Wrestlers Visit NYSE Floor
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
.c The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- The bulls and bears of Wall Street met the muscle-shirted men of World Championship Wrestling Thursday, touching off a stampede of autograph seekers at an increasingly publicity-conscious New York Stock Exchange.
Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page, Lex Lugar, Kevin Nash and other men of the ring wore their wrestling suits onto the exchange floor after the market had dropped nearly 200 points late in the morning.
Their appearance was a mammoth publicity stunt for credit cards featuring their likenesses that are being offered in a deal between Capital One Bank and World Championship Wrestling, which is part of the programming of the Turner Broadcasting System Inc.
During their half-hour visit to the floor, the wrestlers were surrounded by traders, brokers and securities order runners on the fast-paced NYSE floor.
They signed dozens of autographs and posed for photographs taken by clerks who had brought cardboard instant cameras to jobs that are so frantic that some of their lunches consisted of hot dogs eaten in three bites.
''It's nice to be back in the city that Hollywood built,'' Hogan shouted at one point during the day's festivities.
Among those standing in line for autographs was Richard Rizzuto, a floor broker at the exchange who had brought his two sons, Matthew, 10, and Mark, 9.
''They've been going crazy over these guys all summer,'' Rizzuto said.
He said it seemed publicity events were occurring outside the exchange several days a week of late. ''The exchange is going for an out front image. It's good publicity,'' Rizzuto said.
AP-NY-10-01-98 1823EDT |
