On a semi-related note, I'm loving all these Batman avatar's I'm seeing on here (and all from different outlets; comics, movies [Edit: well, clearly that didn't stick], & shows). Joker, Bane, Poison Ivy. . . it's great stuff. Anyway, seven questions . . .
I. Thoughts on each movie from The Dark Knight trilogy?
II. Thoughts on ECW?
III. Five favorite matches of all-time?
IV. Most disappointing moment as a wrestling fan?
V. How different do you think the world of wrestling would be if WCW won that war?
VI. Favorite match that you posted under the "Random Great Match of The Day" banner?
VII. Bringing it back to Batman, five favorite Batman villains & why?
1. I'm actually not really a fan of Batman lol. Dat Kid wants all of us in The Shield group to have Batman avatars though, and he listed a bunch of characters from the franchise for us to choose from and I picked Bane, thinking he looked awesome. Strangely, it's making me want to see the films, though. (The only Batman films I've seen are the first two from the 80's/90's.)
2. Was never a fan but you can't deny the impact. Paul Heyman had a vision where he realized that a roster full of cartoon characters like dead men, tax accountants, evil clowns, trash men and the like had run it's course and was outdated. He felt the real way to go forth in wrestling was for guys to shed the caricature images of themselves and just be more realistic and for the story lines to be 'edgier' by injecting language and sex and violence (well, more than the usual violence) into the product. Eventually, this attitude influenced the WWF to give birth to the Attitude Era and it can be seen back as far as 1995-96. Goldust's character and how it pushed the limits and prayed on the homophobic fears of men, Austin cursing and flipping the bird, the Gang Warz from 1997 between the Nation Of Domination and the DOA and the Los Boricas, D-Generation X, Bret Hart's heel turn that was based on his disgust of Americans being blood-thirsty and degenerates and cheering for people like Austin over him (which was based on his real life view of how the WWF was becoming more like what he called "smut TV") and the way it pitted American fans and Canadian fans against one another in real life, etc. Vince even admits it on The Rise And Fall Of ECW DVD when he said "We took a look at some of what they were doing, and sort of reshaped it in our own form..."
3. I love so many matches that it's hard to choose and break down a short list but some mentions go out to: Austin/Rock at WM 17, Edge and Mysterio against Benoit and Angle at No Mercy 2002, Angle and Benoit at the 2003 Royal Rumble, Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect at the 1991 Summerslam, and probably just for pure drama, the HIAC match at the 1998 King Of The Ring between Undertaker and mankind.
4. Too many to name. When Austin retired and Rock left to Hollywood, when they didn't capitalize on RVD's massive popularity back in 2001/2002, when WCW began to suck in 1999 and never recovered, when they kind of botched the Summer of Punk angle a bit, when it was apparent from Goldberg's debut in WWE that the aura and magic of his character was no longer there, when they didn't pull the trigger on a Chris Jericho main event push in 2000 when he was at his hottest, when John Cena became champion and the obvious choice as next big star for the WWE (though I've mellowed on him since then), etc.
5. Wrestling in North America would be largely different not just because WWF goes under, but because the geniuses running WCW still lose their minds and everything falls out of control. If WCW keeps their head on straight long enough and WWF continues to suck long enough for WCW to win the war, the end result to me is still that WCW implodes from the inside and goes under, which brings wrestling down in NA to just small independent promotions and/or companies like TNA (not to knock them or anything) where they're on television and trying to make a name for themselves but they don't have the worldwide, global audience and appeal that WWF (and later, WCW) had. The only way I don't see this happening is if Vince McMahon goes to work for WCW as an on-screen character and then when the company is going to shit, the top level officials asks him to run the show to see if he can make a difference, and he does. Quite the ironic scenario that would be.
6. Edge/Mysterio versus Angle/Benoit at No Mercy 2002 to crown the first ever WWE Tag Team Champions (just commonly referred to as the Smackdown Tag Titles back then.) Best tag team match ever, IMO. At least the last 8-10 minutes are the best last 8-10 minutes in any tag team match ever.
7. Refer to my answer to question #1. Though I'm fully aware of The Joker and how awesome of a villain personality he has. Bane also has a cool look, which is why I've chosen him as my avatar.
