Wrestling fans armed with stopwatches and Twitter accounts may have a lot more power than anyone realized, because one longtime wrestling journalst says companies aren’t just reading the complaints — they’re actually changing plans because of them.
The subject came up while discussing the September 19 episode of AEW Collision, which featured Thekla taking on Zayda Steel. Steel has been getting more opportunities since officially signing with AEW, and she has already found herself in the middle of online arguments over how much television time she receives. Ringside News previously covered Zayda Steel shutting down a false anti-AEW claim about her television time, making the topic especially relevant to this latest discussion.
On Collision, Thekla and Steel were given roughly eleven and a half minutes, with Steel controlling a large chunk of the match before Thekla eventually put her away. Dave Meltzer broke down the match on Wrestling Observer Radio and didn’t hide the fact that he thought it ran too long. At the same time, he believed the way it was laid out made AEW’s goal with Steel pretty obvious.
“Tekla and Zeta Steel went eleven and a half minutes. It was really long. Too long. And it was almost all Zeta Steel on top. It was like Tekla came back and won with a spear and a curb stomp. But it was like Zeta Steele’s just on top. Like, almost the entire match. It’s like they were really, really trying to get her over in a lot of ways.”
The comparison that really set him off came with PAC vs. Adam Priest. That match only received about four and a half minutes, and Meltzer said he would have flipped the time allotted to the two matches.
“Pac and Adam Priest went four and a half minutes. It was a great four and a half minutes. I would have reversed that, you know. I would have had the other match go.”
That’s when the conversation took a turn. Meltzer brought up what he called the “stopwatch people,” referring to fans who closely track how much television time women’s wrestling receives. That kind of criticism has become a regular part of wrestling discourse, and Ringside News has covered similar backlash before, including when fans called out Triple H over the lack of women’s matches on an episode of WWE RAW.
There are also two massive WWE examples showing exactly how loud fan backlash can become. One time when WWE let R-Truth go in June 2025 and fans absolutely refused to accept it. “We Want Truth” chants took over RAW, NXT, SmackDown and even the Money in the Bank kickoff as the #WeWantTruth movement hammered WWE online. Days later, Truth was suddenly back. Ringside News later revealed that WWE scrapped its original Money in the Bank plans at the last minute to bring R-Truth back after the fan backlash, with the planned Cody Rhodes and John Cena story taking a back seat to Truth’s surprise return.
Then there was #WeWantCody, which became an even bigger monster. Cody Rhodes appeared to step aside so The Rock could face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40, and fans immediately revolted. The hashtag exploded, arenas filled with “We Want Cody” and “Rocky Sucks” chants, and WWE started paying very close attention to the reaction. Ringside News covered how WWE was actively monitoring the massive fan backlash over The Rock taking Cody Rhodes’ WrestleMania spot before the company ultimately pivoted, put Cody back against Roman Reigns and completely reshaped the WrestleMania 40 story around The Rock, Roman, Cody and Seth Rollins.
Those two situations make Meltzer’s latest comments hit a little differently, because fans have already watched WWE reverse course after online outrage became impossible to ignore. Meltzer said that type of online reaction appears to matter more behind the scenes than fans might think.
“But I guess, you know, how that goes with stopwatch people and the women’s match, so, you know. You know, people think that all that, like, when I read all that stupidity on Twitter, I always think that. Like, man, if I’m running these companies, I ignore it.”
He didn’t stop there. According to Meltzer, wrestling companies are actually paying attention to some of the online complaints he considers ridiculous. Then came the biggest claim of the entire conversation — Meltzer says social media noise doesn’t just get noticed. It can actually affect creative plans.
“And I mean, I’m not kidding the stupidest stuff those both companies they listen to it.”
“I mean, you know, they change plans because of it. They should not. I mean, it’s like, believe me, there’s always stuff you can learn. But when it’s the stupid stuff, come on. But there you got it.”
Meltzer didn’t reveal a specific storyline, match or push that was changed because of Twitter complaints in this particular discussion, but WWE fans don’t exactly have to search far for examples of the company reacting when a movement gets loud enough. R-Truth went from being out of WWE to crashing Money in the Bank after #WeWantTruth erupted, while the #WeWantCody uprising helped turn WrestleMania 40’s main-event picture upside down.
That’s a pretty wild amount of influence for people firing off posts from their couch. Fans have always screamed about booking, pushes and television time, but the R-Truth and Cody Rhodes situations showed that when enough people scream at the same time, wrestling companies can find themselves changing course in a hurry.
Do you think wrestling companies should listen to fan complaints on social media, or does changing creative plans because of Twitter reaction give online fans too much control? Leave your feedback in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
