HONEYMOON AT THE WRESTLING MATCHES

Mahi Nagamine, left, and her husband, Masaki Nagamine, wrestling fans from Australia, got to meet wrestler Curt Hennig before the World Championship Wrestling event at the Show Me Center Tuesday night.

Australia resident "Mac" Nagamine waited until the last minute to tell his bride of one month that their honeymoon in America would include stops in Tampa, Fla., and Cape Girardeau to attend professional wrestling matches.

"I cried," she said.

Fortunately, Marie Nakamine actually likes wrestling, too. "Now I'm very happy," she said Tuesday night before the World Championship Wrestling matches at the Show Me Center.

The wrestling card drew 4,153 to a raucous evening of noise and athletic melodrama.

The tuxedoed announcer cued some of the bedlam, instructing everyone to stand and cheer on his countdown before each match if they wanted a chance to be seen on TV. The event will be broadcast during WCW's Saturday night wrestling on TBS.

Bob Spiller of Anna, Ill., accompanied his grandsons, John Wingate and Josh Flann, and his grown daughter, Deborah Simms, for an evening of body slams. Whether they came all the way from Australia or only from Anna, wrestling fans are vocal about their likes and dislikes.

Spiller likes old-time wrestlers like Ric Flair best, while the rest of the family are fans of Sting, whose trademark is black and white face paint.

When done well, as when new tag-team champions Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio Jr. destroyed the villainous Disorderly Conduct, the matches were acrobatic dances of precisely choreographed mayhem. They gave the crowd 30 reasons to boo or cheer every minute.

A wrestler named Fit Finley drew both when he was announced. "He's mean," Spiller said.

Wrestlers even WCW fans didn't know the names of often were less practiced, and their matches provided a chance to see how bad a pulled punch can look.

Everywhere there were posters proclaiming something about the bearer. "I'm Jay and you're not," read one.

Nakamine is a Japanese citizen who stages ceremonies for Japanese couples who want to be married in Australia, a popular getaway. Speaking through an interpreter, Southeast freshman English major Aiko Shimizu, Nakamine said American wrestling is very popular in Japan.

"Since I was a little kid I have liked wrestling."

Sting and Stone Cold Steve Austin are his wrestling heroes.

The Nakamines also went to a baseball game in St. Louis. The last stops on their trip are Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where no attendance at wrestling matches or baseball games is planned.