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Whatever happened to Tessa Blanchard?
Tessa still wrestles but primarily in CMLL in Mexico. She does independent dates from time to time but after her TNA departure, she never regained any prominence in the United States. I know there was some talk internally of potentially using her in TNA earlier this year, but I don’t know if that talk ever actually led to any conversations.
How many times can MLW have these issues before fans tap out?
If you mean the streaming issues, I agree with you that the company cannot continue to have them, but at the same time, the shows are free, so if they have an issue and it airs a day later, it’s not like you have lost any financial investment. I know that to a person, the talents and staff were crushed by the issues over the weekend.
Who are the greatest five managers of all time and the most underrated?
To me, the greatest of all time are Bobby Heenan, Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman, Percy Pringle/Paul Bearer and Sherri Martel. The most underrated to me, today, is Jimmy Hart, because much of the stuff that was his greatest work happened in Memphis and the masses didn’t get to witness it. I’d also argue Gary Hart and Slick were underrated.
What was the first “inside” wrestling thing you ever heard?
John Arezzi’s Newsletter and Radio Show on WEVD Radio in NYC.
Do you think WWE will still want to buy video libraries?
My guess is that it wouldn't be as important as it once was, but if the right library came up for sale, they would certainly consider it.
I know you aren’t one to comment on others as much as Dave Scherer is, but seriously, how embarrassed are you by the Dave Meltzer-Dutch Mantel thing given Meltzer is allegedly the face of the insider wrestling writing circle?
You are right in that I choose not to comment on others, because in most cases, to me, it’s a waste of time given nothing is going to change and I prefer to let my work stand for itself as opposed to diving into chaos. However, I am making an exception this ONE TIME because I have 13 emails here about the situation. This is the one and only time I am commenting on Meltzer, so any follow-up emails will be deleted.
You asked if I was embarrassed by what Meltzer said about Dutch Mantel and his wife, so I went and listened to what Dutch said on his podcast about the situation. Having listened to what was written, my thoughts are that was written by Meltzer was pretty thoughtless but I wasn’t embarrassed because Meltzer doesn’t represent me, or this website, or anyone else. I was appalled by it, but not embarrassed by it. Whatever I do represents me. I don’t care what others do.
I’ve had readers write to me this week and ask me what “happened" to Meltzer. I don’t know him personally but until earlier this year, we always had a professional, cordial relationship. He regularly sent me a ballot for his Hall of Fame, but I never took part because I felt it was a conflict of interest since I work here. He would email me from time to time asking me questions and I would respond when he did, and I met him in passing a few times at events (where we were cordial) but I don’t know him - and to be fair, he doesn’t know me. I stopped communicating with him earlier this year by choice.
In a lot of ways, he’s become professional wrestling’s version of Rudy Giuliani, someone who garnered great respect for his body of work over a long period of time, but as he got older, his actions began to chip away more and rot whatever legacy he’s built, to the point you have to question what the original legacy and body of work was to begin with. I don’t write that to be funny or cute, but because as a NYC resident my entire life, I can’t think of another comparison. Neither of them seem to realize how they come across compared to the level of respect they used to command.
There’s been a constant barrage of mistakes or incidents including when Seth Rollins had to correct him for an incorrect story about Rollins making a backstage speech, Meltzer being accused of attacking Peyton Royce, Meltzer using fan-made documents and presenting them as actual internal WBD documents, etc. Last week, Japan was allegedly hosting WWE Backlash. Earlier this year, somehow Meltzer thought old footage was current and used that to write that The Rock was building to a Triple H Wrestlemania deal. In some cases, there aren't even apologies, because I have had readers upset writing me about that.
I know some who wrote to me wanted me to attack some of Dave’s opinions on AEW vs. his opinions on WWE. I’m not going to do that. One, I don’t know many of the things he’s written and two, he’s entitled to those opinions, whether you think they are great or inane. If those opinions make your thoughts on him sink lower, so be it. If you think the fact he seems to spend 24/7 fighting with people on Twitter lower your opinion of him, that's your call as well. I can't tell you how to feel about it. I don't understand it, but there's lots of things in the world today I don't understand.
As far as “what happened” to Dave Meltzer and whether the Dutch thing is an embarrassment to me, no I wasn’t embarrassed by him. He should be embarrassed but chances are he wasn’t, because like Rudy, it seems to me that he’s so far-gone from where he used to be, Meltzer doesn’t understand where he is NOW. As to "what happened" to him, I don't know and I don't care. What he does speaks for itself and it's not pretty.
To close this out, let’s be honest. There is no “face” of insider wrestling writing. That’s silly and gives off the idea we all work together. We don’t. We all do our own thing. I don’t wish anyone else ill, but the idea that anyone represents what we do here - or that I should represent what anyone else does elsewhere is pretty silly to me. There are some people in the space I like a lot professionally, some others even more personally. I am sure there are people who don’t like me at all, and they are more than welcome to have that opinion if they want, whether it's warranted or not.
At the end of the day, Dave Meltzer represents himself and himself only - and if he wants to be the Rudy Giuliani of pro wrestling writing, well, that’s on him. Not me. Not anyone else. I just hope he's using a better hair coloring dye than Rudy used in that infamous scene a few years ago!
My true, only hope is that whatever attention and controversy that came from Meltzer’s comments led to more people wanting to donate to Dutch Mantel’s GoFundMe, which you can find at this link. Someone asked me if I thought Dave would apologize. I don’t know that he will, but even if he doesn’t care to do so, he should at least go make a donation to help someone he kicked in the teeth during an obviously awful time for Dutch and his family. That would at least show some awareness of how truly awful he came across in this instance.
You asked, there's my thoughts. The end.
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