Inspired by the Korakuen post by Loss in the general thread. What are you favourites settings for pro-wrestling and why ? And what are your least favourites ?

Nassau Coliseum is the worst, or at least was for a long time. I don't know if that's still the case. Korakuen Hall wins for me as well, but Chicago crowds are pretty consistently awesome.

Korauken, Budokan for a big AJPW show, Sumo Hall for big NJPW shows. I'm actually a bit indifferent to the Tokyo Dome. I understand it's a big deal and all that, but the smaller venues did best.

 

Hammerstein in ECW is another big one. Rosemont Horizon in Chicago. MSG.

 

Arena Mexico in its heyday was ridiculous for big time matches.

 

My favorite all time is Greensboro. Absolutely the best. Baltimore during the NWA run was a close second, with the 1989 GAB show being the magnum opus.

Nassau is an all-timer and earned the name of the Mausoleum because it was always dead.The Pond in Anaheim was also shitty and named Mausoleum West.

 

The Omni was always a fun venue live so I'm partial to that one, MId-South Coliseum was another one, Tulsa Convention Center for the UWF tapings, and every JCP TV taping setting from 1985-88.

I'm partial to the Chicago crowds, whether big like All State or small like the Berwyn Eagle's Club. I wish they'd bring wrestling back to the UIC Pavilion too. Korauken is undeniably great. Visually, I love MSG with the short, small entrance, plus the crowd there helps a lot.

 

Worst? Nassau has the reputation. I'd also put any half-filled baseball/football stadium up there too.

Nassau is an all-timer and earned the name of the Mausoleum because it was always dead.The Pond in Anaheim was also shitty and named Mausoleum West.

 

The Omni was always a fun venue live so I'm partial to that one, MId-South Coliseum was another one, Tulsa Convention Center for the UWF tapings, and every JCP TV taping setting from 1985-88.

 

I was surprised at how loud The Pond was on the RAW after SummerSlam this year -- no idea if that came across on TV, but sitting up in the cheap seats it felt plenty hot.

Pond has kinda changed their rep over the last couple of years but they had a long run of suck

Gravesend is my favourite venue for old-school British wrestling. My least favourite venue is anywhere where the crowd heckle the wrestlers. I like the old-school MSG crowd the most of any wrestling crowds.

MSG the clear winner for me, though I am beyond admittedly biased. Its my hometown arena, I've been to more shows there than anywhere else and its got the historical chops to back it up against anywhere. As far as what I've seen on tape, its tough to argue with Korakuen or Buddokan. Domestically, I'll cop out and give a shout out wherever the annual TV after Mania takes place because that's now arguably the marquee arena event of the year. Also need to give some old school love to Baltimore, which always seemed to deliver the goods for big NWA/WCW shows.

Tokyo Dome is my least favorite. There's 40,000+ seats in that place and few of them are good to watch wrestling from. Nets, odd angles and a cold arena make for a bad experience.

 

Shin Kiba 1st Ring may be my favorite. Every seat there is a good seat. It just sucks because it is far out of the way.

 

Korakuen is kinda eh. The concession stand area is a crowded mess, it's usually quite hot and the seats are a bit small.

The old Philadelphia Civic Center was an amazing old dump to see wrestling in the Eighties.

Township in Columbia SC was an awesome, awesome venue for wrestling. No bad seats, crowds were always hot even if the shows were underwhelming (almost never), felt like a bigger building than it was, et.

I can't believe I forgot it, but the Cow Palace was a pretty awesome place to see a show. Really open arena, not a bad seat for a place that large, always a good crowd. Except if you're trying to run a convention and split with the money afterwards. Then it goes on the other side of the spectrum.

Township in Columbia SC was an awesome, awesome venue for wrestling. No bad seats, crowds were always hot even if the shows were underwhelming (almost never), felt like a bigger building than it was, et.

 

By far the best place I've ever seen a wrestling match. I sat in the balcony for an ECW show and it brought back so many memories. Even 1000 Sabu botched spots looked good in the township.

 

As a television viewer, there's Korakuen Hall and then everything else.

It's in a terrible part of town but I really like the ambiance at Arena Naucalpan. It's somewhat rowdy but more family oriented than Arena Coliseo, also at Coliseo you feel like you are at a chicken cage.

