The formulas vary little. The two-hour show has a circuslike atmosphere with different acts appearing every few minutes. Floodlights and pyrotechnics begin the program as the first two opponents strut down an aisle to their theme songs. They enter the ring, microphones in hand, and engage in vilifying taunts for as long as 15 minutes. Crude words rarely heard on television a few years ago abound, particularly verbiage about the human anatomy.
Wrestlers wear T-shirts or trunks with rude messages.
Wrestlers fight in the aisles, in the audience, backstage. The more outrageous the behavior, the louder the cheers. Wrestlers throw each other onto tables, pound each other with baseball bats or crowbars, and wield chairs, ladders, garbage cans and guitars across each other's bodies. Everyone uses underhanded tactics. It's the bad versus the really bad.