COVER STORY
It's Really Got A Hold on Audiences
Wrestling is a hit again, thanks to the antics of the WWF. See end of text for sidebars-1) TV Times for Wrestlemania and More. 2) And Now: The Mat Maidens: [ALL EDITIONS]

Fleming, Michael. Newsday, Combined editions [Long Island, N.Y] 20 Mar 1988: 08.
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According to Basil DeVito, senior vice president of marketing for WWF parent company Titan Sports, the WWF now stages 1,000 evenings of live wrestling per year in 40 countries (compared to the NWA's 400 cards). Gate receipts form the backbone of the WWF profit center, and it is estimated that the WWF brings in $250 to $300 million annually. Wrestlemania III last spring drew more people than the Pope to the Silverdome, setting a world indoor attendance record of 93,173. Wrestlemania IV will be staged in the smaller confines of Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, but sources say that Donald Trump is paying $1 million for that privilege. DeVito confirms the WWF will make more from the Trump rights fee than it did last year from Silverdome attendance. The event is also expected to better last year's draw of 663,000 pay-per-view (PPV) homes and gross of $10.3 million, which the National Cable Forum reports is the largest pay-per-view take ever. [Vince McMahon] guards that turf jealously: When the rival NWA made its PPV debut with its traditional Thanksgiving card, called Starrcade, McMahon quickly countered by signing up the majority of PPV systems exclusively for his "Survivor Series," a Turkey Day tag team event bought by 500,000 households. When the NWA tried again with its Bunkhouse Stampede in January - throwing all its top wrestlers into the ring together - McMahon scheduled a similar event on free cable's USA Network the same night. Still, the NWA is profitable, having grown 1,500 percent in the last year since moving from regional to national TV coverage, according to vice president of operations David Crockett. He said that in addition to airing its matches on TBS and syndicated stations across the country, the NWA is learning the payper-view ropes, and has four pay specials scheduled in 1988. (The NWA is countering the pay-per-view Wrestlemania IV with its own card, Clash of the Champions, presented free on TBS at the same 4 p.m. starting time.) In addition, a sitcom called "Learning The Ropes," starring former gridiron star Lyle Alzado as a moonlighting wrestler and featuring NWA grapplers playing themselves, is being offered in syndication for the fall season. Ric Flair, who has been NWA champ on and off since 1981, prefers the NWA's no-nonsense wrestling philosophy, but admits the WWF's success hasn't hurt his group. "Their hype helps. It brings attention to all of us," said Flair, who estimated that wrestling's total take last year was $400 million. Meanwhile, a new subplot is rumored to be in development at the WWF. Hulk Hogan, who in the last five years has become arguably the sport's most popular champion ever, may star in a "Rambo"-like action feature film, possibly later this year. Not surprisingly, word on the grappling grapevine is that McMahon will be involved in the financing; the WWF admits there has been movie talk but claims nothing is set. Don't be surprised if McMahon's world of wrestling, which has turned a profit in the media of TV, cable, pay-per-view, recorded music and home video, soon shows up at a movie theater near you. ***** TV Times for Wrestlemania and More Wrestlemania IV, at 4 p.m. next Sunday, can be seen over cable systems that offer pay-per-view programs. Local cable systems with this capability include Cablevision, Brookhaven Cable, Staten Island Cable and American Cablevision (check with your system about availability); suggested charge is $19.95. Closed-circuit sites include Nassau Coliseum and Madison Square Garden, as well as the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, Ridgewood Grove Arena in Queens, Canarsie High and Regina Youth Center in Brooklyn, and Gleason's Arena in Brooklyn Heights. World Wrestling Federation programs are also seen weekly on WNYW / 5 at 10:30 a.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. Saturday, and on WWOR / 9 at 11 a.m. Saturday. On cable, USA Network features WWF shows Monday at 9 p.m. and Sunday at noon, and MSG Network schedules three WWF programs a week, as well as the monthly live card from the Garden.

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World Wrestling Federation head Vince McMahon may just be this generation's P.T. Barnum. The circus promoter certainly would have envied McMahon's success in packaging collisions of behemoths into entertainment events that have: drawn bigger crowds than Pope John Paul II and the Super Bowl (when each appeared in the Pontiac Silverdome); boosted network and cable TV ratings; and begun to tame the new pay-per-view medium. McMahon's specialty is professional wrestling, which, thanks largely to his efforts over the past seven years, has rocketed from the bottom of the TV sports barrel - where it lay roughly in parity with roller derby - to campy melodramatic spectaculars that NBC program head Brandon Tartikoff has suggested adding to the network's prime time schedule.

