The Top 7 Wrestling Venues

One important part of our wrestling experiences that we often overlook is the venue. We all have favorite arenas that we’ve seen wrestling events in. Wrestling promotions certainly have their favorite venues to book events at. Some places just have that aura about them that more often than not leads to some magnificent wrestling moments.

Today I’ve complied the Magnificent Seven Wrestling Venues. Your favorite might not make the list, but neither are most of mine. As much as I loved going to the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Dayton, or the Richwood Flea Market in Northern Kentucky, putting those venues on the list probably wouldn’t have made too much sense.

7. ECW Arena, Philadelphia

It’s currently known as 2300 Arena. It’s been Viking Hall, XPW Arena, Alhambra Arena, The Arena, Asylum Arena and probably some other names I’m forgetting. What most of us know the building on the corner of Swanson & Ritner as is the ECW Arena. The majority of the classic ECW moments you remember from back in the day took place at the World’s Most Famous Bingo Hall. After ECW went out of business in 2001, pretty much any Northeast based independent wrestling promotion that wanted to get some eyes ran shows at the arena. Everybody from CZW to CHIKARA to ROH has tried to make the arena their home, and it’s worked out pretty well for them. WWE even ran a WWECW show there back in 2006. If you’re in the northeastern United States and are a pro wrestling fan, you’ve probably made at least a trip or two to the Arena.

6. Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis

Memphis was the home of the last true territory, and the Mid-South Coliseum was rocking every Monday night for most of the 1980s. Most of the greatest moments of Jerry “The King” Lawler’s career took place there, from the empty arena match with Terry Funk to the classics with Bill Dundee to winning the AWA World Championship from Curt Hennig. And let’s not forget the match with Lawler & Andy Kaufman. Wrestling is so ingrained in Memphis history that the Coliseum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s been closed since 2006 but still stands as a monument to previous glory.

5. Allstate Arena, Rosemont

The building formerly known as the Rosemont Horizon is listed as a favorite by many of the most tenured pro wrestlers out there. There’s something about that crowd & the acoustics in the building that has produced some of the best crowd reactions to shows over the past couple of decades. Personal favorite moments include Chris Jericho’s WWF debut & CM Punk winning the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank 2011. It’s tied with one other venue for hosting the most WrestleManias, including the last WM held in a regular arena before the football stadiums took over. Allstate Arena still hosts a WWE Network event most years, including NXT Takeover: Chicago the last two years. One would assume this year as well, as Survivor Series will take place there in November.

4. Superdome, New Orleans

The home of the New Orleans Saints & college football’s Sugar Bowl has also been the home to some of pro wrestling’s most classic moments. Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling began running the Dome multiple times a year featuring its biggest blowoff matches. Junkyard Dog & Michael P.S. Hayes set the wrestling attendance & gate record for the venue with their steel cage dog collar match in August 1981, a record which would last over thirty years. That card also featured Andre the Giant & Hulk Hogan going to a double count-out years before they’d put 93,173 in the Silverdome brother. WCW ran a handful of shows that died at the box office in the late 80s, though one of them had the classic Steamboat vs. Flair two out of three falls match that still rates near the top of some folks’ lists. Years later, WrestleMania XXX & 34 would run the Superdome & shatter any and all venue attendance & gate records. Expect the Showcase of Immortals to come back sooner rather than later.

3. Arena Mexico, Mexico City

Vince McMahon is regarded as the smartest businessman in pro wrestling history. There’s one idea that skipped past his radar that EMLL owner Salvador Lutteroth used to make himself lord & master of Lucha Libre for decades. Lutteroth built his own arena in Mexico’s capital city & made it the top venue of his promotion. It’s quite brilliant, really. CMLL still runs Arena Mexico every Tuesday & Friday, and don’t have to worry about pesky building operators or dates being unavailable or things like that. Pretty much anybody who is anybody in Mexican wrestling has competed in Arena Mexico at some point.

2. Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

The number of famous wrestling venues in Tokyo alone seems infinite. Budokan Hall can make an argument for its inclusion, as can Differ Ariake, Old & New Sumo Hall, and of course Tokyo Dome. Korakuen is much smaller than most of its rivals in the city, only holding 1800 fans. Why do I rate it above them? Because I don’t know much about Japan and listen to people that do. They say Korakuen rates above them, and who am I to argue? All of Japan’s biggest promotions have run shows at Korakuen, and some say that every single Japanese wrestling promotion has run a show there. I’m not sure that’s even possible, but it goes to show the impact the Hall has on the country’s wrestling scene.

1. Madison Square Garden, New York City

The World’s Most Famous Arena was the backbone of Vincent J. McMahon’s territory that eventually became the worldwide juggernaut known as World Wrestling Entertainment. He would run monthly shows at the Garden for multiple decades, and his son continued the tradition for most of the 1980s. MSG hosted the first, tenth & twentieth edition of WrestleMania along with multiple editions of SummerSlam, the Survivor Series & the Royal Rumble. WWE has avoided running televised events at MSG in recent years, opting to run the Barclays Center in Brooklyn instead. This has led to other wrestling promotions running the Garden for the first time in generations in 2019. ROH & New Japan combined for a supercard a couple of weeks ago, and Mexican promotion AAA will run an event in September.

It’s probably not a coincidence that Raw will be returning to MSG for the first time in ten years right around that time. Barclays may be WWE’s new NYC home, but Vince isn’t going to let MSG slide out of the company’s umbrella. There’s too much history there.