Dave Meltzer

David Allen Meltzer (born October 24, 1961) is the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON), a newsletter for the world of professional wrestling as well as mixed martial arts. WON was an underground publication that circulated around the industry and its fans. It was known for revealing events inside the business by breaking kayfabe.

Early life

Meltzer was born in San Jose, California. He showed an interest in pro wrestling early on in his life. Dave wrote several publications that predate WON, dating back to 1971. Meltzer states that he was just "a fan" at first and started a tape trading newsletter. The Observer started from Dave wanting to keep his friends in college "in the loop" for his tape trading as well as the happenings in the business. He started writing the Observer full time in 1987.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter started off as a way to keep fans informed of various wrestling regions that readers may not have been aware of or had no access to. The Observer's earlier years were also founded in breaking insider news and various behind the scenes happenings in the industry.

Since major wrestling promotions would never acknowledge the existence of any dirt sheets, Meltzer had to find other ways to advertise his newsletter. Adverts were often posted in kayfabe and semi-kayfabe publications such as Wrestling Main Event magazine and Wrestling Eye magazine. Meltzer was also able to advertise his publication during various guest appearances on wrestling radio shows and guest editorials in various national newspapers.

With the ubiquitous emergence of the internet and wrestling web sites that are able to provide news in real time, today's Observer differs in the way it covers the wrestling scene in that it provides more of an editorial on the news and what impacts it could have on the business. Wrestlers have noted seeing copies of the Observer on Vince McMahon's office desk and it is believed many, if not most of the biggest stars in WWE and other major promotions are subscribers, although few would admit it publicly. Meltzer's newsletter has led to a loyal fan following, radio shows, and even a brief stint working for the WWE as a researcher in 1987.

Impact

Steroid scandal

Due to the WWF steroid scandal in the early 1990s, Meltzer came into the national spotlight. It was due to the fact that Vince McMahon criticized Meltzer during this time due to his critical coverage of the WWF that Meltzer began appearing in newspaper columns and TV talk shows.

Rating system

Meltzer pioneered the "star rating" system (originated by Jim Cornette & Norm Dooley), which rates matches on a scale of one to five stars in a similar manner to that used by many movie critics. As in the field of film, a rating is a largely subjective affair that may take into account the amount of action, as opposed to restholds ("Workrate"); the difficulty and variety of moves used; the past history of the workers and their feud; the development of an in-match storyline based on the wrestling moves and how they affect the wrestlers, and the overall reaction of the crowd. One of the classic examples of a "five-star" match was the battle between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada on June 3, 1994 in All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Five star matches are extremely rare, and even rarer in the United States. Before 2004, the last match rated five stars in the US was in 1997. Since then, Ring of Honor has promoted three matches that received five stars from Meltzer: Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk on October 16, 2004, Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi on October 1, 2005, and Dragon Kid/Genki Horiguchi/Ryo Saito vs. CIMA/Naruki Doi/Masato Yoshino on March 31, 2006. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling also had a five-star match: Samoa Joe vs. A.J. Styles vs. Christopher Daniels at the Unbreakable pay-per-view on September 11, 2005. Four WWE matches have been given five stars by Dave Meltzer:

WrestleMania X: Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (Ladder match)
SummerSlam 1994: Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (Steel Cage match)
WrestleMania 13: Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin ("I Quit" match)
"Badd Blood": Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (Hell in a Cell)

Impact on workers

Despite the history of recurring tension between those employed in the wrestling business and those who cover the field as reporters, by most accounts, numerous people in the business regularly read WON. Mick Foley credits a writeup in WON for boosting him from a "no-name independent" wrestler to one whom a national federation would consider.

WON Hall of Fame

The Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame "Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame" is not a physical place, but nonetheless, it has attempted to cover all areas of wrestling fairly and equally. There is a physical Hall of Fame "//www.pwhf.org/" that was started several years ago. The WWE does have a Hall of Fame, but it does not really fulfill that function for wrestling at large, as its voting system is unknown and it has often passed over workers who have a bad relationship with the WWE company (of course many of those workers have been invited to be in the hall of fame but simply refused) .

Wrestling Observer Live

Dave Meltzer currently hosts Wrestling Observer Live, a popular wrestling radio show. Co-hosting the show with Dave is Bryan Alvarez, editor of the Figure Four Weekly newsletter, and is largely regarded as being one of the most humorous observers of the sport. Dave and Bryan host the show every Sunday night from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. EST on the Sports Byline Radio Network. Due to the show airing on Sunday nights, replays are played on nights there are WWE pay-per-views. The show debuted in October 1999 and aired five days a week on the internet radio channel, eYada.com. eYada closed its doors on July 9, 2001, with Wrestling Observer Live, its highest rated show, being the last show to broadcast on the station. Wrestling Observer Live was picked up by Sports Byline on March 17, 2002, and has stayed in its current position ever since.

Notes and references

External links

American journalists | San Joseans | Professional wrestling journalists and columnists | 1961 births | Living people

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