>>14598454>>14598513MitB 2011 was where it began to drift.
7 total 5-stars from 2000 til then:
>Fuchi/Kawada vs. Iizuka/Nagata (NJPW, December 14, 2000)>Misawa vs. Kobashi (NOAH, March 1, 2003). Personally think this is the greatest match of all time.>Akiyama vs. Kobashi (NOAH, July 10, 2004)>Joe vs. Punk (ROH, October 16, 2004). The second match in the trilogy.>Daniels vs. Joe vs. Styles (TNA, September 11, 2005)>Joe vs Kobashi (October 1, 2005)>Cima/Doi/Yoshino vs. Dragon Kid/Horiguchi/Saito (ROH, March 31, 2006). Punk vs Cena was the next 5-star, just over 5 years later.
That's when the seed was planted I think. You went from 8 in 11 years to one every few months.
Then a lot more from 2014/15-ish New Japan, to the scale breaking, to the current hyper-starflation where Ospreay just dropping his pants and taking a big steaming shit in the middle of the ring would get 5 stars, 6 if it was in the Dome.
The scale breaking just made 5 stars mean so much less than they did in the 00s.
