10 Alternative Wrestling Awards For 2023

6. Most Inexplicable Dave Meltzer Star Rating

Seth Rollins Shinsuke Nakamura
AEW

As somebody who was actually at AEW All In: London, CM Punk Vs. Samoa Joe was an overwhelmingly great experience.

A battle between two master trolls soaked in blood, watching Joe tell Punk to go f*ck himself either literally or via gratuitous violence was a joy. The fans at ringside went absolutely banana. Some Elite fans in the crowd turned their backs on it!

Punk walked into the lion's den, "understood the assignment", and showed ass to draw an incandescent level of heat and deafening catharsis. Together, Punk and Joe manipulated one of the biggest crowds ever with ingenious psychology in a match that was also brutal and dramatic on the physical side of things.

This isn't an anti-Dave Meltzer rant - there are plenty of freaks who don't make a living doing that elsewhere, and his ratings, historically, are a very accurate curation of the medium - but he gave it ***1/2.

What?

Did he miss an asterisk?

He went higher on the Collision match, which was nowhere near as good nor heated.

Dave Meltzer is statistically incapable of going lower than ****1/4 on anything these days, so how did this happen?!

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!