Welcome back to our countdown of the ten biggest moments in the ten years of NZPWI.

This week, we're headed to the bright lights of Hollywood as we look at how the surprising return-to-form of a faded superstar revitalised his career and turned the spotlight once again onto professional wrestling.

Whether you've been with us from the beginning, from last week, or somewhere in between, we hope you'll stay with us as we experience ten more years of memorable moments.

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NZPWI's 10 GREATEST MOMENTS IN WRESTLING 1999-2009

#7: Mickey Rourke goes for gold: From one prejudice to another
January 2009

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
- John Lennon

Of the items listed in our countdown, I'd probably argue from-the-outside-looking-in that this is the one least worthy of inclusion. The only real indicator of this, however, will be time.

Wrestling's like that - this week's huge splash is next year's distant memory. (And sometimes it works the other way around, as we'll see when we reach another item further down the list.) In this case, I refer you to the front window of any video store around the country, right now, where you'll see The Rock, John Cena and Mickey Rourke staring back at you through the glass.

The prime driver of this column, of course, is Rourke's effort - you'll never see Rocky or Cena in an Oscar-nominated film any time soon, but I can't help but grin at the idea that wrestling has taken over Hollywood, if only for one year. Huge splash, distant memory.

For his role as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler, Rourke was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and probably would have won it if not for Sean Penn who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Someone had to keep the grubby wrestling business away from the shiny gold statuette, and Penn's portrayal of gay rights hero Harvey Milk fit the bill perfectly.

Several months after the fact (and indeed, several months after the shortlist for this countdown was drawn up) it's difficult to say what, if anything, The Wrestler has achieved in the short term (I believe the answer could be "NOTHING!") and so for that I will ignore 2009 and look to the future. Coming in the wake of the media-driven scoop bonanza that was the Benoit murder case, I should like to think that Rourke's performance helped to explain to the world (not justify, merely explain) why it is that wrestlers do what they do - why they feel what they feel, and to allow people to make up their own minds without prejudice.

The Wrestler is not a clean film  - Ready to Rumble, it ain't - but it seems real enough to me, and perhaps real enough to remind the world that wrestling is a business of sinners and saints, but by at least opening the doors up, even a little bit in a Hollywood film, the viewers can draw comparisons with the passions, triumphs, disgraces, and failures evident in their own lives and vocations. I think it speaks volumes for the film that professional wrestlers themselves gave it a positive response, though Bret Hart reportedly cautioned that not every wrestler's career goes the way of The Ram's.

It takes a special kind of someone to be a pro wrestler, but it takes a special kind of someone to be a baker, (do you like getting up at 2am and going elbows-deep into a huge pile of floury dough?) or a defence lawyer, (check your humanity at the door, all ye who enter here) or a pastor, banker, policeman, trade unionist, venture capitalist, dole bludger. All of them wired differently, but all of them human. Everything we do requires something of us that someone else may not have.

I'd like to think that a viewer could watch that film the same way and be persuaded in the same way that a fictional account of some other less-than-harmonious existence might sway them to think about what it's really like out there. I'd like to think that, but I'm not convinced - it's a bit like hoping people might give rock stars a break even though they expect them to cram in as many tour stops as they can while they're on the road, away from their families and friends. Have you ever tried to write a song? It's hard work. It's a pain in the ass. It's basically mathematics. I hate mathematics. Now crank out 11 of them with your collaborators, trying to meet company-set deadlines without breaking the budget or the band. Let your hard work fall out of your hands and watch as it's shunted down the production line; encoded, stamped and styled. No time for rest, junior! Now you hit the road and play malls, bars, or stadia as your status dictates. Try not to kill yourself or punch a cop along the way.

I know. I just pulled out a neat pile of rock n' roll cliches - at least I didn't mention the exploding drummers - but isn't that wrestling? Replace "write a song" with "fall on your head," replace "write 11 of them" with "work 9 days a fortnight plus 3 days' worth of promotional appearances" and "watch your art turned into a corporate product" with "have your gimmick repackaged, and by the way, you're moving from RAW to SmackDown next week."

And since the kids are nicking your stuff from the Pirate Bay whether you're a muso or a wrestler, I figure it's only natural. Wasn't it Batista who described being a WWE star as being as close as you can get to being a rock star?

So how come musical personalities, despite being as bad or worse than wrestlers with the girlfriend-killing, wife-beating, drug-snorting, turf-warring, gang-banging and child-molesting, are still entitled to society's respect?

I know. (Again.) I'm never going to get a straight answer to that - I'd guess some wag would say the day'll come when Triple H writes a peace anthem to outlast John Lennon's Imagine.

The movie probably won't change a damned thing, and the next time some roidbrained idiot gives TMZ something to buzz about, people will tut-tut about the business the same way they always have. But I'm going to bet on this horse anyway and boldly declare that this won't be a big-splash-distant-memory moment, but the beginning of a fairer future. If I'm right, I'm right. If I'm wrong, then it's business as usual and no big deal.

Still, the idea of some movie star nominated for a wrestling flick doing a Sean Penn to the Oscar favourite in about 30 years' time will keep me going for now...

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WRESTLING'S 10 BIGGEST STARS 1999 - 2009

#7: Rey Mysterio

Don't go looking for Rey on TV this week. You won't find him since he's currently serving a suspension for a WWE Wellness Policy violation. Instead, look at the way he revitalised his flagging career since joining WWE in 2002 where he immediately become one of the "Smackdown Six", one of a tight group of tag-team competitors who set WWE alight with a series of brilliant tag team matches in the latter half of the year.

Kids go bananas for Rey Mysterio - he looks like a real-life superhero - and he is a consistent top-seller of merchandise. While he'll never recapture the brilliant form of the late 1990s (it was a decade ago, give Halloween Havoc 1998 a rest) Mysterio remains among WWE's most popular competitors.

Read the previous 10th anniversary feature