Dave Meltzer

[Tuna Taco]

1 hour ago, Tuna Taco said:

 

Honest question, have you actually ever read the Obserber?

Notice i didnt get a response to this.

 

And whilst we are here, who do you think is telling the truth about Bret Hart being offered a contract with WCW in 1996, Dave Meltzer or (2018) Eric Bischoff?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

37 minutes ago, quote the raven said:

So it’s better to report a 3rd hand story? Tell the truth hogan wouldn’t have picked up the phone to him.

Hogan has before. So has Vince. When they are at their lowest, they reach out to the wrestling "media." That's how wrestling works. When you are flying, you dont need anyone. When you're on your arse, you need help.

Everyone knows a lot of Meltzer's sources anyway. You can tell in his reporting. Jim Ross, Konnan, Court Bauer, Dave Lagana, Chris Jericho, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette are all Meltzer stooges and known for it. You dont think that Jericho match would have gotten 5 stars if he wasn't Meltzers mate do you?

Oh, as for mid-90s, Zane Bresloff was Meltzers top source in WCW.

Edited December 10, 2018 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Tuna Taco]

Chris Benoit and Ric Flair too, right?

It's funny reading the old Retro observers, and seeing the amount of coverage given to WCW and then WWF in the promotions sections, it was obvious he had a lot more WCW sources.

[Liam O'Rourke]

12 minutes ago, Tuna Taco said:

Notice i didnt get a response to this.

 

And whilst we are here, who do you think is telling the truth about Bret Hart being offered a contract with WCW in 1996, Dave Meltzer or (2018) Eric Bischoff?

There's a lot of things he's not responding to at this point in the discussion. Bischoff's stance on what is factual is completely worthless.

[Liam O'Rourke]

49 minutes ago, Gay as FOOK said:

There's some interesting things here. Chief amongst them being that Vince had a correspondence with Dave. Why was this so? Was it a necessary evil in the time of the Monday Night Wars to get yourself on the blower to him and have your own say? 

Vince talked him throughout the 80s and 90s because more and more promoters were looking at the Observer and talking to Dave, so it became a thing where it made sense for Vince to have a connection with him to maintain a degree of co-operation on stuff that might get out, especially since a lot of his people were talking to Dave anyway. Keep in mind, as big as WWF was, they weren't so big and so financially strong that they could survive scandal or the litany of reasons businesses go tits up (as became clear in the mid-90s when scandal almost ruined them). So Vince would talk to Dave to confirm stories if needed, then eventually Vince assigned a couple of people in the office to deal with him on numbers and business issues. To explain the benefit somewhat, in one instance, there was a Jake Roberts drug suspension that wasn't reported in 89 or 90 that Dave didn't report because he was told in confidence by...I want to say JJ Dillon.

Anyway, as has been pointed out, when things got tough in war time, it benefitted everybody, and by then Meltzer had been around long enough that everybody knew the name or had seen the newsletter passes around and knew how much weight it carried, because the top promoters all read it.

[Tamura]

10 minutes ago, Liam O'Rourke said:

Bischoff's stance on what is factual is completely worthless.

Mandy Rice-Davies Applies with regard to most things Bischoff says.

[PowerButchi]

Wasn't Dave on WWF payroll for a bit? Consulting them on Japan oer somesuch?

[JNLister]

4 minutes ago, PowerButchi said:

Wasn't Dave on WWF payroll for a bit? Consulting them on Japan oer somesuch?

Yeah, mid-80s. They paid him for reports on how American guys working in Japan were looking. Bit odd as all of that would have been in the newsletter anyway, and he's spoken about regretting doing it just for the fact it lets people say he was technically on payroll.

[unfitfinlay]

3 hours ago, Factotum said:

Vince Russo tells so many lies I doubt he remembers the truth.

This.

Even in that video, Russo doesn't acknowledge WHY he was lying, repeatedly, about working for TNA at the time. If it wasn't a big deal then why was it so secret? Why did he level similar insults at Mike Johnson for reporting his involvement? Johnson said at the time he would've ignored the accidental email if Russo hadn't publicly accused him of making it all up.

34 minutes ago, quote the raven said:

So it’s better to report a 3rd hand story? Tell the truth hogan wouldn’t have picked up the phone to him. 