From my experience seeing live shows in the SW Ohio area, the best building for wrestling is the Nutter Center in Dayton. It's a small, horseshoe shaped arena that looks like it was custom built for wrestling. Not a bad seat in the house. The Cincinnati Gardens with its vast history dating back to the Detroit territory days is a great old building as well.

 

As far as stuff on TV goes, all the big arenas come across as pretty much identical to me.

Least Favorite-L.A. Sports Arena-drab and colorless, no personality.

 

Favorite-Olympic Auditoreum-Nukes and crannys galore and great atmosphere, perect size, rabid crowds. I think a sellout was 11,000

Loved the old Richfield Coliseum in Ohio, #throwback

I think it was the old Denen Coliseum in Tokyo, an old tennis venue, that I always liked in the Classics. Neat visual, good acustics.

As far as classic stuff, I remember seeing an ECW on TNN episode that was filmed in the middle of a music hall that had a pretty unique look. Also, if you haven't seen them, the WCW Worldwide episodes that they filmed outdoors in 1994 were a hoot.

Korakuen and Budokan both seemed like magic to me when I was younger and watching Japanese wrestling full time.

 

I'm not really sure I could name a least favourite. I mean, a lot of matches would die terribly in the sheer size of the Tokyo Dome, but plenty of matches were enhanced by the place too.

Korakuen is a great place to watch wrestling in, especially if you're sitting at the Press Table.

 

Budokan... I'm mixed. It's probably the shows I saw, which were the weakest of All Japan Womens of that 1993-96 big show era. There just wasn't the vibe in the joint you would have wanted. Kick myself for not having a trip in 1995-96 that included a AJPW Budokan card. Anyway, watched the MMA tourney up from on press row, and that was pretty much the same as the MMA tourney: "Eh". The rest of the cards in the lower deck rather than the floor. Sitelines were fine, but again the vibe wasn't there due to the show.

 

Ryogoku Kokugikan is flat out one of the coolest places to watch a show if it's a good show. Sumo boxes are cool. Floor seats are great. The front row of the balcony is easily one of the best places in the world to watch a quality card with a packed crowd. Just awesome.

 

I'm probably one of the few who liked Yokohama Arena in the 90s. It's a pretty generic modern arena, similar to generic ones in the US. But it was comfortable seating, the climate control was perfect (as opposed to a stuffy or hot or cold building), the sit line from where we were sitting in the stands was perfect. I had a better time watching Queendom there in 1995 than the two Discover New Heroine shows the following year.

 

Tokyo Dome... I really didn't hate it as much as others. Granted, a press pass gives you a lot of latitude to go and sit where ever the hell you want. The press row in the stands was perfectly fine to be "in the crowd" and get the feel for what it's like to be in the middle of 50K+ digging pro wrestling. Then to go down on the field for the Onita-Pogo debacle was an experiance. And 50K fans chanting Misawa-Misawa-Misawa after Onita ducked back under the curtains is something I wouldn't trade anything in my pro wrestling experiances for. I'm glad to have seen at least one major packed card in that joint, and given a choice that probably was the perfect one for me to do so given the 13 promotions.

 

Yokohama Bunka Gym was a dump. Fine on some level to watch a card from the extremely narrow balcony... but still a dump.

 

There were a few minor spot show cards in other places, but none of those rate. Well... the "parking lot" FMW show was interesting but not an arena.

 

Anyway, for favorites in Japan, it would be Korakuen for a small card, Sumo Hall for an example larger arena that was the "home base" for a major promotion that was awesome when they were hitting their marks on the card and drawing as well.

John, did you write up some of the shows you saw over there in greater detail? Haven't seen too much on those from from this side of the ocean and would imagine it'd be interesting, or at worst just make me jealous.

I didn't write up any of the 1995 shows.

 

I did 3-4 pieces for the Torch on the 1996 trip, along with writing up the NJPW TV that covered G1 and the J-Crown. Haven't read it all in probably a decade or so, but still liked the two primary pieces that I wrote. Probably the end of my initial stretch of "good" Torch writing before RSP-W distracted me and turned me into a shitty writer. The only things that stick out in my mind after that were the ECW PPV pieces, which had a nice amount of meanspiritedness that holds up nicely.

 

In some box of I have my notes from the 1996 trip as well. Didn't take any notes in 1995... again, wasn't writing at that point.

Ha sounds good, maybe I'll come across the Torch pieces at some point.