The Tampa Sportatorium was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

studio used by

Championship Wrestling from Florida Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) was the corporate and brand name of the Tampa, Florida wrestling office existing from 1961, when Eddie Graham first bought into the promotion, until 1987, when it closed down. It is also referred to as ...

. The former television studio building may be demolished for a new building. Located at 106 N Albany Ave near downtown

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

, the 7,500-square-foot

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

building was used for television tapings at 11am on Thursdays, which would air on the following Sundays. Tampa native

Hulk Hogan Terry Eugene Bollea (; born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is widely regarded as the most recognized wrestling star worldwide and the most popular wrestler of the 19 ...

attended shows at the Sportatorium as a teenager and recalled that the studio could not fit more than 50 people in it and that it was not

air conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

despite Florida's often warm, subtropical, and humid climate. To make the room seem bigger to the television audience, the walls were painted black.

Dory Funk Jr. Dorrance Earnest Funk (born February 3, 1941), known professionally as Dory Funk Jr., is an American retired professional wrestler and wrestling trainer. The son of Dory Funk (Dorrance Wilhelm Funk) and brother of Terry Funk, he was the promoter ...

praised the content to come out of the building, stating: "The Sportatorium was small, but the television it produced was so good." The upstairs of the building was used as an office by company executives

Eddie Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle * Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...

and Mike Graham and Jim Barnett. Championship Wrestling from Florida closed in 1987 and the Graham family sold the building a few years later. A textile factory occupied the building for many years, until a foreclosure saw it go on auction in 2016. In 2020, it was purchased by a Miami-based development group.

References

{{Championship Wrestling from Florida Buildings and structures in Tampa, Florida Championship Wrestling from Florida