>>15327995It's sort of true, but it's not a function of irrational hate for Dave. Rather, it's a recognition that Dave is a fraud who doesn't understand pro wrestling in its totality, and worse Dave has a very specific style of wrestling that he prefers. Over time his tastes have devolved from praising workrate guys that understood how to maintain kayfabe and make a match look real while also mixing in crowd work and less realistic spots but making the crowd buy into them regardless (Flair, Bret, Benoit, Misawa). By contrast, now Dave is praising workrate guys based on moves performed per minute, an over reliance on the finisher sequence, predictable kickouts burying moves and breaking any sense of realism, and complete disregard for kayfabe or to hide obvious cooperation between competitors with a preference for acrobatics, planned gymnastics routines, and trading chops without any regard for realism or fight psychology (Bucks, Ospreay, most of AEW in general).
Dave knows it's fake. We know it's fake. But Dave doesn't understand that wrestling is supposed to present itself as real. Wrestling has gone so far beyond kayfabe at this point, in large part due to Dave's influence, that a wrestling match neither resembles wrestling nor a fight, nor even a competition. Instead it looks more akin to an acrobatics exhibition, or a pre-planned sequence-by-sequence gymnastics routine. And that ain't wrestling. Dave also doesn't care at all about promo ability or natural charisma or look or even the ability to tell a good story in the ring.
tl;dr - when Dave praises a wrestler as "the best" today, that means he's very flawed in every way aside from displays of athleticism and following Dave's formula for finishing build and sequence.
