On this day in professional wrestling history...

[UFCMPunk]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

4 years ago today, the WWE Pandemic Era began on Smackdown. It's crazy how Monday March 9th, 2020 there were fans on RAW and in just a matter of days the WWE was forced to do shows from the Performance Center.

I gotta say, I do miss the pandemic era in a way as it did open up the creative door where WWE had to figure out how to do shows without fans. I know it's not going to happen because WWE is so hot right now, selling out everywhere they go but a pandemic era tribute show where it's no fans in the PC, you mix and match where you still do crazy matches like a Boneyard Match, a Bray Wyatt Funhouse Match as a Tribute to Bray but also do matches at the PC.

My favorite match though was MITB at WWE Headquarters, both MITB ladder matches taking place at the same time and they each had to get to the roof of the Headquarters to take the briefcase.

[Majingir]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

4 years ago today, the WWE Pandemic Era began on Smackdown. It's crazy how Monday March 9th, 2020 there were fans on RAW and in just a matter of days the WWE was forced to do shows from the Performance Center.

I gotta say, I do miss the pandemic era in a way as it did open up the creative door where WWE had to figure out how to do shows without fans. I know it's not going to happen because WWE is so hot right now, selling out everywhere they go but a pandemic era tribute show where it's no fans in the PC, you mix and match where you still do crazy matches like a Boneyard Match, a Bray Wyatt Funhouse Match as a Tribute to Bray but also do matches at the PC.

My favorite match though was MITB at WWE Headquarters, both MITB ladder matches taking place at the same time and they each had to get to the roof of the Headquarters to take the briefcase.

It's crazy just how much happened on that specific day, not just in WWE but all over the world.

Even then, as weird as it was, it still just seemed like it'd be a few day/week thing at most as a precaution.

[Majingir]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

Can't believe WM20 is now the halfway point of WM history!

[dubcity]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

Can't believe WM20 is now the halfway point of WM history!

I was gonna ask if that was the last PPV they did at MSG, but then I remembered the RR where Cena returned in 2008. WM20 is a strange one. It's 2004 and Stone Cold, Hogan and The Rock are basically done as regular performers. Lesnar and Goldberg are both on their way out too.

And the two guys who are more or less anointed as the top guys on this show (Benoit and Guerrero) wouldn't last long in those spots. A year later Guerrero would be dead, and 2 years after that Benoit is on WWECW and it's the tragic end.

The crowd atmosphere and energy from that show simply does not exist anymore in wrestling. Very hot, but at the same time not easy to impress. Moving big shows exclusively to football stadiums ended it for good, but WWE only had a few more years until the dead crowd PG era started regardless.

[Majingir]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

I was gonna ask if that was the last PPV they did at MSG, but then I remembered the RR where Cena returned in 2008. WM20 is a strange one. It's 2004 and Stone Cold, Hogan and The Rock are basically done as regular performers. Lesnar and Goldberg are both on their way out too.

And the two guys who are more or less anointed as the top guys on this show (Benoit and Guerrero) wouldn't last long in those spots. A year later Guerrero would be dead, and 2 years after that Benoit is on WWECW and it's the tragic end.

The crowd atmosphere and energy from that show simply does not exist anymore in wrestling. Very hot, but at the same time not easy to impress. Moving big shows exclusively to football stadiums ended it for good, but WWE only had a few more years until the dead crowd PG era started regardless.

Hard to have WM crowds like MSG for 2 reasons

1. It's MSG/NYC crowd, one of the best in wrestling

2. It's an arena WM. Stadiums are harder to hear that kind of crowd since the sound travels differently, especially if it's open roof.

This WM was such a weird one when you look at WWE history. Just a transitional WM in a way.

[Majingir]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

22 years ago



One of my fave WMs ever for mostly biased reasons, though shows how far we've come with WM stages. This one probably had one of the worst stages ever for WM. Also the earliest at the time a WM ever happened (until WM20). I'd imagine booking it in an MLB stadium was the reason for that. Jays home opener happened just over 2 weeks later on April 4th. And the weird time period when it came to naming. Wrestlemania 2000 instead of WM16, then X-Seven, then X-8, then XIX, then XX, then 21.

Rock-Hogan will forever be one of the best matches ever just from a crowd standpoint.

Scott Hall selling the stunner the funniest way ever (intentional as he revealed as he wanted to sell it smartly and not land on his knees but his feet instead)

Goldust/Maven in that all gold hardcore title match.

Definitely think Toronto will get a stadium Rumble in the next few years. MLB ASG likely happening in 2027, so perhaps WWE does it in 2026 or 2027.

