New York — GameStop, the largest video gaming retail chain, will co-sponsor a free public event here next week by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that will include video game tournaments, custom DVD giveaways and appearances by celebrity wrestlers.

The interactive event, dubbed WrestleMania Fan Axxess Tour, will be held Jan. 25-27 at Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. Attendees can participate in WWE trivia contests; compete in SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 video game tournaments; star in their own wrestling ring “entrances,” which will be recorded as keepsake DVDs; and collect autographs from such WWE luminaries as veteran contender Ric Flair.

Other participating tour sponsors include The CW, USA Network, The SciFi Channel and THQ. The event is designed to herald WWE’s “Royal Rumble” wrestling event that will be held in New York that weekend.

In other WWE news, the company has begun offering its weekly TV wrestling events and pay-per-view specials in high definition, following a $20 million equipment upgrade at its studios in Stamford, Conn. The shows appear on the SciFi Channel and USA and The CW networks, and via cable and satellite systems worldwide.