This should be an easy victory for Nick Bockwinkel, one of the greatest heel champions wrestling has ever seen. Bockwinkel had it all; he was a terrific in-ring worker(trained by his father and Lou Thesz), had a tremendous sense of ring psychology and was a brilliant promo with tons of charisma. Other than pure power, Bockwinkel was better than Batista in every way; a better wrestler, a better interview, a better champion and a better career.
Batista deserves praise for his record 282 day World title reign. It doesn't look as impressive, though, when measured against Bockwinkel's 1,716 day run as AWA World champ or when noting that he held the title nearly three thousand days in his career. Nick Bockwinkel wrestled fantastic matches against the very best wrestlers to have ever stepped into the ring, guys like Gagne, Lawler, Flair, Hennig, Backlund, Hogan, Graham, Hanson and proved to be the equal-or the better-of any of them. Hulk Hogan-shortly before dominating the WWF-couldn't take the title of Bockwinkel, and Dave Batista is no Hulk Hogan.
Bockwinkel was among the best talkers of all-time; intelligent, articulate and condescending, he was among the most despised wrestlers in the world. He'd thoroughly humiliate and confuse Batista in an interview prior to the match and then go out and do the same in the ring. He was far too smart, far too cunning and far too talented to let The Animal get the best of him in this tournament. He'd wear him down, destroy his legs and finish him with a piledriver for a clean 1-2-3
If the words of some guy on the internet who you don't know aren't enough to sell you, how about the words of Bob Backlund:
"Nick had a great head for the game, a wonderful sense of ring psychology, and an uncanny ability to use his intelligence and cockiness to get under the people's skin. He was a terrific representative for the AWA and was the key player in the success of the AWA for a long time." Backlund goes on to say, "He was a very intelligent, well-spoken, and cocky heel, and his in-ring skills were right up there with the very best in the business."
Or Dory Funk, Jr:
"One of the best wrestling challengers for the belt. He was very technical, and put a lot of thought into his interviews, his talk, his work in the ring, his persona."
Chris Jericho:
"The WWE had recently released an AWA retrospective DVD, and while watching it, I remembered how great a heel Bockwinkel was. He wore suits for all his interviews and used ten-dollar words that went over the average fans' heads, pissing them off markedly. Here was this pompous blowhard using the fancy talk and wearing the fancy suits, claiming to be the best because he was the World Champion, which was the truth."
Mike Mooneyham:
"Truly one of the greatest practitioners of the past half century, the charismatic Bockwinkel brought to the game a touch of class as well as a masterful artistry and respect that was passed down by his father, wrestling great Warren Bockwinkel, and his trainer, the legendary Lou Thesz."
Larry Matysik ranked Bockwinkel the 18th greatest wrestler of all-time:
"He was an athlete, he could wrestle, and his psychology was second to none."
Nick Bockwinkel was the epitome of class, one of the coolest yet most hated champions ever. Dude could even rap! No way a legend such as he would suffer the indignity of losing in the second round of a tournament to a guy with a tattoo around his belly button. If all the cretinous humanoids do the right thing, Bock advances here. Vote Bockwinkel.
"And the pleasure has been all yours.”
