David Allen Meltzer (born October 24, 1959) is an American journalist who reports on
professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...
and
mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incor ...
.
Since 1983, he has been the publisher and editor of the ''
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON'') is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.
Founded in print in 1982 by Dave Meltzer, the ''Wrestling Observer'' website merged with Bryan Alvarez's ''Figure Four W ...
'' (''WON''). He has also written for the ''
Oakland Tribune'', the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'',
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. B ...
,
SI.com
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
, and ''
The National Sports Daily''. He has extensively covered mixed martial arts since
UFC 1 in 1993 and currently covers the sport for
SB Nation
''SB Nation'' (an abbreviation for their full name ''SportsBlogs Nation'') is a sports blogging network owned by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Tyler Bleszinski, Markos Moulitsas, and Jerome Armstrong in 2005. The blog from which the netw ...
. He has been called "the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism" by
Frank Deford of ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...
''.
He is also a frequent lecturer on many aspects of the business of MMA, professional wrestling, and
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
at the Graduate School of Business,
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
.
Early life
Meltzer lived in
upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York (state), New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upsta ...
,
later moving with his family to
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
.
Meltzer earned a journalism degree from
San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) ...
and started out as a sportswriter for the ''Wichita Falls Times Record News'' and the ''
Turlock Journal''. He demonstrated an interest in professional wrestling and a journalistic approach to it early in life. Meltzer wrote several wrestling-related publications that predate ''WON'', dating back to 1971. The most notable of these was the ''California Wrestling Report'', ca. 1973–1974, which reported on the still-extant
National Wrestling Alliance
The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling promotion and former professional wrestling governing body operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc.
Founded in 1948, the NWA began as a governing body for a ...
territories operating out of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
. Meltzer comes from a Lithuanian Jewish background.
''Wrestling Observer''
The beginnings of the ''
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON'') is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.
Founded in print in 1982 by Dave Meltzer, the ''Wrestling Observer'' website merged with Bryan Alvarez's ''Figure Four W ...
'' date back to 1980, when Meltzer began an
annual poll amongst those with whom he corresponded regarding professional wrestling. According to Meltzer, he was just a fan at first. A short time later, he began maintaining a tape-trading list, and would occasionally send match results and news updates along with tape updates. Meltzer stated that he wanted to keep his friends in college "in the loop" for his tape trading and the happenings in the business, as the mainstream wrestling magazines catered to a somewhat younger demographic.
Star rating system and impact
Meltzer popularized the star rating system (devised by
Jim Cornette and his childhood friend Norm M. Dooley), which rates matches on a scale of zero to five stars (sometimes going to negative five stars in the case of very bad matches) in a similar manner to that used by many movie critics.
[ Meltzer has also given ratings that have exceeded five stars. The first 6 and 6.5 stars took place in 1981. The highest he has ever rated a match was seven stars, given to Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega for their match at ]Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall
Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on June 9, 2018 at the Osaka-jō Hall, in Osaka. It is the tenth event under the Dominion name and the fourth in a ro ...
in June 2018. Wrestlers such as Bret Hart
Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE under a legend's contract. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling back ...
have written how proud they were when their performances were praised in the ''WON''.
Bibliography
* '' Tributes: Remembering Some of the World's Greatest Wrestlers'' (Winding Stair Press, 2001, Hardcover)
* ''Tributes II: Remembering More of the World's Greatest Wrestlers'' (Sports Publishing, 2004, Hardcover)
Awards and accomplishments
* Cauliflower Alley Club
**James Melby Historian Award (2017)
* George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
** Jim Melby Award (2016)[
]
References
Further reading
*
Pick My Brain interview with Dave Meltzer
External links
Home of the ''Wrestling Observer Live'' radio show
Official website of the ''Wrestling Observer''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meltzer, Dave
1959 births
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
American male journalists
American podcasters
Journalists from California
Living people
Professional wrestling historians
Professional wrestling journalists and columnists
Professional wrestling podcasters
San Jose State University alumni
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Writers from San Jose, California