Centre Daily Times from State College, Pennsylvania • 33

1 'F1 I f'JPFJPJJFMPl be ir 1 i Vtrvv-'VZV yf FFf CENTRE DAILY TIMES APRIL 25 1999 coming Up Monday: Tuesday: Or CMtre Hogh Wednesday: Horn A Conlthu -Thursday: Outride A Off CwArt Friday: Saturday: FRANKLY SPEAKING Russell Frank always fit in THE SOCIAL CRUELTY of high school bubbles dose to the surface of the stories about the Colorado school massacre The two boys who killed 12 classmates one teacher and themselves did not apparently (SSKMfc a-v is hitting new heights of popularity vou SEE XBX WCW Thunder Bryce Jordan Center 865-5555 The group known by the school community as the Trench Coat was "mostly just kids who nobody wanted to have anything to do with one Littleton resident told The New York Times They got their fair share of being picked on a student said This killerflmisfits motif caught my eye A few days before a friend had told me she hail qualms about sending her middfeschootaged daughter to State Coflege Area High School She didn't see her child as the sort of kid who was going to shine at a big school She thought smaller would be kinder I disagreed I thought small schools might have only an ingroup and an outgroup while a place Eke State High has enough subgroups for just about everyone But Bill Reader die CDTs editorial page editor took a different tack The pressure to be popular he said to shine as prom queen or class president or star athlete is enormous at all high schools these days whatever their size This made me see my own high school experience in a new light Martin Van Buren High School in Queens NY was as big as a small college My friends and I tried to act Eke coDege students not the college students of today with their tricycle races and tiki torches but the college students of three decades ago with their sit-ins against foe administration and protests against die war At Van Buren in 1972 school spirit was a local version of patriotism: a bunch of hooey Athletes leaders and those who immersed themselves in activities" were pathetically unhip The rest of us voted down the senior prom and whiled away the afternoons in Alley Ifond Ruk where we earnestly discussed Carlos Castaneda's books and made fun of everything else I partfeulariy remember making fun of Jeff Kfeinbaum Kfeinbaum was no misfiL He was die best player on one of the best basketball teams in die city Far from being teen idol he was an object of scorn a walking parody of the 1950s Big Man on Campus with his squarejawrd good kioks I was way cooler than Kfeinbaum: I didn't belong to a single dub didn't get my picture taken for the yearbook didn't order a school ring graduated at mklyear and didn't go back for graduation Years later I decided I had cheated myself out of the gkirinu goofiness of high school Instead of hanging out in the park I should have been sitting in die gym cheering fcr Kfeinbaum Now I'm not so sure By rejecting the traditional cliques and hk-rarvhit-s of high school my classmates and I might have spared ourselves the humiliations that were visited upon die Trench Coat Mafia" of Columbine High This is not to say that Eric Harris' and Dylan KfebokTs victims it coming" or that the tragedy can be by the kilfen inferior status in the school pecking order But when I see Wall Street Journal commentators blaming the massacre on the permissive relativist fegacy of the tiOs I have to protest 1 may have gone to high school at a weird time but tolerance of weirdness made my school a peaceable kingdom Next month my nephew will graduate from a high school about five minutes away from Columbine Before the massacre he was savoring the tot sweet weeks of achooL Now he just wants ft to be over I susixvt every high achnul kid in Denver feds the same Theirs is a naD loss compared to what llie families and friends of the victims and kilferi -have to come to terms with but they too have bran cheated out of the glorious goofineas of high school his sales is right now the big time I would say We were amazed We never though ft would go like that" People aren't just buying wrestling-related merchandise they are also snapping up tickets for local events Shortly alter coming to State College Abrahantes created die Nitlany Wrestling Federation which will be putting on its fifth show NWFi Very Intense ftin at 5 pan today at Penn Sale's Rec Hal He expects more than 350 people to attend the free event