Hey Scott,
We just created a debate on the WrestleCrap.com daily survey question, and I'm curious as to how you and the BODers respond.
Given all the bitching we do about WWE and their sanitized, kid-friendly form of entertainment, the product does seem effective in getting kids to cheer Cena, Santino, Hornswoggle, and the broad bathroom humor. Of course, we all have our childhood guilty pleasures, stuff we couldn't believe we found entertaining at that age.
So the question: if you, Scott, were 8-10 years old today, and you watched WWE as it is now, given your sensibilities at that age, who would your favorite wrestler(s) be?
For me, in 1991-93, I cheered for the spot monkey heels, like Perfect and Shawn, so my answer would have to be Dolph.
I always cheered for the badass heels like the Four Horsemen and Randy Savage, so it’s likely that 10 year old Scott would be deeply into CM Punk and Brock Lesnar, although he’d probably be a little scared of Brock. I’m sure Tyson Kidd would also be high on his list because he’s the local guy (more or less) and a decent analogue for Owen Hart at that age.
On a totally tangential note, I really think there’s something to the Ziggler-Shawn comparison, in that Shawn was supposed to be this breakout star in 1995 and they fucked him over with the Sid turn, which only made people want to see him breakout even more. I think there’s real potential with a Ziggler babyface turn and chase of the title and I’m kind of thinking they need to screw him out of the title to pull it off. Because really, where does he fit into plans with the belt right now anyway? Nowhere. Although they’ve beat him so much since his one win against John Cena months ago that I don’t even know if putting the belt on him will save it at this point.