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Marshal M. Rosenthal, C&VG's US reporter, reckons Championship Wrestling brings dignity to a much-maligned sport.

Well, I'm not so sure about that. It is better than what is probably its only rival, Melbourne House's Rock 'N Wrestle.

Both games are very similar in format and presentation. You can select various exotically named grunt 'n groaners and battle it out until someone emerges triumphant. You score points by performing around twenty different moves - all controlled by the joystick and the fire button.

The action takes place in a three-dimensional ring, which allows the wrestlers a great deal of freedom to move about. Balloon insults appear above the crowd. Such as "kill", "mangle" or "get a job".

There are two playing modes, practice and competition. Up to eight people can take place in the competition mode in a knockout battle for a title belt.

Each wrestler can perform a wide variety of moves including atomic drop and body suplex, drop kick, throw, spin kick. They can throw themselves onto the ropes to enable them to rocket back into the ring, climb onto the ring posts and jump down on their opponent. Each wrestler also has a "speciality" move.

All the wrestlers enter the ring with the same amount of strength. Different moves use up varying amounts of energy. Airplane spins will sap your muscle power faster than others.

Here's a brief rundown of the grapplers you can get to grips with:

K.C. "I'll rip your ears off and feed 'em to ya" Colossus. Custom move: the trash compactor."

Purple "Ya old lady wrassies better than you" Hays. Custom move: the ghetto blaster.

Colonel "Bury you! We squash like turnip" Rooski. Custom move: great bear.

Prince "Ooooh! You look good enough to smash" Vicious. Custom move: the vicious circle.'

Zantaklaw "Mmmmm Ffffaph mmmmm phuff ffupmm". Custom move: the klaw hammer.

Zeke "When I'm dun, yet face'll be hog slop" Weasel. Custom move: the block and tackle.

The Berserker "haaarggh! Oooorowrrr... Kill!" Custom move: the pop top.

Howling "Scalps? I'm talking heads" Manslayer. Custom move: the bow and arrow.

The graphics are excellent. You get a really neat close-up of them as they pull outrageous faces - or, as in the case of Prince Vicious, outrageous pouts.

The action is fast, fun and very realistic. The only gripe is the constant reloading the disk after a bout has finished. That's very boring.