By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer
Wrestling fans fill Colisee for WWE SmackDown

LEWISTON – Even before the good guys hobbled the bad ones – crashing down on them from the ropes or tossing them from the wrestling ring – Norm Gray knew he’d lose his voice.

It’s all part of wrestling’s mayhem. That’s why he bought his ticket.

“It’s a men’s soap opera,” said the 48-year-old Auburn man. “You follow the characters. You yell and holler.” He wasn’t alone.

Fans of World Wrestling Entertainment flooded Lewiston’s Colisee on Saturday for the show: SmackDown Live.

More than 1,000 people were already waiting in the cold when the doors opened at 6:30 p.m. Among them were men in their 80s and small children.

Mohamed Mahamud, 6, waiting in line with his sister, Asha, 12, carried a shiny replica of a championship belt.

His favorite wrestler: Undertaker.

“I like his eyes,” said the Lewiston boy, rolling his own eyes until his pupils almost disappeared.

Then, he leaned back his head and smiled. “It’s just cool,” he said.

Bob Begin Sr., 81, of Lisbon came with his son, Bob Jr., 58, and his grandson, Greg, 27. Their favorite: Rey Mysterio.

“He’s a small man in a big man’s sport,” said Bob Jr.

Mysterio, one of WWE’s stars, didn’t make it to the evening show, the first of two Maine stops for the wrestling troupe. A travel problem kept Mysterio away, though he hoped to join the wrestlers when they perform today in Bangor.

Meanwhile, everyone else scheduled to appear Saturday, including Undertaker, showed.

Wrestlers appeared in a frenzy of kicks and stomps, taunts and finger pointing, backflips and corner dives.

In the first match, Bobby Lashley earned cheers when he tossed his opponent, Doug Basham, out of the ring.

The crowd – including two boys wearing Santa hats at ringside – jeered Basham as he tangled in the ropes and fell in a heap.

In each of the next two matches, somebody bounced off the ropes and landed on the Colisee floor.

In another match, they marveled at the acrobatics of Paul London, who entered the ring by diving beneath the ropes. Moments later, he climbed to the top of a corner, then hurled himself onto his opponent, Ken Doane.

The move shook the light towers above the ring.

“You got to watch out when they crawl up there,” said Norm Gray. “Usually, somebody gets hurt. And it’s not the guy jumping.”

A wrestling fan for more than 30 years, Gray said he continues to watch for the sheer fun.

And he makes no apologies for its low-brow reputation.

“A lot of people are closet fans,” he said. “They watch it on TV and are too embarrassed to come out and watch.”

“I don’t care,” he said, sitting with his stepfather, Bob Berube, and his son, Aaron Gray.

Together, they watched their favorite wrestlers on TV the night before. They listened to the stories about who hates whom, of bad blood between WWE heroes and watched them fly around the ring.

There’s no need to quibble about the old real-or-fake debate, said Norm.

Of course, someone decides who wins, he said.

So do the writers on a soap opera.