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One of the many knocks on AEW is that the promotion is simply a vanity project for venerable, if not polarizing, wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer. AEW is pro wrestling in his vision, which champions workrate, technical wrestling and everything that will keep the fanbase uncool and predominately male. In its four short years as a promotion, AEW has amassed a whopping 27 five-star matches from Meltzer. Of course, star ratings are completely subjective, and are only a reflection of what a 64-year-old wrestling journalist thinks of a match. That’s why Japanese-based promotions NJPW, AJPW and All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling have a combined 145 five-star matches, which is a reflection of Meltzer’s preference for the Japanese style that AEW often replicates.
Meltzer’s questionable star ratings were the subject of a heated conversation with Chris Van Vliet, who questioned how AEW was able to amass so many five-star ratings in such a short time compared to WWE’s 18 five star matches in 70 years.
