I've had both - 1 root canal and all 4 wisdom teeth pulled (not the same time). I had my root canal back in '98 and wisdom teeth this year. Root canal was not painful at all - the only thing that hurt was BEFORE I knew I needed one. There was a hole in my tooth that hurt wicked bad, but then he drilled it out and over the span of about 3 separate visits, he filled it in and covered it with a crown.
As far as the wisdom teeth go......most people I've talked to or read on this forum seemed to have a bad experience. There's really no way out of it, or making it not so bad. Swifty put it best, describing the procedure. Once you wake up, you're done for the day/night. They'll give you painkillers, plus you'll have to keep ice on your face for several days. There'll also antibiotics to stop infection. Make sure you follow all the steps they give you so you don't get dry-socket.
I had surgery on a Thursday morning and was able to completely move out of my apartment on Sunday night with the help of only 2 people. Physically everything will be fine, other than your mouth of course. You'll have to eat soup and jello because you can't chew because your can't really move your jaw. After several days you can finally eat again. Also, since you can barely open your mouth, its tough to brush teeth so your breath will stink. Try to rinse with salt water. Finally, your stitches will all fall out and you'll be "back to normal" except that you'll have holes where your teeth were. Its been 3 months and I still have holes in my gums. They give you a syring to squirt water up in there and remove food, that kind of gets annoying if you eat away from home and there's food sitting up there you can't get rid of. Bye.