Strange Locations

This past Thursday, TNA made their Impact debut in high definition on Spike TV.  To mark the special occasion they took Impact out of the Impact Zone at Soundstage 21 in Universal Studios Florida and into the confines of The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

After seeing the broadcast, I couldn’t find many good things to say about the choice of venue.  The crowd looked small, which wasn’t helped due to the fact that there was a wall about six rows deep across from the main cameras.  The room décor distracted from the action and it really made TNA’s HD debut look second rate.

Out of all of the places that are available in Las Vegas, I’m sure they could have had selected a venue better suited for a wrestling event.  This got me thinking, however, about some other odd choices in the past of locations chosen for wrestling events.  Without further ado, here is my list of the Top 5 Strangest Locations for Wrestling Events.

5 - The Hammerstein Ballroom
The Hammerstein Ballroom, located in the Manhattan Center in New York, has been host to several wrestling events in the past.  It recently served as the location for the first two ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view events and in all honesty, it actually isn’t that bad of an arena.  It features an intimate setting for the fans, however, one look at the gold balconies and its hand painted murals, it is easy to tell that this is a ballroom more suited for theater productions and musical concerts instead of hardcore wrestling events.

4 – Mall of America
When WCW starting airing Monday Night Nitro to compete with WWF’s Monday Night Raw in 1995, what better place would serve host to the inaugural event than at the biggest shopping mall in the United States?  Wait, did I just say a shopping mall?  The very first broadcast of WCW Monday Night Nitro took place inside of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, right in the middle of all of the stores, shoppers and escalators.  It was a shopping experience like no other.

3 – Comiskey Park
For 80 years, the original Comiskey Park was home to the south-side Chicago baseball team, the Chicago White Sox.  On four different occasions, Comiskey Park hosted World Series games, three for the White Sox and one for their cross-town rivals, Chicago Cubs.  To add to the prestige, the ball park was also the host of the first ever All Star Game in 1933.

On a September night in 1985, though, Comiskey Park was home to AWA’s SuperClash in front of 21,000 screaming fans.  However, most of the fans were seated in the stadium seats as the ring was placed over the pitcher’s mound.  There was a smattering of fans on the ground, which wasn’t even covered, and the wrestlers got to make their entrances from the dugout.  A little planning could have gone a long way with their set up.

2 – Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
For one week in August, about a half million motorcycle enthusiasts drive out to the Black Hills of South Dakota for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  With all of these people in a small area, what better place is there for a pro wrestling pay-per-view?

Of course, it may also help that WCW figurehead, Eric Bischoff, was a motorcycle enthusiast as well, so why not mix work and pleasure?  For four years, the Road Wild pay-per-view was free for all of those attending and the ring entrance was lined with rows and rows of bikers sitting on their Harleys.  At least the backdrop of the Black Hills made for some nice scenery, though.

1 – Secure Facility
Nothing says lack of crowd interest than having your wrestlers perform in an empty room.  It was the early 1990’s and the AWA was in it’s dying days, so instead of having matches for their Team Challenge Series take place in mostly empty arenas, they came up with a story for their change of venue.

Acting AWA President, Joe Blanchard, ordered to move the TCS matches to a secure facility due to countless outside interference.  I guess to also save on costs, they bought the cheapest paint they could find at the hardware store, and thus the room was painted pink.