Wrestling's grappling for your dough

By GLENN COLE -- Toronto Sun Another weekend, another in the seemingly endless series of pay-per-view wrestling shows.

The WWF's King of the Ring goes tomorrow night (Viewer's choice, 8 p.m.) and while you would think it might feature something special, this one looks ho-hum even though Stone Cold Steve Austin is meeting the evil McMahons in a handicap match. That one only is interesting because most people want to see Austin pound the McMahons into powder.

By the way, the WWF plans to do away with it's In Your House PPVs and basically run 12 of what it calls "major pay-per-views" a year. Meaning it wants you to believe all of its shows are vitally important and to grab more of your cash.

Wrestlemania and SummerSlam still are the big ones because of their tradition. They are the must-sees, if there is such a thing in wrestling.

GIMMICK FAILS: Just to show that not everything Vince McMahon touches turns to gold, Beaver Cleavage has been dropped, joining the likes of Outback Jack, Red Rooster, The Goon, T.J. Plumber, Dr. Issac Yankem, the Human Oddities and a few more characters that haven't worked. Remember when they tried to turn One Man Gang into something completely different (Hakeem)? ... Shane Douglas, who was scheduled to fight Too Cold Scorpio last night in London, did not show up on WCW's Nitro as many had speculated he would. He's a tough man to pin down ... In case you missed it, (Psycho) Sid Vicious is back in the WCW, but unless you watch Nitro, you won't see him much. He doesn't have to appear at house shows or on Thunder ... The WCW does work in mysterious ways. When it was here in March, it was announced WCW would be back on Sept. 1 at the Air Canada Centre. It won't be. The WCW September calendar shows Port Huron, Mich., will be the site of that card. Funny thing, though. They didn't bother to tell anybody ... Brian (Too Sexy) Christopher could be out up to six months because of ACL surgery ... With Mankind (knee) and Goldust (back) on the sidelines, the WWF roster is looking mighty thin and it makes one wonder how it is going to fulfill all of its house-show commitments as well as its TV shows, including Smackdown, which makes its debut on the UPN network this fall.

WATCH WHAT YOU SAY: Konnan is in a little hot water with his fellow WCW wrestlers for saying the organization had become stale and there were cliques in the group. No news there, but the WCW brass didn't want to see it in USA Today where it recently appeared ... A new women's wrestling group, WOW, will be based out of Great Western Forum in Los Angeles ... Vince McMahon sloughed off comments by Jesse (The Governor) Ventura and Bret (Hitman) Hart concerning the state of wrestling in his typical style during a recent TV interview on NBC ... No shock: rapper Master P has been a flop in WCW ... Is Chris Jericho now leaning toward staying with WCW?

HERE AND THERE: The AWF will be sending some of its stars to work the Ring 'n' Ears show at the Opera House, 735 Queen St. E. on July 10. Featured on the card are maniacal Bloody Bill Scullion -- the King of the Death Match Tournament; AWF champion Ms. B. Haven; The Squeegee Kid; and Sheik Abdul Mustafa. Bell time is 8 p.m. ... CWA has a show today at 2 p.m. at the McCormick Community Centre, 66 Sheridan Ave., featuring Ricky (Soulman) Johnson. Following the show there will be a community barbecue ... The next CWA show at Medieval Times is Aug. 10. Scheduled to appear are Sabu against Too Cold Scorpio.