Dave Meltzer | |
|---|---|
 Meltzer in 2018 | |
| Born | David Allen Meltzer (1959-10-24)October 24, 1959 (age 66) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1971–present |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | f4wonline |
David Allen Meltzer (born October 24, 1959) is an American journalist, author and historian who reports onprofessional wrestling andmixed martial arts. Since 1983, he has been the publisher and editor of theWrestling Observer Newsletter (WON), adirtsheet primarily addressing professional wrestling. He has also written for theOakland Tribune, theLos Angeles Times,Yahoo! Sports,SI.com,[1] andThe National Sports Daily. He has extensively covered mixed martial arts sinceUFC 1 in 1993 and also covers it forSB Nation. He has been called "the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism" byFrank Deford ofSports Illustrated.[2]
David Allen Meltzer[3] was born into a Jewish family inUpstate New York on October 24, 1959.[4][5] He later moved with his family toSan Jose, California. He earned a journalism degree fromSan Jose State University and started out as a sportswriter for theWichita Falls Times Record News and theTurlock Journal. He demonstrated an interest in professional wrestling and a journalistic approach to it early in life, writing several wrestling-related publications that predateWON, dating back to 1971. The most notable of these was theCalifornia Wrestling Reportc. 1973–1974, which reported on theNational Wrestling Alliance territories operating out ofLos Angeles andSan Francisco.
The beginnings of theWrestling Observer Newsletter date back to 1980, when Meltzer began anannual poll among those with whom he corresponded about professional wrestling. According to Meltzer, he was just a fan at first. A short time later, he began maintaining a tape-trading list, and would occasionally send match results and news updates along with tape updates. He stated that he wanted to keep his friends in college "in the loop" for his tape trading and happenings in the business, as the mainstream wrestling magazines catered to a somewhat younger demographic.[6]
Meltzer participated inHBO's documentary aboutAndré the Giant[7] and appeared on several episodes ofVice's seriesDark Side of the Ring.
Meltzer, somewhat indirectly, helped to usher in a new era of wrestling in the late 2010s; aTwitter user asked him in 2017 if anindependent wrestling event could sell at least 10,000 tickets, a number that no company besidesWCW andWWE had reached for a professional wrestling show in the U.S. since 1993. He responded with "not any time soon", prompting wrestlerCody Rhodes—who had left WWE the previous year—to say he would "take that bet". Rhodes and the tag teamThe Young Bucks subsequently promoted the 2018 independent showAll In, which gained an attendance of 11,263; this led Rhodes and the Bucks to sign up as wrestlers and executive vice presidents forAll Elite Wrestling (AEW), a wrestling promotion created byTony Khan in 2019 that would grow to become the second largest American promotion after WWE.[8]
In 2016, theWashington Post referred to Meltzer as "pro wrestling's preeminent journalist" whileMel Magazine called him "the most important journalist in professional wrestling history" in 2022.[9] In 2013,Frank Deford ofSports Illustrated called him "the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism" and stated, "You could cover theVatican orState Department and not do as good a job as Dave Meltzer does on wrestling."[2] R. Tyson Smith, a professor atUniversity of Pennsylvania, cited Meltzer as "the foremost authority on professional wrestling in the United States" in his 2014 bookFighting for Recognition: Identity, Masculinity, and the Act of Violence in Professional Wrestling.[10] Lowery A. Woodall III, an associate professor atMillersville University of Pennsylvania, called Meltzer "the most respected wrestling journalist of the last forty years" in 2022.[11] Wrestling historianPat Laprade has calledWON the "Wall Street Journal of professional wrestling".[12]
Bret Hart recalled that, during his career, most of his colleagues were keen to be featured and praised by Meltzer in theWrestling Observer Newsletter and stated he was gladWON served as a legitimate source of news within professional wrestling following theMontreal screwjob.[2]Seth Rollins has praised Meltzer's international coverage of professional wrestling and his ability as a wrestling historian.[13]Terry Funk recalled being impressed byWON in his 2013 autobiography: "I immediately thought that this thing was going to take off. There would be no stopping it. Instead of talking about the matches as if they were real competitions, like the newsstand magazines had one, Dave Meltzer wrote about the business behind the scenes. It had news and results from all over, and was obviously written about someone who understood the business... I saw it as a thermometer of sorts, to see how different things were getting over in different places."[14]
Conversely,PWInsider writer Dave Scherer has criticized Meltzer's work. After a collaboration between them in the 1990s, Scherer alleged that Meltzer fed him first-hand information before publishing something different.[15]John Bradshaw Layfield has alleged that WWE gave Meltzer false information which Meltzer then published.[16]
In May 2015, Meltzer reported thatDestination America had decided to cancelImpact Wrestling by late September.[17][18]Total Nonstop Action Wrestling vehemently denied the reports, claiming that they "constitute[d] defamation" and that they were "seek[ing] all legal remedies available", but the show was indeed cancelled by January 2016 and no legal matters ever arose.[19]
In March 2025, Meltzer reported in a now-deletedWON article that matches involvingWWE ID talent were directly booked and scripted by the program's head scout andWWE Evolve bookerGabe Sapolsky; in exchange, promotions would be permitted to use WWE branding to advertise the matches and talent would be paid a stipend to wrestle the matches. In response to the article,Game Changer Wrestling promoter Brett Lauderdale denied the existence of any such scripts or stipends, but acknowledged they were permitted (but not required) to use WWE branding.[20]
Meltzer popularized the star rating system (devised byJim Cornette and his childhood friend Norm M. "Weasel" Dooley),[21][22][23] which rates matches on a nominal scale of zero to five stars in a similar manner to that used by many movie critics.[5] The first 6 and 6.5 star matches – as rated by Dooley – took place in 1981.[24] The highest Meltzer has ever rated a match was seven stars, given toKazuchika Okada andKenny Omega for their match atDominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall in June 2018. Conversely, matches that Meltzer rates particularly poorly may receive a negative star rating. The lowest rating Meltzer has given out is −459.6 stars – corresponding to "absolute zero" –, which has been awarded to two matches:The Men Down Under vs.The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff atHeroes of Wrestling in October 1999; andMinoru Suzuki vs.Butterbean at theWrestleCon Mark Hitchcock Memorial Show in April 2025.[25]
Wrestlers such asBret Hart have written how proud they were when their performances were praised in theWON.[26]Will Ospreay has also noted the positive impact a 5 star or greater rating from Meltzer had on his career.[27] Others, such as Cornette,PWInsider'sDave Scherer[28] andSeth Rollins have criticized Meltzer's rating system, with Rollins notably questioning how a wrestler likeKurt Angle doesn't have a 5 star match.[13] Meltzer himself has stated that his star system is "the least important" work he undertakes and has said that wrestlers and fans place far more importance on the star ratings than he does.[29] Nevertheless, Meltzer's ratings are frequently a hot topic within the world of professional wrestling, and were so particularly in the late 2010s following the awarding of six stars to the Omega vs Okada match atWrestle Kingdom 11 in 2017.[29]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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| 1999 | Beyond the Mat | Himself | Documentary |
| 2018 | André the Giant | Himself | HBO documentary |
| 2019 | Dark Side of the Ring | Himself | Vice miniseries |
| 2024 | Mr. McMahon | Himself | Netflix miniseries |
{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)It's the Dave Meltzer's Birthday edition of Wrestling Observer Radio
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