Night of Champions with Y2J and Ambrose vs Wyatts
4 stars
Hell in a Cell vs Wyatt
3.75 stars
Monday Night Raw vs Cesaro
4.25 stars
Survivor Series vs Del Rio
3.5 stars
vs Ambrose
3.5 stars
TLC vs Sheamus
4 stars
Seems accurate to me. Dude puts on solid PPV matches. In 2015 he displayed a bigger arsenal of power moves. People seem to forget he really upped the in ring action.
Fuck Meltzer I hate when people show his ratings as proof that a match is good or not his not God of Wrestling, His word is not facts, His not some king I'm not going to dick ride his word alot of ratings I don't agree with and I have the right to wrestling is subjective this guy rated Reigns and Randy a 4* nothing is memorable about that match at all his ratings are overrated.
Reigns is better in the ring than pretty much everyone on the roster barring a select handful of guys. He has a good grasp of psychology and storytelling, and it's why he generally puts on good matches. Flipping around and doing 20 moves means fuck all. This doesn't surprise me. His weakness is more in WWE's booking of him, and his mic skills which are serviceable at best.
The comparisons to Cena ring hollow for this reason. Usually people bitch because the guy can't wrestle. Well, Reigns can wrestle. Very well at that too. His weaknesses are unrelated to how he is in the ring. Contrast this to Cena who was receiving amazing booking from WWE by going over everyone, and was good on the mic, while being absolutely awful in the ring until 2007 or so.
It shows people just hate because they want to. There's never any consistency. This dude with the same experience as Cena will be a much better overall talent. He'll get comfortable on the mic eventually, and he'll shine even more when he does.
There's plenty of reasons to be against Reigns and criticise him over but lel at pretending like he didn't deliver in big matches throughout 2015 on a regular and consistent basis.
Obviously I love Reigns but I don't agree with a lot of his ratings especially the Orton match and the short Ambrose match. I do use his ratings when people act like his word is law until you point out his ratings of Reigns' matches.
People talk about all the 5* matches in NJPW but he's given more 5*s to NJPW in the last 3 years (8) than he did to WWE in the last 30 years (5). But somehow he isn't overrating NJPW.
So which is it? Does Meltzer overrate matches in general or does he only overrate WWE matches (specifically Reigns matches)?
Reigns issue isn't his ring work, it's his inability to entertain outside of it and/or inside of it with a microphone.
It's hilarious to me how a huge portion of his fanbase consistently dumped on "work rate" in 2013/2014 and suggestions of pushing guys like Cesaro because "that doesn't draw casuals." Now they hang their hats on Meltzer rankings because they can't cite an instance of the man delivering consistent "sports entertainment" and great promos. Put a microphone in his hands and coincidentally, he's a lot closer to Cesaro than he is to John Cena, but ofc, the narrative is completely circumstancial.
I don't think Reigns' issue is not being able to put up decent matches. The two things that are annoying with him inside the ring are 1) his shitty cardio and how many breaks this guy needs and 2) how virtually all of his fights end with him overcoming an early beating to finish off the fight with a superman punch or a spear. People are tired of this shit. He's not a terrible wrestler. I don't agree with Meltzer by the way, the guy gives everybody at least 3 stars it seems.
I really don't have any major issues with Reigns in the ring. He's not the greatest, but he's certainly capable of holding up his end. His biggest issue is that he's a really dull protagonist for WWE. The most interesting thing about him is WWE's mismanagement of him.
His matches aren't my cup of tea, mainly due to WWE style, but also because, like Cena, everything is incredibly formulaic, so his matches feel completely the same.
But if others think they're a solid watch, good on them. You can take my portion, on the house.
He was much more consistent at giving good/great matches last year especially on PPV, than even Rollins. But that would obviously be neglected due to the already set, etched in stone conventions about how Reigns can't wrestle more than 5 minutes and that Rollins can give a great match with a broom stick. Reigns is one of the best in-ring workers in the company, it would be smart of somebody like A.J Styles to sit down with Reigns for a couple or so times and take notes on wrestling psychology, we don't need to see another robot in the ring with 10 variations of rest holds.
Roman definitely delivered last year. Especially those first few.
The Brock match was one of my favorites of the year. Most of that is because it was hyped so perfectly. No brawls, minimal interaction. Really felt like a big, prize fight. Wish that could happen more but all these guys wind up in throw away matches on free tv before they can do anything special.
I do have to tip my cap to Roman because his PPV matches have indeed been solid and very consistent (though I did not enjoy the match with Ambrose at Survivor Series). That being said, Dave is a lot more generous with his ratings than he used to be and the way he rates matches today sometime contradict how he rated matches years ago.
I have only liked 3 Reigns matches as of now. Tag Team turmoil with Daniel Bryan against 3 teams. At Fastlane vs Daniel Bryan and the WM 31 against Lesnar.
I'm probably in the minority, but I really didn't think that the Wrestlemania ME was anything special outside of the final dramatic 5 minutes-or so. It was a one-sided beatdown like Cena/Lesnar at Summerslam minus the shock factor, and the match could've used an extra 10 minutes. The cash-in was a nice surprise tho
As for everything else he rated. Eh, it's his opinion, I don't agree with all of it but i'm not going to complain about someone finding enjoyment in matches more than I did, that's just silly. Reigns had good matches this year, he had decent ones and mediocre ones, but nothing in the 4.5 range (IMO) -- He more than serves his purpose when they book the match around his strengths
There is no way his match at Summerslam was 3 stars; the match itself was indeed quite boring, and as for his individual performance, well, I seem to remember him having one of his common sleeping sessions outside the ring. The Battleground match isn't at all rememberable either, Bray and Roman just don't work well together. Meltzer's full of shit anyway.
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