Mobile Civic Center (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com).

Memorable or iconic moments involving sports teams or entertainers at the Mobile Civic Center have been few and far between since the venue opened in 1964.

Elvis Presley performed inside the Civic Center less than a month before his final show in 1977. The Monkees and Led Zeppelin also played at the venue during their heydays, but most Civic Center moments were routine and not linked to a historical pop culture moment.

But there is one iconic moment that most Mobilians likely do not realize, and it occurred 25 years ago today on May 19, 1997. It involved arguably one of the most infamous promos in professional wrestling history and help set the stage for the explosion of one of the industry’s biggest rivalries. Some even believe it can be loosely linked to the late-90s revival of the World Wrestling Federation (now called World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE).

In pro wrestling, a promo is short for “promotional interview,” or a vital part of a show that consists of dialogue or a monologue used to advance a storyline.

The promo 25 years ago featured “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels and Bret “Hitman” Hart. It has long referred to as “Sunny days,” and it occurred during a two-hour “Monday Night Raw” broadcast on the USA Network from the Mobile Civic Center.

The promo, in a nutshell, included a veiled reference by Michaels directed at Hart that he was having a real-life affair with Tammy Sytch, whose wrestling persona at that time was “Sunny.”

“I’ve lived in Alabama, and we talk about 1997 until I’m blue in the face, but I didn’t realize that promo happened in Mobile,” said Conrad Thompson, the Huntsville-based mortgage lender whose wrestling podcasts are among the most popular in the U.S. “There is a rich (wrestling) history in Mobile and with WCW running pay-per-views there, but when people talk about monumental moments and things that people talk about 25 years later, that ‘Sunny days’ line echoes more than anything else.”

The promo also is illustrative to how women in professional wrestling were treated in the late 1990s. At the time, performers like Sunny were mostly valets who accompanied men to the ring, or whose sexuality was exploited on TV. It is big difference compared to today’s industry, which has embraced the growth of female wrestling to the point that many women – Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Dr. Britt Baker, Bianca Belair, and former UCF champion Ronda Rousey, to name a few – are considered top industry stars for their in-ring abilities.

“The change has been dramatic,” said Michael Altman, a professor of religious studies at the University of Alabama who is working on a book project titled, “Wrestling with Religion” that will include a look at how women have been portrayed within the industry.

Ed Gillespie, left, chairman of the Republican National Committee, listens to World Wrestling Entertainment star Shawn Michaels at a voter's registration rally in San Diego Monday, May 17, 2004, in San Diego. In 1997, Michaels was a top performer with World Wrestling Entertainment and was involved in a bitter rivalry with Bret "HItman" Hart. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)ASSOCIATED PRESS

The setup and the fallout from the promo went like this:

Hart, who was a heel performer -- wrestling lingo for the villain – was accompanied to the ring by The Hart Foundation stable to reveal a “surprise announcement.” After running down Americans (Hart, at the time, was a popular wrestler in his home country of Canada, but was hated in the United States), he challenged Michaels to a match at the forthcoming “King of the Ring” pay-per-view with a stipulation: If he could not defeat Michaels in 10 minutes, Hart vowed to never wrestling in the U.S. again.

Michaels, who was backstage, appeared on the screen and responded with the following: “Bret, believe me, you couldn’t go 10 minutes in any situation, if you know what I mean. Even though lately you have had some ‘Sunny days’, my friend, you still can’t get the job done.”

Hart, in later interviews, said he the inference didn’t sink in at the time. But it did cause problems. Hart, who was married and with children, said he was later asked about whether he was having a real-life affair with Sytch.

“My father came up and asked me what was going on with Sunny,” Hart later said during a sit-down interview with legendary wrestling broadcaster Jim Ross during a 2013 DVD entitled, “Greatest Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart.”

“A lot of people said, ‘That is crossing the line’ with implying that I was with Sunny,” Hart said.

Michaels, during that same 2013 interview, told Ross he was upset from the previous week’s Monday Night RAW broadcast when a superkick he delivered to Hart did not air on live TV.

“I said, ‘that’s it, the gloves are coming off,’” Michaels said. “I cut a promo on everything that moved.”

Conrad Thompson of Huntsville (Image by Benjamin Stark)

Ross, during an interview with Thompson last year, suggested Michaels “was impaired” during his visit to Mobile.

“We knew he couldn’t wrestle,” Ross told Thompson, suggesting there were other creative ways to feature a top star on the show without having him deliver an interview. “I wasn’t crazy about the interview. I knew he was going to use it to forward his own agenda and hope it would click. He had to create his own content. All of those things are good in theory. But sometimes the execution of those theories is detrimental to the team effort. But that didn’t seem to bother Shawn at the time.”

Thompson said the promo “crossed the lines” of what is allowed even in the wild world of professional wrestling.

“There is an unspoken rule that if you want to be critical of in-ring accolades, by all means, please do,” Thompson said. “But if you talk about something in my home life, that crosses the line.”

He added, “Even when (the industry) gives us a peak behind the curtains, even if you want to be critical behind the scenes, wives and kids are a no-fly zone.”

Thompson said the promo still shocks because it is a rare moment.

“I can’t think of another time a guy pulled the family card … it feels far and few between,” Thompson said.

He said he believes Michaels might have been fired for delivering the promo had he not been one of the WWE top stars at the time.

“If he’s the top guy, then or now, I don’t think he’s fired (for the Sunny days promo),” Thompson said. “But in the 1970s, I think some of the locker room would’ve had their way with him afterward. That is against the code, if you will.”

