THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602170061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
WRESTLING IS headed back to Scope.
A scant 10 weeks after November's ``World War 3'' pitted 60 of pro wrestling's biggest names against one another on the arena's canvas, World Championship Wrestling storms back Sunday with such luminaries as The Taskmaster, Disco Inferno and Meng.
The five-bout extravaganza will see Randy ``Macho Man'' Savage tangle with ``Nature Boy'' Ric Flair for Flair's WCW World Heavyweight Title, which the champ won just last weekend.
Ratcheting the evening's adrenaline up before the main event will be match-ups between Sting and the 7-foot-4 Giant, and between Lex Luger and Johnny B. Badd.
The Nasty Boys will cocoon Public Enemy in pain, and vice versa. And, as if all that weren't enough to satisfy the crowd's thirst for drama, the card also boasts a six-man tag-team match between members of two dreaded wrestling gangs, the Four Horsemen and the Dungeon of Doom.
In other words, it's a typical evening with the WCW.
Save for one thing: Fans who spend $10 to $15 per ticket to behold the carnage won't share it with a national TV audience.
Alan Sharp, the WCW's top spokesman, said that the 7 p.m. event is an ``arena show,'' one of relatively few hosted by the company each year.
The WCW - which is more a television company that programs wrestling than a wrestling conference that happens to be televised - often takes its wrestlers on the road, but those engagements are typically played out for the WCW's weekly TV show or pay-per-view audiences.
November's ``World War 3,'' for instance, was a pay-per-view ``mega-major event,'' Sharp said, noting, ``The business has changed to being a company that bases its revenue on television, and not on arenas.''
Norfolk qualifies for this personal treatment, he said, because ``the fans are enthusiastic, are very excited about our product.
``We wouldn't come into an area to do an arena show unless the market meant a lot to us.''
Scope officials said Thursday that ticket sales were brisk. In addition to paying customers, the audience will include several hundred fans who held free admissions to ``World War 3'' but were turned away when that event sold out.
The venerable Flair won the World Heavyweight belt for the 13th time when he took it from Savage at the WCW's Feb. 11 ``Super Brawl'' blow-out in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The title has traded hands several times since Savage won it in a 60-wrestler ``Battle Royal'' during ``World War 3.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
[Randy "Macho Man" Savage.]
by CNB