Posing proudly for a snapshot with a glittery championship belt, Seigi Nishiyama was among some 600 wrestling fans packed into a Tokyo theater who can't get enough of World Wrestling Entertainment.

"The stories are so much more detailed compared with Japanese wrestling — it's like watching a movie," the 34-year-old food manufacturing employee said Sunday.

The WWE is famous in the United States for its brand of pro wrestling, a kind of simulated sport and performing art that combines the physical nature of wrestling with elaborate soap-opera-like story lines and larger-than-life characters with names like the Undertaker and Rey Mysterio.

The WWE's big push to market itself in Japan is nowhere clearer than at events like Sunday's SummerSlam Festival, a raucous party that charges fans a ¥3,500 admission fee to watch recorded WWE pay-per-view events on giant video screens.

The videos can also be watched at home, but going to events gives fans things they can't find in their living rooms — such as guest wrestlers flown in from the U.S., booths selling WWE T-shirts and key chains as well as plenty of camaraderie with a niche but seriously dedicated crowd.

The U.S. firm, based in Stamford, Conn., racks up annual global pay-per-view sales of $100 million. It won't disclose regional breakdowns, but it sees Japan as one of its most important overseas markets.

The latest push is spearheaded by the WWE's Japan office, which opened earlier this year and is its only overseas office devoted to a single nation.

The office hopes to woo Japanese newcomers, including teens and families, to the entertainment genre — not just its usual fan base of 20- to 40-year-olds.

It remains to be seen whether the WWE can follow in the footsteps of earlier successful American imports, including Hollywood movies, hip-hop music and Disneyland.

Japan has its own brand of professional wrestling that is less outrightly fictional than WWE. The WWE is open about how no real fighting is involved. But Japanese wrestling is historically inspired by its American counterpart and boasts its own heroes and themes.

WWE's only Japanese superstar, 40-year-old Shoichi Funaki, who goes by the ring name Funaki, acknowledged Japanese are just starting to enjoy WWE — with all its boisterous exchanges and flamboyance, complete with heckling.

"Japanese fans are changing," he said. "The key is to give them more opportunities to watch WWE. If they see it, they'll get it."

Funaki said working with the WWE requires him to sell his created character to fans as a full-fledged entertainer, not just an athlete, as well as more obvious challenges, including mastering English and staying in top-notch shape.

The WWE's weekly TV shows — called "Raw," "SmackDown" and "ECW," for Extreme Championship Wrestling — feature ongoing story lines, each with their set of characters. Pay-per-view events like SummerSlam unveil the climax of the tales. The stories then take a new turn and continue toward the next climax.

"Even if you've never watched it before, you can jump in and start watching because it's good versus evil," said Ed Wells, vice president and general manager of WWE Japan. "We always refer to ourselves as sports entertainment. We created that genre in the U.S. and it's something that we are now, as of this year, taking really worldwide."

Takayuki Hioki of Sports Marketing Japan, which runs the WWE's Internet and mobile businesses in Japan, said the WWE can grow popular in the same way U.S. Major League Baseball has caught on with Japanese baseball fans.

The WWE mobile Web site, which offers ring tones, screen wallpaper and video clips, already has 35,000 users in Japan who pay ¥300 a month for the service, Hioki said.

Atsushi Oonita, a Japanese wrestler who is not with the WWE and as a former legislator is a respected social figure in Japan, said the WWE can boost its chances for success by making cultural adjustments such as headhunting stars who appeal to Japanese tastes — perhaps a sumo champ.

But Oonita, a former Upper House member of the Liberal Democratic Party, was hopeful WWE's arrival would boost the overall popularity of wrestling, which he believes is getting bashed by combat sports such as K-1 mixed martial arts.

"Japanese are a very suppressed people. And so it takes a special kind of performance skill to fire up their passion. You can't overdo it," he said. "But I wish WWE all the best."