Plenty of Style but No Substance in Anaheim

So this is how and when Olympic gymnasts celebrate Halloween: Rent a big room on Super Bowl Eve, dress up in hokey costumes, dance to loud rock music, give away bags of free candy and draw up an invitation list that snubs last summer’s most popular girl.

Saturday night’s Reese’s International Gymnastics Cup at the Anaheim Convention Center featured Chris Waller vamping in a vampire cape, Lilia Podkopayeva dancing in a black cowboy hat, John Roethlisberger mugging in a propeller beanie and Shaquille O’Neal jersey, John Macready tossing candy to the crowd, but no Kerri Strug, who committed the unpardonable sin of committing to the wrong post-Olympic tour.

Only members of the John Hancock tour were invited to the Reese’s International Cup, so named because a Russian and a Ukrainian showed up and because the event’s sponsor manufactures peanut butter cups.

Six of the seven U.S. gymnasts who won the women’s team gold medal in Atlanta signed up with the Hancock tour; only Strug opted for the rival World Gold tour, so USA Gymnastics, which sanctions the Hancock Tour, declined to invite Strug, currently attending classes just up the freeway at UCLA.

“Official” explanations for the non-invitation were as imaginative as the on-floor costuming.

“Kerri still has a really bad ankle,” said Kathy Scanlan, president of USA Gymnastics.

“Logistically, it was easier to bring together all the people on the John Hancock tour,” said Luan Peszek, USA Gymnastics director of public relations.

“Kerri’s now an assistant coach at UCLA and I think there might be NCAA restrictions preventing her from being here,” said Bela Karolyi, Strug’s former coach.

Or, Karolyi hypothesized, “maybe UCLA has a meet this weekend and Kerri has to be with the team.”

So, before a crowd of 4,028, the Magnificent Seven Minus One pressed on, not so much competing as frolicking on the floor, hamming it up for a made-for-TV production highlighted by competitors hugging judges and judges throwing around 10.0 scores as if they were miniature chocolate bars.

Format for the event was gymnastics “doubles”--eight men and eight women teamed up as pairs and given gimmicky titles such as “Dominique Dominators” (Moceanu and Dawes) and “Grumpy Old Men” (over-30ers Paul O’Neill and Dmitri Bilozerchev).

“Championship” trophies went to the the women’s team of Shannon Miller and Amy Chow (“Gym Blossoms” was their handle) and the all-UCLA men’s team of Waller and Chainey Umphrey.

Waller and Umphrey scored 39.95 out of possible 40.00--three scores of 10.0 and one of 9.95--with Waller especially impressing the judges with his high-bar routine. For that one, Waller shaved his head, donned a Dracula cape and twisted and twirled above the bars to the accompaniment of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.”

“First time I’ve ever done that,” said Waller, rubbing his stubbled scalp in the interview room. Waller had a full head of hair for his first exercise, the still rings, but decided to give 100% for his trophy-clinching finale.

“Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins meets ‘Interview with the Vampire,’ ” was Waller’s description of his high-bar act. “That was the theme. . . . For 10 years, I have been a conservative gymnast, doing everything just the right way. Tonight, I just wanted to shock people.”

That was the theme for the evening--style over substance, and highly encouraged from every corner of the mat.

“Everybody’s used to walking into a gymnastics competition at the Olympics, looking at the judge to put up his hand and go,” Umphrey said. “That’s not as fun or as entertaining as putting on a show, which is what we did tonight.

“More drama. More fun. This is the same thing ice skating’s done. They’ve taken their sport from a stiff, compulsory thing to something exciting and fun, something you want to come home to, turn on and watch over dinner.”

By extravaganza’s end, even a purist like Steve Nunno, Miller’s personal coach, was grudgingly won over.

“I was a little skeptical at first, when they started out with these circus routines,” Nunno said. “But it got better and better. These are great gymnasts doing classy routines. They want to have fun too.”