Wrestlers want back into the Pentagon

Bodyslammed by critics who say its television programming is too violent and racy, World Wrestling Entertainment-the home of such luminaries as Hollywood Hulk Hogan and The Rock-is trying to get back into the ring.

Make that the Pentagon's E Ring, to be precise.

The wrestling federation has hired Charles L. Cragin, now a partner at Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley, and until June 2001 the undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, to help it win back lucrative advertising contracts with the Defense Department.

The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard had been sponsoring WrestleMania, knowing that their target recruiting audience-young people ages 18 to 24-watches such programs. But the Pentagon dropped its ads more than two years ago after the Parents Television Council, a Los Angeles-based conservative group, called on advertisers to boycott WWE.