According to Benue Punt director of public relations at the Bryce Jordan Center WWF shows are among the arena's top draws Since the center opened in January 19D6 a total of 40329 people have attended five WWF only two other acts Garth Brooks and monster trucks have attracted larger audiences See PRO WRESTLING fxtgf 7 television races driving merchandising campaigns and attracting thousands to live shows Millions of people tune in for the World Wrestling Federation's and World Championship competing Monday night shows which have been among the most-watched shows on cable for months Even the networks have gotten into the act NBC's highest-rated program recently aired an episode that focused on a pro wrestkT cased on former WCW champion Bill Goldberg TV Guide has had wrestk-ra on its covers twice in the last four months Other mainstream publications have tagged onto the popular appeal with wrestlers gracing covers of everything from Forbes to Entertainment Weekly to Playboy In perhaps the most obvious sign of changing status in the American consciousness former grap-pler Jesse The Body" Ventura won the By JACOB MICHALLS Centre Doily Times Penn State student Alex Abrahantes is 5-foot-8 175 pounds Professional wrestler Too Phat" YuUak Arafat is 5-foot-10 190 pounds They are the same person That is part of the mystery within an enigma that is professional wrestling where nothing is quite what anyone thinks it is Despite that or perhaps because of it professional wrestling has become hugely popular in the last few years like a dream come true for the pro wrestling industry it really is It's more popular now than ever been said Abrahantes who wants to wrestle in the World Wrestling Federation or World Championship Wrestling when he graduates Grom lVnn Slate Wrestling despite often loud criticism has put a figure-four leg lock on popular society drawing huge ratings on governorship of Minnesota Local hold To see whether pro wrestling has a lock on Centre County one need only stroll past the window display of the House of Kashmir in Calder Way State College There T-shirts emblazoned with wresden and pro wrestling federation logos vie for attention Saghir Ahmad the owner said the wrestling has been very good to him last I would say six months the way wrestling is going" he said we sell a He estimated that wrestling merchandise represents about 10 percent of Student wants to be a wrestling pro MOTOPMMOfOSVWCW Chris faricha puts kit Lion Tamer finishing move on Konnan during a WCW match Yutzak Arafat is one of those men he used to watch every week It took the Penn Slate junior (who is majoring in broadcast journalism with a minor in theater because he thought it would help him pursue his wrestling goals) a king time to get to the point where he could grapple As i high schooler growing up in North llainfield NJ Abrahantes didn't know how to get into the business He tried to join a wrestling school in southern New Jenny but he didn't have a car so couklnY get to the lessons He got his first training after he started school at Slate Altoona but ft was Illegitimate" The trainer a student then at University IVk he met through e-mail had never had any formal training himsett The lack of proper Instruction hurt Sec ABRAHANTES page 7 By JACOB MICHAfLS Centre Daily Twin As young baseball player Alex Abrahantes was growing up it became clear to him that Brutus 11 Barber" Beefcake could out-hit the National league's Barry Bonds "At the age of 11 it really hit Abraliantes 21 said "1 donY know what moment ft hit me but I said know I want to be a profosskmal wrestk-r' I think ft would be like the coolest job in the world It's like living in a cartoon world you know and you get to play sports at the same He remembers watching the costumed combatants when he was just 4 or 5 yean oki watching as Hulk Hogan bank'd the Ultimate Warrior for the first time or his favorite wrestler Brutus "The Beefcake take on Mr Perfect "I used to study ft like a religion he said Now Abrahantes who wreslfes as Nitlany Wrestling Federation Champion Too Hurt" i RuueU Frank teackn in Ptnn Stated Collett tf CoeuMMuicatunu Hw tan ermtaet him at 0634415 te mill "1 A 2 ABBY ft Cb i iVfTfcSW rNotaMowso tomorrow Father leads foundation to find curt for sonfc disease Fnmar (Mftt AnHnsMI right puts a surfboard submission hold on "IJre bate Desire at the tail Nitlany Wrestling Federation shorn.