Daily News from New York, New York • 22

22 DAILY NEWS 1 Sunday. Jufy 2V1991 ft-3 oPTgssr 0 kv-r Wrestling biz grapples with steroids By DEAN CHANG Daily News Staff Writer fTRO WRESTLING a lucrative land of comic-book grapplers, sleep-I Wer holds and body slams is battling a drug scandal that threatens a cash cow built on marketing savvy and showbiz shtick. The World Wrestling Federation is mounting a public-relations blitz to counter disclosures that some of its top wrestlers, including megastar Hulk Hogan, used dangerous muscle-building steroids. -w I ft--J i mi i a i mi- 17' tino, a stocky grappler with enormous appeal. One of his main rivals was Superstar Billy Graham, an abnormally muscled wrestler who dwarfed Sammartino.

Now, Graham is a physical mess. He has liver problems and a degenerative bone disease, walks with a cane and is sterile. Graham attributes that to steroids. "That saddens me terribly," said Sammartino, retired and living in Pittsburgh. "But what worries me is that what you see in Billy Graham today, you're going to see in many of these guys wrestling now.

Today's wrestlers believe they need steroids to win. "It's common knowledge that you better look as good as you can," he said. "McMahon would never tell someone to use steroids. But he would say, 'We'd like you to be 25 pounds With steroids, that can be easily done." In Sammartino's era, the pseudo-sport was run regionally by scores of promoters. When McMahon took over the WWF from his father in 1982, that changed.

Using a mix ture of live cards and syndi- cated television shows, Mc- Mahon converted wrestling fans to his camp and brought new viewers into the fold. Slams the Competition Today, wrestling is personified by the WWF. There are other divisions, including Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling, but none is any match for the WWF in sheer marketability. There are more than 400 WWF-licensed items that gross $200 million in annual sales, including video games, clothing, ice cream and vita- mihs, AccJUnm Ejitertain- The disclosures, revealed last month in the federal trial of a doctor convicted of illegally distributing steroids to wrestlers, forced the WWF to announce last week that it would institute a steroid-testing program for its bulked-up grapplers. "This is just damage control," said Dave Meltzer, former wrestling columnist for The National and operator of a wrestling newsletter.

"For them to publicly acknowl edge the steroids issue must mean they're feeling tremen- dous amounts of pressure That's not surprising. The stakes are high. $500M Business Relying on a mix of faked violence, sex, drugs and rock n' roll, Vincent K. McMahon a television huckster turned consummate businessman has transformed the WWF into the peculiar darling of Wall Street and Madison Ave. TitanSports the corporate umbrella that covers the WWF and its subsidiaries, is worth an estimated $500 million.

As president and chief executive officer of Titan- Sports, McMahon is "easily a centimillionaire," according to Forbes magazine Pro wrestling wasn't always this slick. "Wrestling was long based around gimmicks," said Alex Marvez, a wrestling columnist for the Miami Herald. "Now it's based on steroids. Twenty years ago, the top wrestlers, like Bruno Sammartino or Pat Patterson, would have larger-than-life personas. Now the wrestlers are larger than life because of steroids." In the 1960s and 1970s, wrestling on the East Coast was dominated by Sammar- t- -jkZsz 111 rr -i iiiitt i miiiMi i I MM Ik LJU fi-L 4 1 LLbi.

Hogan (top) shows off for young fans while promoting his Hulk Vitamins. Onetime wrestling phenom Bruno Sammartino (above) decries use of steroids, which destroyed onetime rival Superstar Billy Graham (left). ment, which makes Nintendo video games, said its all-time best seller is WWF Wrestle-mania, which has sold 1.5 million copies. All that was imperiled when Dr. George Zahorian III, a urologic surgeon, stood trial last month in Harris-burg, for illegally distributing steroids to Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Rick Martel, Killer Bee Brian Blair and Dangerous Dan Spivey.

All except Hogan were forced to testify. The wrestlers were not charged with any crimes because steroid use was legal until this year. tcy lb sc-roids from Zahorian after such sales became illegal in 1988. Testimony also revealed that the doctor supplied McMahon with steroids. Zahorian was convicted of KEITH B.

SRAKOCIC SPECIAL TO THE NEWS Cleaning up Act "The actions they've taken are geared toward preventing any consumer backlash," said Alfred Kahn, chairman of Leisure Concepts which handles WWF licensing. "They need to dispel any shadow of doubt that the WWF is not good, clean family entertainment." Hogan appeared on the Ar- eight counts of steroid distribution and faces up to 44 years in jail and a $3.5 million fine. McMahon reacted swiftly. Qn Ty.esd.s.v, Jhe conference at The Plaza hotel to announce the WWF's new steroid-testing policy that would be the "standard-bearer for drug-free.