[UFCMPunk]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

22 years ago



One of my fave WMs ever for mostly biased reasons, though shows how far we've come with WM stages. This one probably had one of the worst stages ever for WM. Also the earliest at the time a WM ever happened (until WM20). I'd imagine booking it in an MLB stadium was the reason for that. Jays home opener happened just over 2 weeks later on April 4th. And the weird time period when it came to naming. Wrestlemania 2000 instead of WM16, then X-Seven, then X-8, before going back to WM19.

Rock-Hogan will forever be one of the best matches ever just from a crowd standpoint.

Scott Hall selling the stunner the funniest way ever (intentional as he revealed as he wanted to sell it smartly and not land on his knees but his feet instead)

Goldust/Maven in that all gold hardcore title match.

Definitely think Toronto will get a stadium Rumble in the next few years. MLB ASG likely happening in 2027, so perhaps WWE does it in 2026 or 2027.

Austin Theory should have watched that clip of Hall selling the stunner so when he got stunned into the RKO, it would have looked a bit better and not so obvious he jumped into the RKO.

So this happened at the Skydome/Rogers Centre correct? Surprised they haven't done more shows there since. I can see a Rumble or Summerslam going there at some point. Too bad you don't have a big enough stadium for another Toronto Mania. Is there one they could use for a Canada Mania anywhere?

[Majingir]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

So this happened at the Skydome/Rogers Centre correct? Surprised they haven't done more shows there since. I can see a Rumble or Summerslam going there at some point. Too bad you don't have a big enough stadium for another Toronto Mania. Is there one they could use for a Canada Mania anywhere?

*Insert Vancouver for Wrestlemania sign guy for the last 10+ years*

BC Place in Vancouver could be a candidate, but it's still not NFL stadium capacity. The stadium holds about 55,000 people for football, which is 8,000 less than the WM26 stadium in Arizona. Although they recently drew over 70,000 people for an Ed Sheeran concert (though there was basically no stage).

Who knows, maybe if WWE decides to ditch the giant WM stages they could do this. If you're selling out stadiums, maybe you could have a smaller stage and give people more of a reason to sit in the "360 view setup"


As for why the Rogers centre/skydome hasn't held anything since, I'd imagine it just wasn't worth it. Non WM stadium shows weren't a thing until only a few years ago. And WWE in general didn't come to Canada much in the early 2010s (Survivor Series I believe in 2016 was the first Canadian PPV since 2009!). Rogers Centre has shifted to a more baseball specific venue, but given WWE has been able to have Rumbles at baseball venues recently (most notable Tropicana since that's similar field wise to Rogers Centre), don't see why a Rumble in January in Toronto wouldn't be possible. Domed stadium so the winter weather won't matter, and you just go down the road to the Leafs/Raptors arena for the Smackdown before the Rumble and maybe even Raw too.

[Majingir]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

30 YEARS ago!

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

25 years ago

https://youtu.be/_O89Y0VwdPs?si=CcxDvrz7OHABj30K

[Majingir]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

30 YEARS ago!

25 years ago

https://youtu.be/_O89Y0VwdPs?si=CcxDvrz7OHABj30K

Crazy how these 2 things are literally just 5 years apart.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

20 years ago..

https://youtu.be/xncyL3971DE?si=VvmYl43NFwPV34q_

Posted moreso for the last 5 mins when it was Raw Superstars vs. Smackdown Superstars.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

23 years ago today:

https://youtu.be/h9VlIgg835c?si=7Z590G-4zz4T4_OY

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

23 years ago today…

https://youtu.be/KZ5iMMvi0gw?si=cBzDRYi6y-XTyy1P

Took me a minute to forgive Austin for this because I was SICK when this happened lmao. Pretty much marked the end of the Attitude Era too.

[Majingir]

Re: On this day in professional wrestling history...

23 years ago today:

https://youtu.be/h9VlIgg835c?si=7Z590G-4zz4T4_OY

So much potential in the wcw story. Nothing went the way they planned it, but WWE did what they could to bury WCW too. Booker vs Bagwell was set up to fail before the match even happened. Heel vs heel when fans don't care about either guy, why would they get excited? The failed WCW show, and then having Benoit, HHH and Eddie all go down at a similar time when all 3 would've been major parts of the Invasion as well.

HHH definitely would've been a major guy in that story, joining Stephanie in the alliance and the alliance would star HHH, Austin, Booker, RVD. Not a bad group even if it wasn't team wcw/nwo.

23 years ago today…

https://youtu.be/KZ5iMMvi0gw?si=cBzDRYi6y-XTyy1P

Took me a minute to forgive Austin for this because I was SICK when this happened lmao. Pretty much marked the end of the Attitude Era too.

What sucked about the Austin heel turn is he didn't need Vince, but fans weren't gonna boo him regardless, but his work as a heel is underrated. Can't blame him for not trying. He tried his hardest to get his heel character booed and continually did what he could to stick with a heel character when others didn't want him heel.