PITTSBURGH -- Running down the NHL's greatest comeback ... in Mario's house? Now, that's what you call a bad guy.

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World Wrestling Federation heavyweight champion and Mount Lebanon native Kurt Angle may be in just his second year with the promotion, but he sure knows how to play his role.

He opened up the WWF's live, nationally televised "Raw Is War" show Monday night at Mellon Arena by telling the crowd how great it was to be back in Pittsburgh -- then promptly turned the cheers to boos by talking smack on Mario Lemieux's on-ice return to the Penguins.

"Like all Pittsburgh comebacks," Angle said of Le Magnifique, "it will eventually fail and ultimately be pointless."

Naturally, the script called for the bad guy to be put in his place. Crowd favorite The Rock did the honors, shooting down Angle's prediction and showing his notoriously bad Pizza Outlet commercials from years past on the WWF's big-screen replay set.

Drawing heat from the fans by busting on local favorites is nothing new in the pro wrestling world. Former champ Bret Hart once told a Pittsburgh crowd that the United States needed an enema -- and the Steel City was a perfect place to stick the hose.

With comments such as those, one would think that a homegrown hero would be a natural favorite, but the exact opposite is true. Angle -- a 1987 Mount Lebanon High School graduate who never misses an opportunity to brag about the wrestling gold medal he won at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta -- routinely draws some of the biggest boos when the WWF comes to town.

And those catcalls were pretty loud on Monday: Brisk walk-up sales made the show a sellout in its return to Pittsburgh.

WTAE-TV's Shawn Yancy even found youngsters ditching class and lining up at the arena early in the day, hoping to catch a glance of performers as they arrived. The favorites among the pre-teen set? Lita for the guys, and The Hardy Boyz for the girls.

The Federation tour moves on to Cleveland for a "Smackdown!" television taping on Tuesday, but Angle is scheduled to return to town the following day for a ceremony at Mount Lebanon High.