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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, December 27, 2002

COMMENTARY
WWE rolls back into town

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, is scheduled to face Rob Van Dam on Thursday and Scott Steiner on Jan. 3.

WWE and Associated Press photos

WWE: Ruthless Aggression Tour

7:30 p.m. Thursday and Jan. 3

Blaisdell Arena

$25, $45, $75, $90

526-4400

The first thing you should know — even though it would be readily apparent anyway — is that I am not a fan of professional wrestling.

Having said that, that doesn't mean I actually cringe at the thought of an hour or two spent watching the televised soap-opera-ish trials and travails of World Wrestling Entertainment all-stars every once in a while.

"WWE: RAW" and "WWE: Smackdown" have both been known to chill me quite nicely after wickedly tense hours of "7th Heaven" and "Everwood."

And one of my most treasured college memories, in fact, is a weekend afternoon watching Wrestlemania on pay-per-view with friends in a huge Manoa home one of them was housesitting. Of course, there was a lot of free beer, sushi and take-out Korean food there that appealed to me, too. But that's beside the point.

The bottom line: I like WWE wrestling, but I'm not exactly a devotee.

That's why I begged the assistance of a couple of anonymous Honolulu Advertiser staffers — both big-time WWE followers — to find out how next week's Ruthless Aggression Tour card at Blaisdell Arena compared with what this summer's Tour of Defiance smacked up. That event, you might recall, sold out in, like, two minutes or something.

While finding enough decent talent — in particular, the two headlining matches — on this weekend's cards to attend, both found the roster a bit low on the kind of WWE star wattage that June's event provided. More noteworthy, at least to lay folk like me, was the fact that no grappler of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's broad mainstream appeal was on the card to pull in more casual wrestling fans.

Perhaps that's why WWE ticket sales are proving a bit more sluggish this time around. While a second date was added to Ruthless Aggression's Honolulu stop earlier this month, at press time there were still 2,000 seats left for the initial Thursday offering and 6,000 seats left for Jan. 3 (the arena can hold about 9,000).

Admittedly, the financial performance of the family business couldn't have kept WWE head honcho Vince McMahon sleeping soundly at night since the last time his stable was here in June.

Fans tuning in for TNN's "RAW" so far this season are down 14 percent from last year, and 35 percent down from 1999 figures, according to Nielsen Media Research. UPN's "Smackdown" hasn't fared much better.

WWE stock, which traded at a peak of $25 a share on the New York Stock Exchange after the company's much-publicized IPO in October 1999, was priced at around $8 this week.

According to an Associated Press story, the WWE organization has been forced to deal with a number of lawsuits, as well as the arrest of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (for assault) and the departure of top star Mankind. And with all this bad news comes word that longtime WWE fans are getting bored with plots that are increasingly (gasp!) too outlandish.

On a personal note, I still haven't forgiven McMahon for dreaming up the now ex-XFL — even though I do think his managing to convince NBC to the tune of millions that the stuff he was shoveling was gold is funny.

As for The Rock, bitching about his absence on next week's WWE card is really just plain stupid. After all, the guy was seen around town free-of-charge so much this fall while filming "Helldorado" that businesses were giving him kama'aina discounts.

And the actual matches? This time around, I'm putting my money on Triple H and Ric Flair to take the main-match win on both nights. I'd also be happy if the trash-talking likes of Chris Jericho beat the bejesus out of Booker T in at least one of their two match-ups.

You'll have to tell me who wins, though. I'll be at home watching VH1 Classics.

Man, I love A Flock of Seagulls!