Yeah WM 25 was pretty good in my book, not sure why it was so poorly received. The usual fun little MITB match, a fun hardcore match with the Hardys, a decent (if too short) triple threat match for the WHC, and of course the classic HBK/Taker match. I think the show just gets so much heat because of the main event, which yes, is a fucking travesty abortion and is one of the worst main events in Wrestlemania history. It doesn't get better Bearded, it somehow manages to get worse.
As for the whole "Meltzers ratings are so inconsistent" thing that Gelgarin was talking about, absolutely agree with you and it's something I learned a fair deal about over the years after researching his most highly rated matches. You're totally right about the whole five star thing being on his whim, as it was clear he was just more into wrestling in general and was a much bigger fan during the 80s-90s than he is now. Once MMA came around, he got really obsessed with that and it's pretty clear he cares more about MMA these days than he does wrestling as he watches and rates less and less wrestling as time goes on. He used to love puro but he doesn't even watch it anymore, hasn't rated a puro match in nearly 3 years now. I don't blame him too much for his inconsistency in ratings though, just like any other fan he has his high and low periods in terms of interest in wrestling, and it's obvious that he was really blown away when he first started watching puro and traveling to Japan, as he's definitely overrated many matches he's given five stars from the mid 90s in All Japan particularly.
The "five of those were women's matches" comment I don't get though man, is that supposed to be a knock on his credibility? It isn't, most of the women's matches he's given five stars to are absolutely deserving of that honor and if you actually go and watch some of these matches like say Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong from 11/20/94 you'd see that. Don't hate on the Joshi man, those women blew away men and women across the globe at the time with their incredible matches, Toyota was easily a Top 5 worker on the entire planet during that time, male or female.
There are definitely certain periods of time where you can expect Meltzer to under or overrate matches. For example, take any Nitro match he rated from 1995-1999, and automatically subtract it by atleast 1/2* before you even watch it, because he constantly overrated the fuck out of those matches. Any time Benoit and Guerrero would meet up, even if it was only for 5 flimsy minutes, he'd go **** and it's really, really disappointing to go back and watch some of those matches expecting **** greatness only to get a good match that's barely above ***. Or take any ECW match from the late 90s to the early 2000s and you can fully expect him to underrate the fuck out of some of them (crazy I know, everyone probably thinks Meltzer was an ECW mark who overrated them, but it's not true at all). I mean, ***1/2 for Lynn vs. RVD at Living Dangerously 1999? Nonsense, that's EASILY a **** match, higher in fact probably. He's usually pretty spot-on when it comes to rating WWE matches over the last 10-15 years though.
As for the whole "Meltzers ratings are so inconsistent" thing that Gelgarin was talking about, absolutely agree with you and it's something I learned a fair deal about over the years after researching his most highly rated matches. You're totally right about the whole five star thing being on his whim, as it was clear he was just more into wrestling in general and was a much bigger fan during the 80s-90s than he is now. Once MMA came around, he got really obsessed with that and it's pretty clear he cares more about MMA these days than he does wrestling as he watches and rates less and less wrestling as time goes on. He used to love puro but he doesn't even watch it anymore, hasn't rated a puro match in nearly 3 years now. I don't blame him too much for his inconsistency in ratings though, just like any other fan he has his high and low periods in terms of interest in wrestling, and it's obvious that he was really blown away when he first started watching puro and traveling to Japan, as he's definitely overrated many matches he's given five stars from the mid 90s in All Japan particularly.
The "five of those were women's matches" comment I don't get though man, is that supposed to be a knock on his credibility? It isn't, most of the women's matches he's given five stars to are absolutely deserving of that honor and if you actually go and watch some of these matches like say Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong from 11/20/94 you'd see that. Don't hate on the Joshi man, those women blew away men and women across the globe at the time with their incredible matches, Toyota was easily a Top 5 worker on the entire planet during that time, male or female.
There are definitely certain periods of time where you can expect Meltzer to under or overrate matches. For example, take any Nitro match he rated from 1995-1999, and automatically subtract it by atleast 1/2* before you even watch it, because he constantly overrated the fuck out of those matches. Any time Benoit and Guerrero would meet up, even if it was only for 5 flimsy minutes, he'd go **** and it's really, really disappointing to go back and watch some of those matches expecting **** greatness only to get a good match that's barely above ***. Or take any ECW match from the late 90s to the early 2000s and you can fully expect him to underrate the fuck out of some of them (crazy I know, everyone probably thinks Meltzer was an ECW mark who overrated them, but it's not true at all). I mean, ***1/2 for Lynn vs. RVD at Living Dangerously 1999? Nonsense, that's EASILY a **** match, higher in fact probably. He's usually pretty spot-on when it comes to rating WWE matches over the last 10-15 years though.