It’s been a long time since pro wrestling occurred at the Fort Lauderdale National Guard Armory.

Pro wrestling returns there Dec. 14.

Back in the day, during the territory days, Championship Wrestling from Florida traveled to the armory — off State Road 84 — every other Friday night - at a time when wrestling fans believed.

Dusty Rhodes, Bob Roop, Cyclone Negro, Mike Graham, Steve Keirn and the Brisco Brothers (Jack and Jerry) headlined many matches at that armory.

When the Florida territory ended, the semi-weekly shows ended.

The business changed.

Howard Brody (author of “Swimming with Piranhas”) has seen, lived the change first-hand. He is a longtime Florida wrestling promoter, photographer and writer and former NWA president.

With his contacts and experience, Brody decided to give it another shot; so pro wrestling is at the Fort Lauderdale National Guard Armory on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

Brody hopes to attract old school Florida fans as well as new ones when he brings a diverse collection of talent including former WWE DX members Billy Gunn and X-Pac as well as a Brisco.

Wes Brisco, the son of WWE Hall of Famer and CWF legend Jerry Brisco, will compete in a tournament on the card.

• Pro wrestling features some very athletic characters with backgrounds in baseball, basketball, football, weightlifting and amateur wrestling.

Wes is unique. He is working toward becoming the first professional wakeboarder to make it in professional wrestling.

Already trained by Steve Keirn, Dusty Rhodes, Norman Smiley and Dr. Tom Prichard at Florida Championship Wrestling, the feeder group to WWE in Tampa, Brisco is making a return, after suffering an ACL injury in November 2010 that eventually ended his run with FCW.

Wes Brisco is hopeful of another FCW program and progressing to WWE.

He came close to wrestling some dark matches with WWE at shows in Jacksonville and Orlando after the WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view in Miami, but the knee injury occurred just a couple of days before that opportunity, halting those plans. He’s been on the road to recovery ever since and starting to compete on the indies.

“Shows like the one in Fort Lauderdale [Dec. 14] is what he needs to show what he can do and produce and impress the fans and the people down there,” Jerry Brisco said. “All that gets back to the main office and it’s a tremendous stepping stone for him. There’s a strong possibility he will get back to FCW.”

• Jerry Brisco could pick up the phone and most likely make it happen now, but Wes and he decided to approach it differently.

“We want him to get some more experience and get some matches with different guys,” Jerry Brisco said. “The great thing about the old days of wrestling: you get to travel around; you get to work different styles; you get to learn different things. I went to Oklahoma. I went to Texas. I went to Carolina. I went to Georgia. Each area and each different group has its own philosophy, its own style.

“When you’re out working with different guys and you’re getting to work different styles, it really helps your overall game. When you’re in one organization, everybody does the same thing; everybody wrestles the same way; everybody thinks the same way. You’re kind of limited on the knowledge that you learn because you’re not learning from a lot of different styles.