Maya World has made it clear that she is not taking the ongoing discussion around Dave Meltzer’s unissued rating for her AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door match with Mercedes Moné too seriously.
The match, held at the end of June as the final of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, has become an unusual point of conversation among online wrestling fans. Months after the pay-per-view, Meltzer had still not assigned the bout a star rating. On Wrestling Observer Radio, he had indicated that an accumulation of work had kept him from getting to the match.
For some fans, that explanation turned into a recurring joke. The longer the bout remained unrated, the more the issue was discussed as though it were a mystery or a feud. World, however, does not see it that way. Speaking with Adrian Hernandez before AEW All In London, she pushed back on the idea that there was any genuine conflict between herself and the longtime wrestling journalist.
World’s position was straightforward: fans can make light of the situation, and she can as well. She said the reaction has sometimes treated a harmless running gag as if it were proof of real animosity. In her view, there is no “beef” to speak of. Meltzer has not rated the match, but that does not mean the two are engaged in a dispute.
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That distinction matters because online wrestling discussion can quickly turn a minor issue into a larger narrative. A rating is often treated as a final judgment on a performance, particularly when it involves a major pay-per-view match or two high-profile wrestlers. But World’s comments suggest she is not interested in allowing one person’s eventual number to define what she or the audience thought of the Forbidden Door encounter.
She also expressed confidence that the response to the match would not be altered by a late star rating. Whether Meltzer ultimately regards it highly, poorly, or somewhere in between, World indicated that the people who watched the match have already reached their own conclusions.
A Match That Has Remained in the Conversation
The continued attention is not solely about the absence of a rating. World and Moné’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament final has maintained a strong reputation among the fans who have logged opinions on Cagematch. At the time of the discussion, the match held a 9.32 rating from 404 votes.
That figure does not settle a debate about the match’s quality, nor is it intended to function as an official consensus. Fan-rating sites reflect the views of the users who choose to participate. Still, the number illustrates why there has been such persistent interest in seeing where Meltzer would place the bout on his own scale. The match was not forgotten after Forbidden Door. It has remained a point of reference for viewers who considered it one of the standout women’s matches associated with the event.
World’s remarks also frame the situation in a more grounded way. The rating has become a topic because fans find the delay amusing, not because she believes it is a professional slight. She did note that the continued lack of a rating can appear strange from Meltzer’s side, especially given how much discussion the match has generated. But she did not present that observation as anger or demand special treatment.
Instead, her message was that the match should simply be watched and assessed. If Meltzer’s eventual rating is low, that would not erase the positive reaction from viewers who enjoyed it. If it is high, it will not suddenly create appreciation that did not already exist. The bout’s reception has developed independently of the number still missing from the record.
Why Star Ratings Continue to Drive Debate
The larger conversation highlights the peculiar place star ratings occupy in modern wrestling coverage. They are subjective evaluations, but they can also become part of the historical shorthand around a match. Fans remember certain bouts for title changes, tournament wins, stipulations, rivalries, crowds, or memorable sequences. They also frequently remember the ratings attached to them.
That creates a tension around any major match that goes ungraded for an extended period. Some viewers view the absence as unimportant because wrestling is meant to be experienced, not reduced to a score. Others enjoy comparing ratings as part of the hobby, especially when a match has already attracted unusually strong fan feedback. Neither response necessarily means the rating itself is more important than the performance. It simply reflects the way wrestling audiences have long used numbers to debate style, pacing, athleticism, storytelling, and overall impact.
In this case, the delay has taken on a life of its own because World and Moné are prominent names and the match came in a significant tournament setting at Forbidden Door. The Owen Hart Foundation Tournament carries obvious prestige within AEW, while Forbidden Door is built around the meeting of AEW and NJPW talent. A tournament final on that stage is naturally going to draw closer attention than an ordinary television contest.
The situation has also been amplified by the tone of the conversation. Rather than presenting herself as offended, World leaned into the silliness of the moment. Her response turns what could have been framed as a grievance into an example of how easily wrestling social media can overstate a joke. The wrestler at the center of the discussion does not appear to be demanding validation; she appears largely amused that others have assigned such importance to it.
World’s Most Recent Rated AEW Appearance
While the Forbidden Door final remains without a Meltzer rating, World did receive a rating for another high-profile match involving Persephone. Meltzer gave World’s Buy-In match against Persephone ahead of AEW All In London 2.25 stars.
That rating adds another layer to the ongoing conversation, though it does not resolve the question surrounding the Mercedes Moné bout. The two matches came in different settings and served different purposes. The Persephone contest took place on the Buy-In ahead of All In London, while the Moné match was the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament final at Forbidden Door. Comparing the numbers alone would not account for the separate circumstances, expectations, or audience responses attached to each match.
It does show, however, that the unanswered question is specifically about the Forbidden Door final rather than a complete absence of attention to World’s work. Meltzer has rated a World match since then. The focus remains on the one bout that fans continue to bring up, partly because of its strong Cagematch response and partly because the delay has become a long-running joke.
No Indication of a Personal Dispute
World’s comments offer the clearest takeaway: she is not portraying this as personal. She rejected the premise that an unissued rating amounts to hostility and stressed that there is no real feud between her and Meltzer. That should cool the more exaggerated interpretations of the story, even if the internet’s jokes are unlikely to disappear immediately.
There is still no stated timetable for when, or if, Meltzer will publicly assign a rating to the World vs. Moné tournament final. Until that happens, the match will likely remain a frequent topic among fans who follow both AEW’s women’s division and the broader star-rating conversation.
For World, though, the issue seems settled at a more basic level. The match happened, audiences watched it, and many of those viewers rated it very highly. A delayed rating may be funny, and it may look odd after so much time has passed, but it does not change the work already done by World and Mercedes Moné inside the ring.
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Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.