While not a studio where actual wrestling
matches were taped, the makeshift studio at the offices of Jim Crockett
Promotions on Briarbend Drive in Charlotte served an equally important
purpose: the taping of the many local promo segments for the various TV
markets.
421 Briarbend Drive is the fabled address
of the offices of Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1980s. The old 7-Eleven
building where the Crockett offices were once housed is no longer there.
However, it holds its own special place in wrestling lore: not only was
it the HQ for Jim Crockett Promotions and the site of the local promo
tapings, it was also the scene of an infamous angle where the Four
Horsemen jumped Dusty Rhodes in a parking lot in the months leading up
to Starrcade '86.
The office was home to a small studio, or
basically a big storage area converted into a studio. Here the local
promotional spots were taped each Tuesday. The spots were inserted into
the syndicated "Mid-Atlantic/NWA Pro Wrestling" and "World Wide
Wrestling" programs that were sent to markets across the territory, and
later across the country.
Earlier, during the years the Crockett TV
shows were taped at WRAL in Raleigh and WPCQ in Charlotte, the local
promos were taped there in those same studios. But once Crockett moved
his TV tapings out into the arenas in July of 1983 with the mobile
production unit known as NEMO, they set up the small studio at Briarbend
to do the marathon promo sessions there.
Tony Schiavone was the primary host of these promo sessions, but others
hosted as well including David Crockett, Jackie Crockett, Big Bill Ward,
and others.
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