubbing off on the IWC. Even the Monday Night Wars didn't inspire such feelings. There were obviously some people who strongly WWF partisans and strongly WCW partisans but you never got the sense that people were genuinely pissed off or hated the other show with a fiery passion.
 

strummer

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I actually think the issue is that a lot fans can't look at the business with anything other than through a wwe telescope. Hell I've done it I guess. Probably most here have as well. AEW is doing things differently and a lot of things in a non wwe fashion and people are quick to jump on them because they are so used to the wwe way.

Then you have people who are so sick of wwe (tbh it's understandable) that they praise everything AEW does
 

Big Papa Paegan

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I think it's just a sign of super divisive times rubbing off on the IWC. Even the Monday Night Wars didn't inspire such feelings. There were obviously some people who strongly WWF partisans and strongly WCW partisans but you never got the sense that people were genuinely pissed off or hated the other show with a fiery passion.
Maybe it's because I got the internet when ECW was still a thing, but that "fuck the rest" attitude was very much a thing among that fanbase.
 

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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Oh yeahhh. I forgot what toxic personalities some ECW Mutants were. Hate to say this to you but I feel like the diehard ECW Mutants and hardcore fans of Andrew Dice Clay during his peak in popularlity really felt like the direct predecessors to the MAGA Chud. Right down to Joey Styles taking potshots at the Clintons. OHMYGOD!
 

strummer

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Honestly, the divisiveness has made it borderline impossible for me to enjoy or listen to wrestling discussion online anymore. The old school discussion talk is really the only safe haven anymore. Hey just listened to JR bitch about Superbrawl 1 yesterday and really enjoyed it!

And also honestly the Meltzer Haters Club v His Loyal Defenders is really not making this stuff fun either. Honestly I could listen to Dave talk about old Starrcades and Manias for hours and dread any current stuff. Oh well...
 

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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Yeah. JR and John Arezzi's podcast feel like only safe spaces to completely avoid dumb Meltzer/AEW Vs cranky old guys (Vs WWE stans?) content. And even JR is occasionally forced to get on a soapbox to defend his employer. So I'm left to listen to clips of nerds calling in to John Arezzi in 1991 to complain about the price of concessions at Nassau Coliseum. And even that occasionally triggers bad feelings just by process of Brian Last being Arezzi's co host.
 

Big Papa Paegan

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I don't think it's that there's a new breed of divisiveness among the general wrestling fanbase, just that we haven't had it in ~20 years. There were ROHbots back in the Gabe days who were vehemently anti-WWE (on a philosophical level) and even more so anti-TNA (because of all the talent being pulled). Then nobody cared in the 2010s because both major non-WWE companies were jokes.

Beyond that, you had to actively search for wrestling discussion until now. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. They all have big communities dedicated solely to wrestling discussion, and sites like this are only held together by the small but core community that has survived that whole time.
 

tekcop

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The WWE vs. AEW thing is just like the Playstation vs. Xbox or Marvel vs. DC stuff, right? Americans base their entire personality on their consumer choices, so they have to pick a side like we're talking about opposing political parties and anyone on the other side is bad. Much like how I never understood "the console wars," I can't wrap my head around caring about any of this in that way.
 

tekcop

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I remember being like 14 and reading people on message boards absolutely lose their shit arguing about which minutiae that separated Sony's and Microsoft's consoles made their favorite better and being at a complete loss at how to feel about any of it.
 
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