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Pastimes : Professional Wrestling, WWF and WCW Stocks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jonathan Lebed who wrote (2)	9/30/1998 4:17:00 PM
From: Jonathan Lebed	Respond to of 48

Wrestling Fever Seizes Consumers; Wrestling Videos Grab Spots on Top Ten Listsat Musicland MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- A wrestling frenzy is taking retailers by storm, and the phenomenon is not unique to any one store. For example, more than 400 fans flocked to face World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) "Sting" at Suncoast Motion Picture Company in Cincinnati, Ohio in mid-September. During the event, fans received autographs and purchased a plethora of related videos, posters and t-shirts. Consumer purchases of diverse wrestling merchandise at stores owned by Musicland Stores Corporation (NYSE: MLG), including Sam Goody/Musicland, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, Media Play and On Cue stores may have pushed wrestling videos onto store top 10 lists. Figures show that for the past nine weeks World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and WCW merchandise has dominated store best-seller lists. For example, in the first half of September at Sam Goody/Musicland stores as many as four wrestling videos appeared on the retailer's weekly top 10 list of best-selling videos at Sam Goody/Musicland. At On Cue, as many as five wrestling videos appeared on a weekly top 10 list of best-selling videos. The success of the videos at both stores even have bumped popular video titles such as Grease, Happy Gilmore and Disney's Black Cauldron from weekly top 10 lists. "Consumers are attracted to the power and drama of wrestling," said Betty Lyke, licensing coordinator for Musicland Stores Corporation. "Wrestling's proud fans are die-hards. They act on their loyalty by purchasing not only videos, but also posters, t-shirts, hats, action figures and even 8x10 framed art of their favorite wrestlers." At Suncoast stores, three different WWF t-shirts appeared among the stores' 25 best-selling t-shirts in the beginning of September. During the same period at On Cue, wrestling posters dominated category sales with five of the top 10 posters related to the WWF and WCW. WWF action figures, and WWF and WCW video games are among the top-sellers an Media Play and On Cue stores. An 8x10 framed photo of the WWF's Steve Austin appeared among the top 10 products in its category at all of Musicland's stores. Based in Minneapolis, Musicland Stores Corporation is the leading specialty retailer of home-entertainment software products in the United States. As of June 30, 1998, the company operated 1,341 retail stores in 49 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom under the names Sam Goody/Musicland, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, Media Play and On Cue. SOURCE Musicland Stores Corporation CO: Musicland Stores Corporation ST: Minnesota IN: REA ENT SPT SU: 09/30/98 14:03 EDT prnewswire.com