The WWE, in 1997, was embroiled in a tense ratings war with rival organization, World Championship Wrestling (WCW). WCW – backed by the Turner Broadcasting System – was comfortably defeating WWE in the so-called “Monday Night Wars.” WCW had also lured big-name talent to their company, including former WWE stars like Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman – performers who helped steer WCW into a ratings lead over their former company.

Ross, during his interview with Thompson, said he believed Michaels was “trying to pop his buddies” – namely, Nash and Hall.

Altman noted that the “Sunny days” line occurred at a time long before social media, and when wrestling insider information was restricted to a few Internet outlets or subscription-based newsletters like “The Wrestling Observer” run by journalist David Meltzer.

“What you see in that moment was a shift to an awareness that there are fans who are reading these newsletters and who are part of an online wrestling fan community and culture,” said Altman. “I was 13 and on AOL trying to find out what happened on the taped RAWs.”

He added, “Michaels was particularly good at playing with those hardcore fans. Many of them were teenagers and on the Internet early on and reading Meltzer.”

WWE Hall of Famer Bret "Hit Man" Hart on his way to defeating Mr. McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI on March 28, 2010, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The match occurred about a dozen years after the infamous "Montreal Screwjob" finish in 1997, which led to Hart punching McMahon during a real-life altercation backstage. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)ASSOCIATED PRESS

The fallout from the promo was fierce, and set the stage for industry-altering changes:

*McMahon, the next night on RAW, addressed the situation in what has long been viewed as the first moment for the development of his future “Mr. McMahon” on-screen character. Mr. McMahon, as a wrestling villain, would become the biggest rival to Austin as the WWE began its climb in the TV ratings during 1998 and 1999. Hart went to WCW on a lucrative contract, but the company ended up folding in 2001 as ratings plummeted.

“‘Sunny days’ personalized the feud,” Altman said. “They worked themselves into a shoot, they got involved in a storyline and it got too real. It explodes in Montreal and Bret leaves to WCW.”

He added, “Out of that, you get the next week on Raw and McMahon pulling back the curtain and talking about Bret Hart. It’s the beginning of the character that would feud with ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin that would save the company.”

Altman said the activity of 1997, and the “Sunny days” promo “kind of changed everything for WWE.”

Mobile's Hardcore Holly celebrates his win against Carlito Monday January 14, 2008 during WWE Monday Night Raw at the Mobile Civic Center.(file photo)

The Mobile show, which can be watched in-full via a subscription on Peacock, had plenty of other moments that offer up interesting footnotes to WWE history. Alabama served as a memorable backdrop to the show. References to Hank Aaron, Paul “Bear” Bryant, and even Jimmy Buffett were mentioned during the broadcast.

“The Attitude era really got the flame started in 1997,” said Thompson. “It feels like we are fresh out of Wrestlemania 13 with a new approach. You have this new two-hour set, the (evolution) of the Mankind character … the whole Bret-Shawn thing is real. It’s a fun time to be a fan and it’s cool to think that the Kane thing had some seeds planted in Mobile and Alabama’s Bob Holly winning in Mobile.”

Despite the show’s highlights, the downside arguably was the portrayal of the women who were popular during this period.

Sytch, who was the subject of the affair allegations, had reportedly been involved in past a relationship with Michaels.

During the Mobile show, Sytch did not appear. She was part of an advertisement that contained sexual innuendos for the Super Soaker water gun that was invented less than a decade earlier by Mobilian Lonnie Johnson.

The only women who performed in Mobile competed not as wrestlers, but as sidekicks to their male counterparts.

Joanie Lauer, who performed as Chyna, would go on and star as a wrestler competing against primarily male competitors. But in 1997, she was strictly a silent valet who accompanied Hunter Hearst Helmsley (aka, “Triple H”).

Dustin Runnels, who competed as Goldust, was accompanied to his match by his then-wife, Terri Runnels who went by the nickname of Marlena.

Rena Mero (now Rena Lesnar), who performed under the nickname Sable, was part of the show in another sexualized format: Austin, as he was walking around backstage looking for a tag team partner, opened a door to find a shirtless Sable.

“This was ‘97, and even before the Diva era that came a few years later when they were wrestling, but not well,” said Altman. “Steve Austin walks in on Sable and keeps opening the door on her. There was just no woman who existed in their own story and universe. Chyna was a valet, and her biggest moment was in wrestling men. That is what got her over. So, it’s not much later where you could have storylines and women who had characters and who existed on their own.”

Altman said a dramatic difference between the 1997 show and shows that are televised today is with the portrayal of women.

“More diversity, and it’s not just racially, but there are openly gay women wrestlers now and it’s not just with their character,” he said. “The shift has been from objectified and connected to some feud with two men to standing on their own. Becky Lynch was probably, a few years ago, the most popular wrestler in North America and that’s just a huge difference.”

Altman also said the women who performed in the late 90s, including Sytch, have faced difficulties and personal tragedies. Laurer, who battled substance abuse, died in 2016 at age 46.

Sytch, 49, is currently jailed and awaiting trial on allegations of DUI manslaughter stemming from a March 25 crash that killed a 75-year-old man in Ormond Beach, Florida.

Since 2012, she has been arrested multiple times and has spent time in jail. Previous arrests include multiple drunk driving offenses.

Most of the women who performed in the late 90s are no longer involved in the industry.

“I can’t speak for their experiences, obviously, but there are not a lot of women who came out of that era super successful,” Altman said. “It was a business that was hard on men in 1997 and 1998. There are so many men wrestlers who died too young. The list is long. But I think it was even harder on the women.”

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