Dave Meltzer Awards Second Post-Lockdown 5-Star Match Rating

Wrestling has had a hard time of things since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and not just because of the lack of fans in attendance or wrestlers having to self-isolate.

Matches themselves have seen a general downturn in quality, which does of course relate to what I mentioned above, but it’s no less significant.

While it is of course just one man’s opinion, this has been well illustrated in the star ratings Dave Meltzer has given in his weekly Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Meltzer awarded four 5-star ratings in January and February, but didn’t award another until September 16, when he gave the coveted rating to the tag match between Best Friends and Santana & Ortiz on AEW: Dynamite.

However, we now have two post-lockdown 5-star matches, and unsurprisingly it’s the NJPW G1 Climax that has delivered the rating to us.

On Night 5 of this year’s tournament, Will Ospreay took on Shingo Takagi, and without spoiling the result in case you want to watch it, it was absolutely incredible. I urge you all to take some time to see this match.

Meltzer claimed it was “one of the top five matches of the year”, which, given the year of wrestling we’ve had, is pretty high praise.

WrestleTalk is bringing Live Reaction coverage of the G1 Climax on Wrestle2, so be sure to check it out next week.

• 5 Stars
• dave meltzer
• G1 Climax
• NJPW

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