VIDEO: Dave Meltzer talks about the opening segment of AEW Dynamite

Dave Meltzer criticized some of the lines used during the opening segment of Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite.

On Thursday morning’s show, Meltzer was critical of a line used by Darby Allin, where he told MJF that he never worked Dark, Elevation, or even Rampage. Meltzer thought that line had buried Rampage, which has been increasingly viewed as a secondary show in recent months.

“That buries Rampage,” Meltzer said. “They were trying to do the shooty Grayson Waller thing with Shawn, saying the kind of stuff you aren’t supposed to hear. Some of it worked and a lot of it didn’t.”

“I mean, the ratings are, and they book it like a secondary show, and that’s the reason why the ratings have fallen so much,” Meltzer added. “On WWE, would you ever have someone go in there and go like, you’re such a big star, you won’t even go to SmackDown. Of course not, FOX would kill them for it if they did.”

Meltzer also highlighted comments during the promo where Darby Allin said that people complained about their spot in AEW, including MJF talking about the “bidding war of 2024”. Meltzer thought those lines also made the company look bad.

“You’re basically, by doing that, you’re telling people that you’re the secondary company,” he said.