Lining the streets and bursting the box office, nearly 3,500 fans followed the allure of muscle mania, death-match divas and canned heat to the Five Flags Center in Dubuque on Sunday afternoon.

World Wrestling Entertainment held a "Smackdown: Road to Wrestlemania" event with a legion of stars -- Matt Hardy, MVP and "resident dominant animal" Batista.

"Gr-r-r-r. I love wrestling," growled Avery Cassell, of Cedar Rapids. "I'm here to see Batista. He rocks. He's the toughest individual I've ever seen and he'll waste everyone," Cassell said comically.

Judging from fans'

T-shirts and posters, Edge was a crowd pleaser.

"They like him a lot," explained Tom Kelleher, on why sons Carter, 6, and Cayge, 4, are Edge fans. "He's sort of a bad boy. The appeal? They're little boys and they like roughhousing," he said, with wife, Betsy, brother Jared and a friend, Scott Briceland, along for the afternoon.

With the subtlety of a sledgehammer, WWE has molded its minions for 60 years, mixing in-your-face with escape-from-reality entertainment.

"It's

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a good show and great entertainment," said Dubuquer Jim Driscoll. "I like the fantasy part of it."

"And he likes to see the girls," said wife, Peggy, without rancor.

Record-setting revenues of

$457 million last year appear to underscore WWE's veracity and popularity. In fact, tri-state fans paid a minimum of $20 each for the second Dubuque tour since 2006.

"I was at the one here in Dubuque last year," said 10-year-old Chase Putnam, Bellevue, Iowa. Holding a "Punk for Prez" sign, he beamed while proclaiming pro-wrestler C.M. Punk's "straight-edge" virtues.

"I like that he's drug-free," Putnam said. "He puts 'em all to sleep."

Like Putnam, many patrons were young boys elbowing each other alongside family members. In contrast, a few father-daughter combinations waited in the wings.

"It's her birthday present," said Justin Scott, who brought 7-year-old daughter, Alexis. "I watch it on TV, and she started watching it with me. She likes the Undertaker."

"One time I just went upstairs and my brother, Anthony, was watching wrestling on TV," said

5-year-old Natasha McLane, explaining how her wrestling penchant began. "Then I like watched it, you know? And I liked it," she said, holding a Batista sign while squinting in the afternoon sun.

"I've got like 10,000 wrestling toys," brother Anthony, 9, said with eyes rolling over his little sister's exuberance. "She only has like one action figure left that isn't broken."

Guadalupe Becerra drove the two from Waterloo, Iowa.

"They really like it," Becerra said. "She wanted to come here," referring to Natasha.