THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 24, 1995 TAG: 9511220104
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
WHILE HAMPTON ROADS fantasizes about a major league franchise in basketball or hockey, and waits to welcome a floating crap game called the Canadian Football League, a big-deal, nationally televised sporting event is already here.
I'm talking rasslin'.
Come 7 p.m. Sunday at Scope, Turner Broadcasting's World Championship Wrestling beams out the ``World War III Battle Royal'' on four pay-per-view channels and satellite TV.
Sixty wrestlers in three rings live from Scope in downtown Norfolk!
While the CFL, soon to call Norfolk home if the city's taxpayers shell out for improvements to Foreman Field, is shopping for national TV exposure, WCW is sending out eight hours of wrestling every week to millions of homes.
Now this. ``World War III'' live from Scope, which has had its exterior tidied up of late.
Even against the stiff competition of the National Football League games on ABC, World Championship Wrestling on TNT and its chief rival, the World Wrestling Federation, on the USA network pull in 7 million to 8 million cable viewers on Monday nights.
Other wrestling hours produced by Turner - ``WCW Saturday Night,'' ``WCW Worldwide,````WCW Pro Wrestling'' and ``WCW Main Event'' - are seen on 83 stations in the United States and Canada, including WTVZ in Norfolk. Twenty-six radio stations carry the WCW events.
``Professional wrestling is bigger than ever,'' said ``Macho Man'' Randy Savage, he of the flying elbow off the top rope who will compete in ``World War III'' at Scope. Turner is hoping for an 8,000-seat sellout for the event, which will set back pay-per-view subscribers about $25.
Why has this sport - OK, this entertainment - from television's infancy grown and prospered here in the sophisticated 1990s? No mystery, said Savage, who will knock heads with Lex Luger before the 60-man war begins.
``We give you more bang for the buck,'' he said.
Who would dare reach for the remote control when Sister Sherri and Harlem Heat square off against Col. Parker and the Stud Stable?
Savage believes that pro wrestling has eclipsed in popularity the major team sports and automobile racing. He has no facts to back that up. But he does make a point when he asks, ``Name a football or basketball player who has the following of Hulk Hogan?''
Uh, that Emmitt guy in Dallas?
Not even close, the macho man said.
The Air Jordan guy in Chicago?
``Don't make me laugh.''
Hulkamania!
Hogan will be in the crowd of 60 at Scope on Sunday night along with Savage, Ric Flair, Sting, Max Muscle, Road Warrior Hawk and Super Assassins No. 1 and No. 2. Tickets range in price from $10 to $35. Call Ticketmaster at 671-8100.
I expect this to be just a shade more civilized than the most recent pay-per-view sporting event on local cable, the whatever-it-takes-to-win ``Extreme Fighting.'' That event was so brutal that a judge ran it out of Brooklyn last week.
Once upon a time, the professional wrestlers were nomads who performed on the road 50 weeks a year, playing in such wonderfully old, sweaty palaces as the Norfolk Arena. The ghost of Andre the Giant still haunts the place.
Savage, who is 43, said he was lucky to make expenses when he started barnstorming 20 years ago after he gave up his dream of being a major-league baseball catcher. (He played in the St. Louis, Cincinnati and Chicago White Sox minor league systems). Today, he's among pro wrestling's millionaires.
To those who follow professional wrestling on TV, he is bigger than any face you'll see on TV Guide. ``In the last 12 years, professional wrestling has gone through the roof,'' said Savage, referring to the high TV ratings and merchandising that pulls in millions.
Got your official Hulk Hogan wristbands? by CNB