STAR RATINGS AND YOU: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE



Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Snowflakes.



(Pictured: Famous star ratings guru Scott "The Master" Keith)





Table of Contents

​ (Pictured: Famous star ratings guru Scott "The Master" Keith)

I. Intro

II. History

III. Why do you use star ratings?

IV. How to rate a match

DUD - **3/4 = Bad

***- ***1/2 = Average

***3/4 = ‘GREAT’

****-****1/2 = Excellent

****3/4 = I want to give this match five stars but I don’t want to ruin my credibility

***** = We’ll get into this one later.

Dave Meltzer’s rating

Workrate™

V. *****

VI. Matches to rate high and matches to stay away from

Rate High:

Avoid:

VII. Wrapping things up

VIII. Important Links

I. IntroII. HistoryIII. Why do you use star ratings?IV. How to rate a matchV. *****VI. Matches to rate high and matches to stay away fromVII. Wrapping Things UpVIII. Important LinksSo, you want to become a respected member of the Internet wrestling community? Well, no one is going to care what you say unless you provide star ratings along with your opinion. You can write a long, well written, detailed review of a show but everyone is just going to skip to the bottom and look for the star rating. If it isn’t there, then no one will care. No one is going to reply. You can repost the review a few pages later or even post it in a blog but it isn’t going to do any good. You need a star rating. Now, just any star rating won’t do. You need to provide one that everyone else agrees with or else no one will respect your opinion. If you enjoy having an opinion of your own then I suggest you go find another community to be active in, because that won’t get you anywhere in the IWC. As you can see, star ratings can be a confusing process but I, one of the more outstanding members of the IWC, am here to show YOU how to use the star ratings system efficiently so you’ll have a respected opinion. You can thank me with rep.Wikipedia claims that Jim Cornette first started using star ratings. This is a horrible lie unfortunately. Everybody knows that Dave “The Great” Meltzer invented star ratings to show everyone how much more superior his opinion was then everyone else's. For years, The Great was the only one to use star ratings, with only a few pale imitations (Wade Keller) that could never be mistaken for the Great. However, the early 90s gave rise to a new form of entertainment, the Internet, where everyone’s voice was as loud as Dave Meltzer’s. This is not a good thing. The first star rating on the Internet came in 1992 by a man named Austin101. Nowadays, everyone uses star ratings and 99.999% of them aren’t qualified to rate matches. If you doubt this number, I did some research and there are in fact 6,799,999,999 people in the world that are not Dave Meltzer and 1 that is. My facts are correct. Anyway, enough babbling, why do YOU want to use star ratings?Well, the main reason anyone uses star ratings is to try and be like Dave Meltzer. There are two ways to go about this. The first is not to hide it, simple enough. The second, and more popular option, is to act like you hate Dave Meltzer and his opinion holds no water but secretly look up his ratings before you rate a match. Either way is applicable. You also rate matches because no one is going to take your opinion seriously if you don’t, but we covered that. The third reason you rate matches is one that’s around specifically because of the Internet: arguing about meaningless things. Who doesn’t love arguing for ten pages about whether a match is ***1/2 or ***3/4? I know I do. The Internet was practically invented so I can argue about whether or not Bret Hart no sold the stunner at WM 13 and whether or not that constitutes a 1/4* drop.So, now you’ve read the first three paragraphs and you’re ready to start rating! Well, how do you rate a match? First, you have to know what the ratings meanNote: No one cares about any match rated DUD - **3/4. Unless it’s a match that’s normally rated really high that you’ve rated low, everyone will ignore these ratings. You’ll save time just plugging in random numbers.So, how do you go about distributing these ratings? It’s a pretty complicated process really and it involves a number of factors. These factors are:When you factor in all of these variables, your rating should end up somewhere within ¼* of Dave Meltzer’s rating. ½* if you strongly disagree. Now that you know how to rate a match, it’s time to learn how to distribute the only rating that people really care about.This is the only rating that really matters. When someone asks you for your five star list, then your credibility is being put on the line. There are a few things you HAVE to remember though:There are only a few matches that can be rated five stars. Think RVD/Jerry Lynn is a five star match? Too bad. You wouldn’t dare rate it that unless you want to cause a shit storm.. This one is crucial. If you have 20 five star matches, then no one is going to take you seriously. Five is a good number to stay at.Dave Meltzer gives tons of Japanese matches five stars, that means you can too.Enough said.This one is super crucial. You can get away with giving a WWE match ***** that “The Great” didn’t give a full rating, but doing the same with an indy match will make you look like a moron.Feel free to distribute ****3/4 ratings like candy. I personally have 2000 of them.This is more like a quick reference list to get you started, the following are matches that the IWC has either a strange love for or a strange hate for. You’ve got to know which is which or else you might be red repped.Lesnar vs. Undertaker Hell in a CellAnything from Shawn Michaels (exception below)Anything from the Attitude EraAny Flair/Steamboat matchBenoit/AngleAnything from JapanBret Hart vs. Mr. PerfectUndertaker vs. HBK Hell in a CellAny Briscoe Brothers match (not ***** though, see the indy rule)Bret Hart vs. HBK IronmanAnything since the Attitude Era (for the most part)Any Goldberg matchAny Hogan matchIn case you’re still confused, I’ve provided an opinion for you to use. List the following matches as five star matches when asked:Flair/Steamboat- Wrestlewar 89Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin- WM 13Undertaker/HBK- Hell in a CellMake sure to mention that there are also a ton of ***** Japanese matches afterwards because no one will call you out on it. Most people don’t watch Japanese wrestling and the ones that do don’t understand it. Neither group wants to embarrass themselves.Now you know what it takes to be respected on a wrestling message board. Remember to follow these rules and never stray away from them. If you do this then you’ll have what it takes to become a wrestling guru. Remember, the more respected your opinion is, the more room you have to form an opinion of your own. Just stick to my pre-made opinion for now, you don’t want to get embarrassed. Good luck.