Seth Rollins On Dave Meltzer – “Match Ratings Are Silly”

Seth Rollins thinks precious little of Dave Meltzer and his match star rating system.

The concept of the star rating system was originally conceived by Jim Cornette and Norm Dooley decades ago and was supposed to copy the same format as star ratings for films.

According to Cornette, the original meaning for his system was as follows:

• DUD: one of the worst things we’ve ever seen;
• *: that was the s**ts;
• **: pretty average;
• ***: really good;
• ****: they tore the house down

Meltzer went further with this rating system as part of his Wrestling Observer Newsletter and has since popularized the concept of the 5-Star match. To Meltzer, the 5-Star match was supposed to be a favorite for Match of the Year and was said to be on a much higher level than anything else.

In previous editions of his WON, he noted that he “may see ten such matches a year”, but in more recent years he has rated many more matches 5-stars and even higher.

Despite these being the personal recommendations of one man, many fans and even some wrestlers take his ratings as either some form of extreme praise or as something resembling an objective opinion, especially since it comes from a source outside of the wrestling business itself.

But one person that still thinks that Meltzer’s ratings are preposterous is Seth Rollins, who said so on a recent episode of Logan Paul’s ImPAULsive podcast.

“He’s great as a historian but match ratings are silly. Match ratings are very silly. Like I said, match ratings are so subjective.

“If the people are popping, it’s a good time. That’s the end of the game, but to put star ratings on it, good for you … in the grand scheme, it means very little.”

Kurt Angle has no five-star matches, okay? One of the greatest of all-time and there’s a plethora of those people.”

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Dave Meltzer defended his star ratings by arguing that anything over 4-stars is what matters most. With that in mind, Seth Rollins has 78 matches rated **** or higher, with his highest being a 5-Star match against Cody at Hell in a Cell 2022.

h/t Inside The Ropes for the transcription