On Feb. 5, the WWF's first foray into prime time - and the sport's first appearance on the networks in that time period in more than 30 years - garnered NBC its highest ratings of the night. In the featured match, the 6-foot8, 300-pound WWF champ Hulk Hogan lost his belt to the 7-foot-4, 500-pound Andre the Giant, setting the stage for Wrestlemania IV, a four-hour extravaganza taking place at Trump Plaza next Sunday and being beamed to pay-perview cable homes and closed-circuit sites around North America. It will likely be wrestling's greatest payday ever. The Giant was aided by an evil twin referee who ruled that Hogan was pinned to the canvas, although a midget wrestler could probably have done the limbo between the mat and Hogan's left shoulder. After a melee involving the referee, his twin, Hogan, and Andre's sidemen, the title was declared vacant, and 14 of WWF's top matmen will battle in the March 27 elimination tournament to claim the belt. The evil twin referee trick in a sporting event, you say? Hey, we're talking prime time entertainment, where an entire season of "Dallas" turns out to be a dream, and previously unknown siblings pop up on "Dynasty" whenever ratings lag. Whether the outcome of wrestling matches is prearranged is no longer a consideration. Wrestling has mushroomed by moving from sport to entertainment. Producer Dick Ebersol left "Saturday Night Live" to create NBC's highly rated WWF show, "Saturday Night's Main Event," which airs late-night once a month. He says wrestling has thrived on TV by using TV techniques, including dramatic plot twists. "McMahon presents his talent the same way Norman Lear presented Archie and Edith, with clear strong characters and story line," said Ebersol, who added that "Main Event" beats his old comedy show consistently in ratings and profitability in first run. WWF isn't the only wrestling alliance trying to use television to build audiences, Ebersol said, but "the others are just a bunch of neanderthals rolling around on the mat and slicing their heads with razors." The WWF is owned by Greenwich, Conn.-based Titan Sports, which rules the wrestling world through a TV empire that includes shows on superstation WWOR / 9 and cable's USA Network. Trailing the WWF is the Charlotte, N.C.-based National Wrestling Alliance, which is slowly building its own momentum on superstation TBS and through syndication. The difference between the two divisions, besides hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues, is that the NWA usually restricts the action to the ring. The WWF seems at least as interested in building personalities as in presenting mat maneuvers.

Good against evil has always been wrestling's selling point; you never needed a detective's shield to identify the bad guy. But McMahon, who doubles as the WWF's on-air commentator, took this a step further by allowing his characters to become as well defined as Hulk Hogan's pectorals. Aside from devoting air time to such campy plot twists as the evil referee and the kidnapping of managers, McMahon has his wrestlers work overtime to create conflict outside the ring. Mini-documentaries portray their personalities in "real life," and preand post-match interviews show them threatening their rivals, spitting epithets and boasting of their own personal prowess. The matches themselves often seem anticlimactic. McMahon isn't afraid to go even further. His schlockiest coup to date was to turn his musclebound troops into singers, releasing two "Piledriver" rock music albums and creating "The Slammys," a music awards show that became one of TV's highest-rated latenight syndicated shows ever. "McMahon filled a void for heroes by carefully molding talent into well-formed characters with comedic insight," said Ebersol. "He has 25 stars that are instantly recognizable to 50 percent of a TV audience. There's nothing else around like that." Ebersol said the WWF pours out five hours of new programing weekly, 260 hours annually, "to build those personas."

McMahon, 42, engineered the WWF's rise during the transition period in which he bought out the business from his ailing father, Vince Sr., half a dozen years ago. The WWF controlled only four eastern states and lagged behind both the NWA and the American Wrestling Alliance in stature - as if there was much stature in wrestling at the time. The promoter went into debt to purchase TV time in local markets across the country where the WWF was unknown, and to sign arenas to exclusive long-term deals. He staged TV matches featuring his best wrestlers against faceless stiffs, whose chances of survival matched that of the unknown "Star Trek" cast member beaming down to a hostile planet with Kirk and Spock. After mopping the mat with the losers, the stars would be interviewed by McMahon, building controversy for live events. McMahon then aligned himself with rock and roll star Cyndi Lauper, a wrestling fan who featured grappler Lou Albano in her "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" video. The singer's own outrageous persona blended perfectly with wrestling's, and her involvement in televised matches on MTV quickly cemented the WWF's status nationally. That led to McMahon's involvement with Ebersol, who was persuaded to take up wrestling by his agent (who also represents McMahon) as he was leaving "SNL." "I laughed out loud when it was first suggested," said Ebersol, who soon listened as then-MTV head Bob Pittman and David Letterman suggested he give grappling a chance. "I finally made an appointment for McMahon to come see me in the `Saturday Night Live' office," he said, where, after listening to McMahon's vision and grand plans, "we shook hands on the spot."

