It turns out that NHL hockey and professional wrestling have a lot in common, though Thrashers forward Eric Perrin isn't inclined to trade his hockey skates for wrestling boots any time soon after getting a taste of the wrestling world on Monday when the WWE was in town for a live event at Philips Arena.

"They go from one city to the other, night after night. What a life, for 365 days of the year," Perrin said of the WWE schedule that has no off-season and thus no down time to recover from injuries. "They're gone all the time. To find the time and the energy and the motivation. It's incredible. They give a great show every night. Every city gets the best out of them. I don't think there would be many married hockey players if our schedule was like that. Just being on the road takes a lot out of somebody. Than add in the whole entertainment part and what they do every night. It's crazy."

Perrin, defenseman Garnet Exelby, and forward Erik Christensen got a chance to get an up-close look at what goes into a WWE production on Monday night when they took in a WWE taping and a live episode of Monday Night RAW, the longest running episodic program on TV. All three players watched wrestling as kids and teenagers with Christensen being a fan of Bill Goldberg and the old WCW, Exelby a late-90's WWE fan from the Rock's prime years and Perrin more of an old-school connoisseur from the era of Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Jimmy the Superfly Snuka.

Before the event the trio of Thrashers, as well as Perrin's wife and daughter, went down into the depths of Philips Arena ad got a first-hand look at the organized chaos behind a professional wrestling show. The hallways on the locker room level, normally relatively calm during a hockey game, were jam packed with impromptu sets, offices, dressing rooms, and wrestlers of all sizes rehearsing their lines for the upcoming show. The Thrashers were there to meet WWE Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho and to present him with one of the team's new third jerseys, but for Erik Christensen half of the treat was getting to see the backstage area.

"I wanted to come down and see how other professional athletes live," said the Edmonton, Alberta native. " I know people are interested in our day-to-day lives both in and out of hockey, so I wanted to see what it takes to put on a show like this. Just like our business it's part of the entertainment industry and to see what goes into the production is just amazing. It's not just the wrestlers, but everything else too. There are so many people behind the scenes, putting stages together, getting things ready. It's a lot of effort."

After checking out what was going on behind the scenes the group headed to the Thrashers locker room where they were introduced to Chris Jericho, who is not only th reigning WWE Heavyweight Champion and avid NHL fan, but also the son of Ted Irvine, who played 724 games in the NHL for the Bruins, Kings, Rangers and Blues in the 1960's and '70's. Irvine scored 154 goals in his career but never won the Stanley Cup. His Rangers came up short against the Bruins in the 1972 Finals and according to Jericho his father still won't allow himself to touch the Stanley Cup, saying he didn't earn the right.

Jericho was only six years old when his father retired from the NHL so he didn't fully appreciate what his dad did for a living until he was a bit older.

"It was just like, oh that's my dad and he plays in the NHL. It was like he was a plumber or something. Then when I got to about 15 or 16 I realized how cool it was."

They say that hockey fans are among the most internet savvy of all sports fans and thanks to the efforts of vintage NHL film collectors Jericho has been able to watch some his father's finer moments online.

"What's really cool now is that with the advent of YouTube I can go online and see some of his fights and some of his good goals. He was a good player. He scored over 150 goals."

As a hockey fan Jericho wouldn't mind seeing more effort go into marketing the NHL's more colorful characters. Afterall, he shot to fame in the WWE in part because of his charismatic persona and ability to draw in the fans. And who are some of the game's greatest characters from days gone by?

"It's funny because over the years I remember when in Winnipeg Shawn Cronin came in," Jericho recounted. "He wasn't a great skater but he beat the crap out of everybody and he was called Cronin the Barbarian. That season I think it was 1989-90, he was the hero of the team. And then there were guys like Tie Domi, Tiger Williams, Keith Magnuson, Jerry Korab, Dave Schultz- just the crazy goons over the years that everyone knew, and they were kind of the villains. When they came to your town you booed them."

And it's not just the fighters that Jericho had a soft spot for. There were the super-pests too.

"I remember when Theo Fleury came into Winnipeg everyone hated him because he was a little disturber. Essa Tikanen and guys like that, right? I don't think you have as much of that now. It was always cool with hockey being a team sport when you had these individual guys- obviously Gretzky, Lemiuex, the Hawerchuks- that were so good that you knew them. But it was always fun to see the muckers, the grinders, and the fighters. Those were always the heroes, the unsung heroes of the game. I think we could use a few more of those guys because it makes it more entertaining when you know these guys. "

For his part, Garnet Exelby agrees with the WWE superstar that playing up personalities could help sell the game, and it's not surprising given that two of his favorite wrestlers were The Rock and Jericho, who are both known for their outlandish personas.
 

"I'd like to see [more emphasis on personalities] personally," explained the rugged defenseman who has shown a flare for the comedic lately by posing as Ron Burgundy in an in-game promotional video.

"Sean Avery, as much as people around the league don't agree with his outburts, at one point he said that hockey needs bad guys. Wrestling has good guys and bad guys and everyone has their unique personalities and they really sell that part of it in wrestling. To a certain extent that would help the game of hockey because the on-ice product is great. When people get to games they can see that. But what we're missing in our sport is that people don't get to know the characters off the ice. A lot of fans around the league don't recognize players when they take their helmets off. If we can fix that it would help the sport more."

Perhaps by taking a page out of professional wrestling's book the NHL can take a step in that direction, though it's not likely that the league or the players will be asking for a WWE travel schedule any time soon.