WRESTLING FANATICS: MONDAY NIGHTS, TVs ARE TUNED TO WRESTLING

Cape Girardean Bill Dunn holds the distinction of being the last person thrown out of the wrestling ring in the old Boston Garden.

That might be a little closer than most professional wrestling fans want to get to the action. For Dunn, the television ring announcer for the World Wrestling Federation for more than three years, it was all part of the job.

During his years as an announcer, Dunn was thrown out of the ring, slopped on and body slammed.

Dunn worked as a merchandiser and announcer for the WWF for 9 1/2 years, until May when the organization downsized. He now works as a sales consultant at Ford Groves.

Prior to joining the WWF, Dunn had worked for 18 months at the Show Me Center as an assistant supervisor of the novelty division. He was working on his master's degree in English at Southeast Missouri State University at the time.

It was during one of the WWF events that a federation merchandiser suggested Dunn send an application to the WWF for a job after graduation. He did.

A Cape Girardeau native, Dunn's father used to take him to the Arena Building to watch wrestling. He's been a fan since.

Pro wrestling fans vary in age and degree of involvement. Some, like Chris Smith, read the Internet gossip about wrestling issues and study the wrestling newsletters. Others, like Sabrina Pledger and brothers Brian and Kevin Holzum, have become interested because their families watched it on television.

Show Me Center Director David Ross says his grandmother was an avid wrestling fan.

Smith, 29, sells wholesale heating and air-conditioning products. On Mondays, he watches the World Championship Wrestling's "Monday Night Nitro" on television and tapes the WWF "Monday Night Raw," which he watches after the WCW program.

Smith began watching TV at about age 10, after cable television came to Cape Girardeau. He watched it mostly on WTBS in Atlanta.

Smith, a neighborhood friend and the friend's father would go to the Arena Building to watch wrestling. He saw "Macho Man" Randy Savage before he was well known.

Then between the ages of 16 and 20 he didn't watch it much. His friends got him started again.

Now armed with a satellite dish, he buys the pay-per-view shows and invites his friends over to watch. During the last WCW pay-per-view, 21 of his friends showed up, which pushed his apartment on Fountain Street to the limits.

Smith spends about a half hour daily checking the pro wrestling gossip mill and personal commentaries on the Internet. He also receives three or four wrestling newsletters via e-mail.

Sabrina Pledger, 16, likes it when the wrestlers get angry and yell at each other.

She follows the wrestling plot lines on television broadcasts.

One plot: Paul Bearer, who used to manage the Undertaker, persuaded the Undertaker's brother, Kane, to take Shawn Michaels' part when Michaels and the Undertaker had a match. Now, Kane is angry at Paul Bearer and was expected to support his brother in the Undertaker's rematch with Michaels. Or so the story goes.

Sabrina, a Cape Girardeau Central sophomore, at times does her homework while watching wrestling on television. One of her favorite wrestlers is "Stone Cold" Steve Austin because he "does what he wants, when he wants."

And, she said, he has that finishing hold called the "stunner."

An athlete herself, Sabrina holds the national teen-age record in the squat lift at 402 pounds. She set the record last April at the women's national weightlifting finals at Lincoln, Neb. She also throws the shot for the Central track team.

Sabrina lifts with her father, Jerry, her uncles and with her father's "power team," which has won 10 straight state weightlifting championships. Jerry has won three state championships.

In 1992, Jerry bought the WWF's pay-per-view "Royal Rumble," and members of the weightlifting team gathered at his house to watch. The interest and the gatherings have continued.

The family has a stack of tapes of wrestling events from the years since 1992.

The interest in pro wrestling goes back further in the Pledger family. Jerry's mother has a photo album of older wrestlers, and she and her family used to attend wrestling events at the Arena Building.

While the power team gathers in Cape Girardeau, several members of the Leopold High School basketball team spend Mondays watching pro wrestling.

Brian Holzum, 17, a junior power forward for the basketball team, and Alan Beussink, another junior on the team, alternate hosting the Monday night TV wrestling matches. Teammate John Vandeven, a senior, and Brian's younger brother, Kevin, round out the group.

Kevin, 13, also is a basketball player, having joined an American Athletic Union team formed in the Leopold area.

Kevin likes the WWF, Brian and his friends the WCW, so on Monday nights the group watches "Nitro," and Kevin watches "Raw" later.

Kevin still vividly remembers the wrestling event he attended when he was 7. It was the one where the Undertaker tried to put the Ultimate Warrior into a body bag.

David Ross recalls the time Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who carried a boa constrictor in a burlap bag, left the bag in the hallway under the Show Me Center bleachers.

When Ross came across the burlap bag, a shaken Show Me Center official went to the wrestler and told him to take care of that bag.

Ross said his grandmother got so excited about wrestling that the family eventually had to quit taking her to the events.