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MTV carries wrestling to high-flying X-tremes

Published February 16, 2007 at midnight

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"X" truly marks the spot when it comes to pro wrestling's most innovative new product.

Thanks to the exposure generated by a prime-time slot on MTV (8:30 p.m. Tuesdays), Wrestling Society X has emerged as a unique competitor in a television marketplace currently dominated by World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Unlike those other two more traditional promotions, WSX presents a dizzying product that combines outrageous outside-the-ring props, high-risk maneuvers and colorful characters into a slick 30-minute telecast with the same hip vibe that Extreme Championship Wrestling had in the 1990s. And although some veteran performers like Vampiro and Sean "X-Pac" Waltman are featured, most of the talent are cruiserweights who appear the same age as the 18-to-24-year-old male demographic MTV is hoping to draw with WSX.

WSX producer and co-creator Kevin Kleinrock said he was trying to design a show that appealed to current fans and "a whole new generation of people who don't really get what pro wrestling is now because in their minds it's two 300-pound-plus guys doing leg drops or chin-locks. They haven't been exposed to a whole new generation of wrestlers like the guys we're putting in there."

The bouts feature a slew of flying moves booked and edited in rapid-fire succession, which Kleinrock said stems largely from WSX having what is essentially a 20-minute window when commercials and a weekly musical guest are factored into each telecast. Kleinrock, though, points to the fact that WSX provides almost as much actual in-ring action as during an hourlong TNA telecast. Plus, the promotion's Web site (wsx.mtv.com) offers exclusive matches - including this week's bout featuring the hilarious Matt Classic throwback character - and more details on WSX's story lines and characters.

Although replayed on MTV and its spinoff networks several times weekly, WSX's first-run time slot puts it in direct competition with WWE's ECW telecasts Tuesdays on the SciFi Channel. WWE appears to perceive enough of a threat that owner Vince McMahon booked himself on ECW programming to entice fans from changing channels to WSX.

But before being considered a legitimate threat to WWE's supremacy, WSX will have to add live and pay-per-view shows. Kleinrock also is uncertain when WSX will return to MTV with fresh shows after the first season's final episode airs on April 3.

WSX, which has all of its talent under exclusive contracts to prevent raids from WWE and TNA, taped its first season of 40 matches in November inside a small studio reminiscent of a set from the 1999 movie Fight Club.

• Seeking mainstream publicity heading into Wrestlemania 23, WWE has booked McMahon in a feud with Donald Trump that will culminate with a hair vs. hair match between representatives of the two blowhards on the April 1 pay-per-view show.

• Duff Doyle vs. "Mr. Intensity" Jeff McAllister headlines a Fusion Pro Wrestling show at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Red Lion Hotel, 4040 Quebec St. Guests include Mike "Simon Dean" Bucci of World Wrestling Entertainment fame as well as Ted DiBiase Jr. and Mike DiBiase. Information, call 303-564-8307 or visit .