Tough to pin down

What's the story behind the WWE? Wrestlers coming this weekend offer a few clues

To witness a WWE news conference is to set aside normalcy and bear-hug the surreal, because if you don't buy into it, you might as well be home watching Rachael Ray.

Take this from wrestler Ken Kennedy, responding to a heckler who sounded about 10 years old.

"Yeah, apparently I don't suck, because I've got this and you don't," Kennedy screamed, pointing to his World Wrestling Entertainment United States Championship belt.

"So shut up. And brush your teeth."

It's been more than six years since the WWE brought one of its marquee pay-per-view events to Raleigh. But Sunday, "WWE Smackdown Presents: No Mercy" will emanate live from the RBC Center. Wrestlers were shipped in to promote it with a news conference Monday from a restaurant inside the arena.

Area fans were invited to attend, and about 80 showed up, with moms and dads taking advantage of a Wake County Schools teacher workday. Wrestlers such as King Booker, Batista and Lashley hammed it up for the cameras like on TV. The conference was broadcast live on WWE.com.

The set-up was like news conferences before boxing title fights, complete with a moussey-haired announcer introducing each of the wrestlers, who took to the microphone to say a few words. Good guys sat on the right; bad guys on the left. You could see a lot of pointing and menacing glances, and Kennedy even knocked over a water bottle in a fit of "anger."

Fans took turns taunting the wrestlers, including one man who let loose with this: "Go back to Johnston County!"

It's true -- at least one of No Mercy's storylines is based in fact. Gregory Helms has a house in Smithfield and grew up in Raleigh and Wendell and attended East Wake High School. On Sunday, Helms, the WWE Cruiserweight Champion, will defend his title against Matt Hardy, who hails from Cameron.

After the 30-minute conference ended and fans were escorted from the room, wrestlers stuck around to speak with media. Kennedy's mood picked up considerably, and he ran through promos for a rock radio station in Greensboro, screaming things like "You're listening to the Buzzard!"

To intensify the Helms/Hardy pre-match buildup, the WWE has emphasized the North Carolina boys' lengthy friendship, which over the years has morphed into an in-the-ring hatred. They have wrestled each other numerous times, working their way up from North Carolina's minor leagues to the WWE. In his remarks from the podium, Hardy mentioned the pair's long-ago matches in the Berkeley Cafe, a restaurant-bar in downtown Raleigh. Helms gave Hardy dirty looks and talked down his opponent's talent.

But with the fans gone, Hardy and Helms calmed down a bit. Helms compared coming up in the wrestling business to a young rock 'n' roll band slugging it out in the clubs, working toward a big break. He and Hardy earned theirs, wrestling in bars and high-school gyms.

All those years of blows to the head apparently haven't affected his financial acumen. Yes, Helms has a house in Johnston County, as he answered the unasked question of why a big-time wrestler might live in Smithfield instead someplace like Raleigh.

You get more for your money there, he said.