I remember a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

Whoops, wrong introduction. I remember back when I was a tiny McSuck, growing up watching Superstars and Wrestling Challenge (my parents would rarely let me stay up late® to watch Primetime Wrestling on monday nights). The shows would mainly consist of the following...

3-5 Squash Matches
MAYBE 1 Midcarder vs. Midcarder match
PPV Updates
Debuting Wrestler Vignettes

and last, but certainly not least, The Event Center.

The Event Center was used for over a decade to hype house shows coming to your local area. Every week, you would get promos from several of the wrestlers treatening bodily harm on their scheduled opponents.

What was great about these, was, that you would almost always get great promos from guys like Jake Roberts or Randy Savage, and every week be treated to something so bad it's funny, like any Tugboat promo. Also, the Event Center was sometimes used to hpy upcoming PPV's, especially if they were in your idea.

Sadly, by 1996, the WWF had done away with these, and would also soon stop advertising events in local newspapers. But I say it now, I will have fond memories of Sean Mooney, Todd Pettengill, Ray Rougeau, Stan Lane, and a host of others trying to convince me to visit Madison Square Garden, the Nassau Coliseum, and other local arenas to see the WWF Live.

I was just thinking about those the other day. How it would be better for WWE to put these in their syndicated shows.

The closest the WWE has come to ever doing that again was advertising a show last year (I think the Ft. Myers show where Carlito was injured) with a Main Event of the Undertaker vs. JBL & Orlando Jordan in a Handicap Casket Match.

First time in years WWE advertised on T.V. like that (I mean out of nowhere and not on their own stations) since 2000 when they ran the same promo featuring the DX people, Austin, Kane, etc etc.

In addition to the local hype, alot of folks forget that the Event Centers were instrumental to the feuds and shit. They were also rather low-key, with someone like Ken Resnick, Craig DeGeorge and Sean Mooney talking about upcoming matches and feuds. It wasn't some dumb hick in a cowboy hat screaming "By GAWD, that..that.. that DAMN Triple H just SCREWED him all to HELL". They had a somewhat distinguished presentation format, something that's missed today. Whose opinion would hold more weight-- a guy in a tux, calmly talking about stuff, or some guy in neon leotards with a crown making stupid sex jokes?

The segments would also set the table for the next few months of stroylines. Right after WM5, segments aired about the Anvil and Barbarian badmouthing each other. The two had a house show feud that ran through most of the late spring into the summer of 89. It also told ya' "oh, I guess the Harts are broken up, again". From what I've heard, the Hogan vs. Kamala, Hogan vs. Race, Hogan vs. OMG and Hogan vs. Killer Khan feuds were only mentioned in the Event Center segments, not the regular programming.

Sometimes, one of those "feud table setters" would reveal something weird. I remember watching a bunch on Prime Time in June 89. Andre and Heenan came on, claiming Andre was "the only real giant in the WWF". No mention of Andre's then-current rival, Big John Studd. When the show ended and NO Studd promos had aired, I concluded (accruately) that Studd had left the WWF. Also, right after WM4, Harley Race and Jake Roberts cut some promos at each other. The program never got off the ground obviously, but it shows you that the severity of Race's injury wasn't known until April 88 (alot of recaps sites like to tell you that Race injured himself when he hit the table in a mid-March SNME and immediately retired...despite the fact that Race participated in WM4 in late March and that the Fed had plans for him after the event). There was also George Steele's AWESOME promo for an upcoming Denver Auditorium Arena match against Mr. Fuji.

But, I have two foul memories of the Events Center. The first was back in April 1986, when I first got into the WWF. For weeks, they had been promoting a big Jake Roberts-Ricky Steamboat at the Auditorium Arena. The date passed, but I faithfully tuned into the WWF the next weekend--surely they'd tell us all about what had happened at that BIG MATCH.(As a wee lad, I had assumed that Steamboat and Roberts were having thier BIG MATCH only in Denver. Nowhere else). But no update...no mention of what had happened with Jake and Ricky..or who had won that big Dream Tream-Bulldogs tag title match! Nothing at all. I felt ripped off. Then, Resnick went right into hyping ANOTHER card for next month.. which AGAIN featured Roberts and Steamboat. I think I stopped watching after that (Well,until Nov 87 when I accidentally saw some REAL matches on TV).

Second time was right in the middle of my all-out mark days. It was about two weeks before SummerSlam 88 and Sean Mooney came on to hype a September card at the Auditorium. One of the matches announced: Ultimate Warrior vs. HonkyTonk Man for the IC title. Well, so much for that "Mystery Opponent" at SummerSlam. Fuck you, Mooney.

They should've had a graphic that says "Spoiler Alert" flashing on the screen while Mooney rambled about the match. :P