WRESTLING WITH A NEW IDEA.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

And now for something truly different, something absolutely spectacular, we return to the world's oldest and greatest sport. All spruced up and ready for its professional debut.

Real, live (OK, not exactly live), honest-to-Dan Gable wrestling.

True professional wrestling coming via the tube.

Not the stuff of Gorgeous George and Hulk Hogan. Not choreographed stunts and over-the-top theatrics.

It's wrestlers from the finest collegiate programs in the country. Olympic wrestlers. World-class wrestlers.

The best wrestlers in the United States actually getting paid to do what they've always done for the simple love of their sport.

It's risky. It's questionable. And very much needed for the long-neglected sport.

``It's something that can complement our Olympic athlete,'' said Gable, the best wrestler and wrestling coach in U.S. history. ``At that level, there are only a certain number of them that can stay on and be effective and train.

``They don't really have a lot of ways to get competition or make a living. We need more opportunities for our post-collegiate wrestlers.''

So here comes Real Pro Wrestling, debuting at noon Sunday on PAX TV, with rebroadcasts Wednesdays on Fox Sports Net.

It's part freestyle, part Greco-Roman, a little Hollywood and all television. It's blaring rock 'n' roll, a raised circular wrestling mat and TV replays, all played out in a Roman Coliseum-inspired studio set in front of a small live audience.

Wrestling like you've always seen, and like you probably never imagined.

The nine-week series incorporates almost every significant wrestler in the country and was the brainchild, and gamble, of two former Northwestern wrestling teammates, Toby Willis and Matt Case.

Their league is a combination of a dream and old-fashioned capitalism.

``One hundred percent of both,'' Willis said. ``I really think there is vast untapped potential in the world of wrestling. It's the perfect capitalism. Somebody who sees an opportunity and addresses a need.

``And our guys work way too had not to get paid for it.''

Willis lost six brothers and sisters, and nearly his parents, in a tragic 1996 car accident that resulted in a federal investigation and $100 million settlement to the Willis family.

Willis, 34, and his father decided to use some of that money to begin a professional league for wrestlers. And it wouldn't be wrestling if it had gone smoothly.

Sunday's unveiling has been almost five years in the making.

``We didn't know what to do,'' Willis said. ``We just plowed away with a plan, and sooner or later we're going to hit the right path. In some places we have, in others we're still pounding our way through the jungle.

``But we're convinced wrestling can go big-time and when people see our show they'll realize this is way, way overdue.''

The league consists of eight teams, including the California Claw. Most of the nine-week series was filmed during an October weekend at a Los Angeles studio.

Then the day after Christmas, with Willis in post production in Nashville, Tenn., his home and studio were burned down. So were his tapes.

Backup tapes were located, and Willis moved ahead.

``That's when I knew they were really committed,'' Gable said. ``I'm surprised they have weathered some of the storms they've had. That makes me feel they're not in it for the short run.''

Gable serves as an adviser to RPW and helps with marketing. Gardner also is advising and doing some commentating.

Initially, wrestlers will earn modest amounts. Total prize money for this first series is $250,000. Willis said wrestlers averaged about $6,000 in earnings from the weekend.

``It's not a lot to start off with, but I had a lot of the wrestlers come up and say, 'Toby, we'll do this for free. We're not wrestling for the money. We're in it because we love the sport,' '' Willis said.

``I told them, 'I know you will guys will, but I'm going to pay you anyway.' Because that's what this is about, taking wrestling off welfare, off 'give me a handout so I keep training,' to being a job where they're earning their money.''

The number of wrestling programs at the collegiate and high school levels has been shrinking for the past 20 years, though Gable said it has started to rebound the past decade.

At the international level, the Olympics cut back on weight classes, from 10 to seven.

Prospects for even the world-class wrestlers produced in the U.S. have been limited. Only the top three at each weight class receive minimal financial support from USA Wrestling. And there are few opportunities to compete against top-level competition.

Most wrestlers, even when returning from the Olympics, work outside jobs. They try to get into coaching or are forced to go into nontraditional wrestling competitions, like Ultimate Fighting or the Hulk Hogan route.

A major obstacle for RPW to overcome is the public perception of wrestling as the staged and showy spectacle that has been broadcast on television and pay-for-view for years.

Gable said he has nothing against the kind of show provided by The Rock and Hogan.

``I don't have a problem with that,'' he said. ``It's a total different avenue. It's not a competition, not something that's going to prepare you for Olympic competition. It's basically an entertainment move and there's good money in it.''

Willis calls it ``fake martial arts'' but admires the production involved and admits to borrowing some elements for his own league. Still, he is trying to promote RPW as honest, traditional wrestling and not that of the theatrical variety.

``We've gone to great lengths to distance ourselves from that stuff,'' he said. ``When somebody asks you if you've been thrown out of a ring, it's a little embarrassing.''

Willis said professional wrestling leagues are also under way in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, and he easily envisions a day when there is a true international league.

For now, there is a skeptical U.S. public to win over.

``This is our first step up a large staircase,'' Willis said.

Wrestling's new world steps on the mat Sunday.

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Photo:

Legendary college wrestling coach Dan Gable said he thinks the new Real Pro Wrestling league featuring world-class competitors is a good idea.

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images