Mercedes Moné tossed one little GIF at Dave Meltzer after Forbidden Door, and wrestling Twitter jumped on her like she was begging the teacher to grade her paper.
After the Wrestling Observer Newsletter dropped, Moné posted a kiss emoji and tagged Meltzer with a GIF that said, “Well… we’re waiting.” That was the whole post, but the message was pretty obvious. Meltzer had rated other matches from the Forbidden Door pay-per-view after seeing the show live, but he held off on giving Moné’s Owen Hart Cup match against Maya World a star rating.
The reason fans connected the dots is because Meltzer wrote about the Forbidden Door match, but said he wanted to watch it back on television before giving it a number. He praised the closing stretch and said Maya World did a fantastic job late, but noted that the live reaction and the TV reaction seemed different enough that he wanted another look. Meltzer explained why he held off on the rating. He also made it clear he was not trashing the match.
“Given the difference in reactions between those live and watching on TV, it’s probably better for me to watch this match on TV before rating it.”
“But aside from some hiccups, World did a fantastic job particularly late in such a long match on a show that had so many classic matches. Mone really put her over in what was by the end a star making performance that they hopefully will follow up on.”
That still didn’t stop fans from lighting Moné up. A lot of people saw the post and immediately took it as her waiting around for Meltzer’s approval. One user went straight for the throat:
“You gotta be the biggest mark ever. You don’t care about actual making an affect on business or drawing viewership, you care about a white mans star ratings. Have you had a single positive impact on ticker sales in aew or wwe? Like at all”
Another fan said the whole thing made Moné look desperate for a number from Meltzer instead of focusing on bigger issues.
“imagine ignoring declining ratings and attendances but instead just focused on the star ratings you get from a 65 year old man who claims to be a journalist and is completely out of touch with what is popular”
That same fan added, “imagine being this needy” while another wrote, “fucking cringe.” Another person pointed out that Meltzer had no problem rating the rest of the Forbidden Door card from the building, but suddenly needed the TV version for Moné’s match.
“He gave everything else on the show a rating after watching it live in person. Now I understand why @WWERollins can’t stand him.”
Someone else said Meltzer could have avoided the whole mess by just posting the rating before taking off for the holiday weekend. Then came the jokes about Moné looking like she was waiting for Meltzer’s blessing.
“Dave could have just put the rating up on Friday and logged off for the holiday weekend. No one will give a shit by Monday. But he’s insistent on interacting with the most bad faith weirdos on here.”
“Waiting for Meltzer’s approval is weirdo behavior”
Another fan figured Meltzer wanted to score the match lower than people expected, but knew he would get roasted for it.
“He wants to give you a score less than the NXT match but he’ll get roasted.”
Not everyone was against Moné. Some fans thought she was putting pressure on Meltzer and loved it. Another user said Moné had him rattled.
“Lmao 🤣 this Gold…keep it ur foot on his neck”
“You got him shook well played Mercedes 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾”
There were also fans who took shots at the idea that AEW talent care way too much about Meltzer’s ratings. Another person predicted the online heat could force Meltzer’s hand.
“It’s lost on me sometimes that Tony pays you guys based on Dave’s star ratings”
“Watch Dave get bullied into giving this match an undeserved 5 stars”
Some fans defended Moné and trashed Meltzer instead. Another user said Meltzer’s opinion should not carry this much weight anyway.
“You are better than dumpster Dave, you’re an legend who deserves love and respect! we love ya Mercedes!!!”
“Don’t care about actual metrics, just some hack who hasn’t been relevant since the 80’s giving you a star”
That’s why this whole thing is so ridiculous. Plenty of fans would argue Moné’s Forbidden Door match was 5-star quality. Fine. Make the argument. Praise the match. Say Meltzer is dragging his feet. But when Moné tags him with “Well… we’re waiting” after he holds off on rating her match, Twitter is going to turn that into a roast session.
That’s the star-rating circus in 2026. Wrestlers act like they don’t care, fans swear they don’t care, then everyone loses their minds when Meltzer doesn’t hand out the number fast enough.
