The Local Promos on Briarbend Drive

Magnum T.A. and Tony Schiavone at the Briarbend Drive studio.
(Woody Smith Photo / Retro Charlotte / Charlotte Observer)

One of the studio locations rarely discussed here or anywhere else for that matter is the small makeshift studio on Briarbend Drive in Charlotte. Briarbend Drive is the fabled location of the offices of Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1980s.  It is 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.

But the office was also home to a small studio where 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 these 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.