Check Out These Vintage Photos of a 1988 WWF Event in Utica

Ah, the '80s. Such a different time. It was the last full decade with no internet. Cellular phones were something you just saw occasionally in movies, when an evil businessman was being portrayed. And the '80s gave rise to the pop culture phenomenon known as professional wrestling.

Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan helped take pro wrestling -- the once-niche carnival sideshow attraction -- into the mainstream with a series of strategic business maneuvers. McMahon, using Hogan as his megastar, made wrestling "cool" with cartoons, action figures and network TV specials. But the linchpin of the wrestling business has always been the live event-- when WWF came to your town, it was a big deal. And in the glory days of the WWF, they would come to the Utica fairly regularly.

Now a billion dollar global media enterprise, McMahon's WWE is set to return to the Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium on July 24th, 2022. And thanks to Facebook user Melissa Kinney, we're able to take a look back 34 years ago at what wrestling looked like at the Aud in 1988.

The below photos were taken by her father Mark Mogensen, Kinney's dad, who sadly passed away in 1992. When giving us permission to publish these photos, Melissa said:

"[My dad] instilled in me a love of wrestling, mini golf and adventure. I was so happy to find so many enjoyed these photos and brought back memories for so many. WWF, the great equalizer. We all loved wrestling in the 80’s."

Here was the full card on February 29th, 1988 , according to the website Pro Wrestling Wiki:

• Don Muraco defeated Butch Reed
• Rick Rude defeated Jake Roberts
• Sika defeated George Skaaland
• Bad News Brown defeated Tony Garea
• The Islanders (Haku and Tama) defeated The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid)
• George Steele and The Junkyard Dog defeated The Bolsheviks (Boris Zhukov and Nikolai Volkoff)

Check out the photos from the event below: