Lowdown, I agree with most of what you said. In my head the WWE was a better overall federation than the upstarts but it is all about timing and my personal tastes. When I was younger I liked WWF wrestling and NWA and the one from Minnesota AWA I think it was called, and through college I rooted for the Macho Man to kick ass as well because I hated Hogan and loved Macho. I even got the dorm to take a class trip to MSG to see Macho vs Hogan, the funny part was we were supposed to pick a museum or something as a cultural event, so I said to the Resident Advisor there is no better cultural event than WWF wrestling, he agreed and we all went.
I then left the wrestling scene because I was so sick of the cartoon product that the WWF was putting out. A friend turned me on to the 2am ECW tv shows and I was hooked, I had never seen anything like it before, it was EXTREME. I was into that until almost all the wrestlers left Paul E and ECW. By then the WWF had begun to surpass them at their own game in their battle with WCW, they had become a glossier ECW and I was hooked again. I love raunch and stereotypical humor and over the top storylines so it was perfect for me. DX, Steve Austin, the rock, HHH, Shawn Michaels, and the rest it was a great age in wrestling. Plus I has my weekly fill of Stephanie and the other ladies. But about 2 or a little more years ago I fell out of watching wrestling again as I was bored with the WWE product and I still am to some extent. I think that Vince is at his best when competition forces him to be the best, with no competition now I think the product is quite stagnant. I can only hope for a new federation to watch of if he can redo his WWE with better stories and Rock, Austin and others return to wrestling full time.