The old song goes that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. Well that statement is true in professional wrestling as well.
Madison Square Garden and The McMahons
The Mecca of pro wrestling (and many other entertainment forms) is Madison Square Garden, right in the heart of New York City. While World Wrestling Entertainment’s corporate headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut, their unofficial home arena is the Garden. The McMahon family’s love affair with The Garden goes all the way back to the 1930s when he began promoting wrestling in the original Garden. He promoted pro wrestling in the Garden for over twenty years.
Jess’ son Vincent J. McMahon, followed his father’s footsteps into the promoting world. By the 1950s Vincent had formed Capital Wrestling Corporation and continued to promote the northeast part of the United States. His territory, which he called the World Wide Wrestling Federation, went south down to Washington, D.C., up to Maine and west to Pennsylvania. Despite monthly shows in Philadelphia and Boston his home base was also The Garden, just like his father. The monthly shows at Madison Square Garden were not quite unlike the monthly pay per views or supercards of today.
Vincent saw the variety of immigrants in New York City and knew that the way to captivate crowds was through ethnic superheroes. Vincent’s first main event superstar was the Argentinean Antonino Rocca who main evented Madison Square Garden all through the 1950s and into the ‘60s. Then through the ’60s and the ‘70s the Italian Bruno Sammartino and Puerto Rican Pedro Morales carried the company on their backs thanks to their multi-year World Championship title reigns. He also used men like “The Polish Power” Ivan Putski in the mid-card, and gave Hulk Hogan is famous name, feeling it would draw well with the Irish audience.
Vincent sold the parent company of the WWWF (Capital Wrestling Corporation) to his son Vince, Jr., in 1982 and the wrestling world would never be the same again. Vince, Jr., while still loyal to the northeast and New York, took the company worldwide and never looked back. He turned the wrestling world on its ear, broke old-school territorial lines and not only looked to take the WWWF (and later the WWF) national, but also global. Vince, Jr., knew his global plans would go against his father’s wishes of how things were in the wrestling business back in the day.
He even indicated that in an interview he gave to Sports Illustrated back in 1991.
"Had my father known what I was going to do," McMahon said, "he never would have sold his stock to me."
Even after taking the WWF (and now WWE) into a worldwide phenomenon Vince McMahon, Jr., still knew his home base was New York. Vince’s big gamble was the concept of WrestleMania, which obviously proved successful as things are now gearing up for the twenty-sixth edition of the event, but he knew well enough to hold in the inaugural event in front of his most faithful fans, those in Madison Square Garden.
Since that point WWE has hosted two more WrestleManias (X and XX naturally), two SummerSlams, two Survivor Series and two Royal Rumble pay per views in the “world’s most famous arena.” Plus countless monthly house shows (many that were broadcast on the MSG Network and recorded by WWE for future uses) and numerous television tapings have emanated from The Garden. In fact WWE just ran The Garden a few weeks ago for the live RAW show that was hosted by Jesse “The Body” Ventura. That very night WWE presented its very own “love letter” to New York via a video highlighting many of WWE’s top moments from “the city that never sleeps.”
Jay Z ft. Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
The Manhattan Center
When the WWF looked to launch their new Monday Night RAW program in early 1993 the company knew they needed something (and somewhere) special to set it apart from other wrestling programs. And thus the first few months of the wildly successful show (now in its sixteenth year) were broadcast live from the Grand Ballroom inside The Manhattan Center in New York City.
The weekly run in the Manhattan Center did not last more than a few months but it definitely put a new look on televised wrestling. The Manhattan Center, however, in recent years has become a haven for independent wrestling organizations. The Arena in Philadelphia may be “The Garden” for independent wrestling, but The Manhattan Center’s Grand Ballroom is a clear number two for independent super cards. Ring of Honor has made The Center its home for many of its major events and has been home to some of ROH’s biggest matches over its seven year history.
Other top wrestling states:
Michigan
Georgia
Florida
North Carolina
California
Tennessee
Pennsylvania
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