According to Basil DeVito, senior vice president of marketing for WWF parent company Titan Sports, the WWF now stages 1,000 evenings of live wrestling per year in 40 countries (compared to the NWA's 400 cards). Gate receipts form the backbone of the WWF profit center, and it is estimated that the WWF brings in $250 to $300 million annually. Wrestlemania III last spring drew more people than the Pope to the Silverdome, setting a world indoor attendance record of 93,173. Wrestlemania IV will be staged in the smaller confines of Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, but sources say that Donald Trump is paying $1 million for that privilege. DeVito confirms the WWF will make more from the Trump rights fee than it did last year from Silverdome attendance. The event is also expected to better last year's draw of 663,000 pay-per-view (PPV) homes and gross of $10.3 million, which the National Cable Forum reports is the largest pay-per-view take ever. McMahon guards that turf jealously: When the rival NWA made its PPV debut with its traditional Thanksgiving card, called Starrcade, McMahon quickly countered by signing up the majority of PPV systems exclusively for his "Survivor Series," a Turkey Day tag team event bought by 500,000 households. When the NWA tried again with its Bunkhouse Stampede in January - throwing all its top wrestlers into the ring together - McMahon scheduled a similar event on free cable's USA Network the same night. Still, the NWA is profitable, having grown 1,500 percent in the last year since moving from regional to national TV coverage, according to vice president of operations David Crockett. He said that in addition to airing its matches on TBS and syndicated stations across the country, the NWA is learning the payper-view ropes, and has four pay specials scheduled in 1988. (The NWA is countering the pay-per-view Wrestlemania IV with its own card, Clash of the Champions, presented free on TBS at the same 4 p.m. starting time.) In addition, a sitcom called "Learning The Ropes," starring former gridiron star Lyle Alzado as a moonlighting wrestler and featuring NWA grapplers playing themselves, is being offered in syndication for the fall season. Ric Flair, who has been NWA champ on and off since 1981, prefers the NWA's no-nonsense wrestling philosophy, but admits the WWF's success hasn't hurt his group. "Their hype helps. It brings attention to all of us," said Flair, who estimated that wrestling's total take last year was $400 million. Meanwhile, a new subplot is rumored to be in development at the WWF. Hulk Hogan, who in the last five years has become arguably the sport's most popular champion ever, may star in a "Rambo"-like action feature film, possibly later this year. Not surprisingly, word on the grappling grapevine is that McMahon will be involved in the financing; the WWF admits there has been movie talk but claims nothing is set. Don't be surprised if McMahon's world of wrestling, which has turned a profit in the media of TV, cable, pay-per-view, recorded music and home video, soon shows up at a movie theater near you. ***** TV Times for Wrestlemania and More Wrestlemania IV, at 4 p.m. next Sunday, can be seen over cable systems that offer pay-per-view programs. Local cable systems with this capability include Cablevision, Brookhaven Cable, Staten Island Cable and American Cablevision (check with your system about availability); suggested charge is $19.95. Closed-circuit sites include Nassau Coliseum and Madison Square Garden, as well as the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, Ridgewood Grove Arena in Queens, Canarsie High and Regina Youth Center in Brooklyn, and Gleason's Arena in Brooklyn Heights. World Wrestling Federation programs are also seen weekly on WNYW / 5 at 10:30 a.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. Saturday, and on WWOR / 9 at 11 a.m. Saturday. On cable, USA Network features WWF shows Monday at 9 p.m. and Sunday at noon, and MSG Network schedules three WWF programs a week, as well as the monthly live card from the Garden. The National Wrestling Alliance is seen on cable's TBS Saturday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., and on WPIX / 11 Saturday at 3:30 p.m. And Now:The Mat Maidens Although the World Wrestling Federation reigns supreme in male pro wrestling, there is a battle underway for the much smaller television turf in the women's field. Their strength is the live arena draw, but you may soon be seeing a bevy of mat maidens flying across your TV screen. At the recent convention of the National Association of Television Program Executives in Houston, where syndicated shows were sold to stations, no fewer than four alphabet groups were selling TV shows: "GLOW" (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling), "POW" (Powerful Women of Wrestling), "WWA" (Women's Wrestling Alliance) and "WWC" (World Women's Council). Ladies wrestle periodically within the WWF and NWA, but there, the women warriors seem to rank as high in priority as the mat midgets, who also appear only occasionally. "GLOW," with weekly TV exposure in 80 markets, is currently the biggest full-time women's alliance; taped in Las Vegas, it airs locally Saturday night at 1 a.m. on WPIX / 11. "POW," a spinoff of "GLOW," airs on MSG Saturday at 11 p.m. The others have not yet been televised.

Illustration
Color Photo by WWF/TOM BUCHANAN-1) In the disputed WWF title match last month, Andre the Giant was encouraged by"Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and his money-counting assistant, Virgil. 2) Color Photo by SYGMA/STEVE TAYLOR-WWF head Vince McMahon doubles as TV announcer, here with longtime champ Bruno Sammartino. 3) Color cover photo by AP/Chuck Robinson-{Wrestler holding manager in the air}; WRESTLING Reaches New Heights. Color cover photo by AP/Chuck Robinson-{Wrestler holding manager in the air}

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