Thats the issue he has no way of confirming what he’s told, unless he has access to top level people and they are willing to tell him knowing he will print it. 

You're really not getting this are you?

He doesn't just report third hand stories. Like other journalists, he has sources to confirm stuff. If one says "X is going to happen" then he can go to his other sources for confirmation. If he doesn't get that confirmation then he either doesn't report it or clarifies that it's unconfirmed. Of course, other sites then copy that, leave out the clarification and make it look like Meltzer reported it as fact but that's another issue.

He does have the sources too. In his report about the Benoit tragedy he acknowledged that Benoit was one of his sources and The Rock has flat out written into the Observer before. Christ, did WWE not fire someone for speaking to Meltzer before? The guys name escapes me but he went to ROH afterwards. 

The main thing that gives Meltzer credibility in my eyes, though, is how even his critics speak about him. For example, Bischoff on 83 weeks will insist that Meltzer knew nothing and was only putting two and two together based on what he saw on screen. Then later he'll insist that WCW HAD to "work the boys" because "everyone was talking to Meltzer". Bret, too. He slams Meltzer in his book for "never being in the ring" but then crows about all the high ratings he gets given.

[Magnum Milano]

Just now, quote the raven said:

I don’t care about him one way or another. I just don’t understand how he’s become the worlds authority on wrestling having never worked in any major federation. Nor has he had the inside access to the people in charge. 

He hears something about wwe. You think he picks up a phone and calls Vince? Of course not vince wouldn’t give him the time of day 

The people that matter won’t talk to him. 

But you keep putting words In my mouth 

Maybe you should actually read and listen to what he has to say as opposed to believing the carny shit that comes out of the mouth of Vince Russo, someone who has been irrelevant for the best part of two decades.  Dave has talked god knows how many times about Vince McMahon calling him up, speaking with him on the phone, and how Vince would blow hot and cold towards him depending on the situation.  Russo and Bischoff used to talk with him all the time; I'm sure it's not too difficult to track down their appearance on Dave's old Eyada radio show somewhere for starters if you believe that is rubbish.  After the first thing out of your mouth in this thread was 'Mabel', I was expecting the 'Dave has never worked in a promotion line' (don't let anyone say you're not predictable!), something that again is untrue.  I'd open my eyes a bit more if I were you because you come across pretty foolish with how blinkered and clueless your posts are in this thread.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Magnum Milano

[Factotum]

Russo calling someone a mark always makes me laugh as well. The guy is the biggest one out there.

[Egg Shen]

Russo is great, even if hes full of shit, i love the bloke.

[Factotum]

He's an annoying perverted homophobic hack who lies every 2 seconds. He can do one.

[Egg Shen]

On 12/10/2018 at 2:26 PM, unfitfinlay said:

This.

Even in that video, Russo doesn't acknowledge WHY he was lying, repeatedly, about working for TNA at the time. If it wasn't a big deal then why was it so secret? Why did he level similar insults at Mike Johnson for reporting his involvement? Johnson said at the time he would've ignored the accidental email if Russo hadn't publicly accused him of making it all up.

 

whats the story on this then? ive heard Vince give his side of the story but was never really aware of it going down at the time so ive never heard the other side.

[unfitfinlay]

Just now, Egg Shen said:

whats the story on this then? ive heard Vince give his side of the story but was never really aware of it going down at the time so ive never heard the other side.

Supposedly when Bischoff was there, he'd buried Russo so much to Spike that they told Dixie that they didn't want him involved in any way. I'm not sure if Bischoff's ever confirmed that or not but that's what was going around at the time.

Whatever the reason, when Mike Johnson reported that Russo was still involved, Russo denied it, did the whole "the dirt sheets know nothing" bit and, then accidentally sent Johnson an email of booking notes meant for Mike Tenay.

Johnson reported that he'd been sent the email. Russo CONTINUED to deny he was involved, claimed the email was a prank and shat all over Johnson and PWinsider for "printing anything". Johnson then went "I can publish the email if you'd like?" and Russo backed down, apologised and claimed that *TNA* had told him he had to keep his involvement secret and he was just respecting their wishes.

It might not have been Spike but clearly someone important didn't want him involved with TNA at that point or there would be no need for secrecy. The Spike deal did collapse soon after that though, which might be why people assume the two are related.