Piledrivers and suplexes: When wrestling legends took over the WRAL anchor desk

However, if you've only lived here since the 1980s and beyond, you’ll probably have a hard time imagining wrestlers dropping a back suplex in the same spot where the anchor desk sits today.

Starting around 60 years ago, broadcasting from the same space where WRAL News anchors now bring you the news each night, a full ring of wrestlers took over each week – bringing legends like Tiger Conway, Ric Flair, Blackjack Mulligan, Wahoo McDaniel and even Andre the Giant to Raleigh.

With the death of the North Carolina native, legendary wrestling promoter Jim Crockett Jr., on Wednesday, many are feeling nostalgic for the days when wrestling took place right off Western Boulevard in Raleigh.

Crockett's wrestling company put on years of matches, broadcasting his Mid-Atlantic Wrestling promotion from inside the WRAL building.

Dick Bourne, a Mt. Airy native who specializes in the history of wrestling title belts, recalls attending a taping at WRAL.

"It was better than Disneyland," he said. "I watched wide-eyed as Bob Caudle and Rich Landrum prepared to start their shows, the cameramen took their positions, the wrestlers entered the ring so close to where we sat you could almost reach out and grab them."

Tom Gallagher and Rick Armstrong have worked at WRAL long enough to remember when wrestlers roamed the halls of the studio.

According to Gallagher, the ring was kept on a truck and set up during the six o' clock news break.

Armstrong, who began running the camera for WRAL when he was only 18, said,"It was a bit intimidating sharing our crew break-room and studios with these massive guys."

Armstrong had been a fan of wrestling since the early 70s, following tag teams like George Becker and Johnny Weaver, or Gene and Ole Anderson. However, this would be his first time being part of the action.

Bourne recalls, "The cozy confines of WRAL television studios in Raleigh NC is wrestling Mecca for me. The television studio was the place where the real magic happened."

A wrestling ring isn't the only unexpected structure to have lived in the WRAL building.

There was also once a theater for live opera productions.

A bathroom still in the building today was where the flurry of opera singers and wrestlers would converge to change into costumes and apply stage make-up.

Aside from a few black and white photos of the era, not much remains in the studio today. Studio A is almost unrecognizable from its days in wrestling.

But there was a time when legendary wrestlers – and professional opera singers – roamed the hallways of WRAL.

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