“Nothing can ever duplicate Madison Square Garden in the United States. But in Canada, nothing will ever duplicate Maple Leaf Gardens. When you stand under those lights you know you’ve made it, you know you’re standing in something special,” – Bruno Sammartino
Last week Ring of Honor confirmed through a press release and their official website ROHWrestling.com that on August 3rd they would return to Toronto, Ontario, Canada but unlike other ventures into The Great White North this one would be different, as the location wouldn’t be the Ted Reeve Arena as is the norm and instead they had booked the old Maple Leaf Gardens, an arena immersed in history.
Now known as the Mattamy Athletic Centre, this historic venue once housed Toronto’s own Maple Leaf hockey team from 1931 to 1999 and could hold more than 15,000 spectators, playing host to The Beatles during each of their North American tours and Muhammad Ali’s defense of his Heavyweight Championship in 1966 against legendary Canadian boxer George Chuvalo going the distance but losing on the scorecards.
In-terms of professional wrestling the great Gorilla Monsoon would repeatedly label it “the mecca of pro-wrestling” on the WWF’s old Maple Leaf Wrestling show. This legendary arena played battleground to some of the biggest names in the business, Lou Thesz, Buddy Rogers, The Iron Sheik, Harley Race, Terry Funk, Bob Backlund, The Ultimate Warrior, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, a hero of Canadian wrestling Bret “The Hitman” Hart and “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair!
Renovation began in 2009 to restore the Maple Leaf Gardens to its former glory.
In 2012 it reopened, now housing a much small 2,800 people for hockey games the arenas proud history still remains with old promotional posters decorating the walls, collaged together to remind the fans of today just how much history the arena holds – and how it could bare witness to even more.
Ring of Honor’s decision to schedule an event for the old Maple Leaf Gardens is viewed by many as gutsy. While the hockey arena only holds 2,800 people, once cornered off and redesigned for a wrestling event it should hold approximately 3,200 an attendance figure Ring of Honor would need a lot of promotion to attain. Border Wars official attendance wasn’t announced but the estimate hovers around just over 1,000.
There are some positives to the move. The Ted Reeve Arena, while respected by the Ring of Honor fan-base and viewed as ROH’s Canadian home, is located just outside the city of Toronto and many who attend these events note that while the journey isn’t so bad with excitement building if your a casual fan there’s little reason for you to make the travel unless you’ve nothing better to do with your Saturday night.
The old Maple Leaf Garden however is located in downtown Toronto and much easier to access than the Ted Reeve Arena especially if your living in city, and if your not it’s still closer to transit and there are multiple ways to travel in and out of the city. This opens up a whole new audience to Ring of Honor as casual wrestling fans in town over the weekend now have better reason to purchase a ticket.
No indication has yet been made on the ticket allocation for this event. A smart business mentality would suggest they will base it off initial ticket sales, if the number is good one simple call can increase the seating for the event, if the number is average or poor then they can always half the arena. Based off the initial reaction through fan forums and social media sites such as Twitter there is a buzz surrounding this event.
Another factor the promotion is yet to reveal and may not disclose until after Best In The World is whether their return to Toronto will be a live event or an iPay-Per-View. Two weeks following the Toronto event ROH host Manhattan Mayhem V from the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, New York, these are two big events in close proximity to each other so whichever they choose for iPPV this is still a bold move.
In the span of two weeks Ring of Honor hopes to perform in-front of a combined 5,000+ fans in two of its biggest markets, New York City and Toronto. While I have no worries about Manhattan Mayhem V being a sell-out show as Ring of Honor’s Hammerstein Ballroom iPay-Per-Views consistently sell the Toronto show will take something special and some extra promotion to bring the crowds in.
If they were to achieve a solid attendance on August 3rd It’d be a big accomplishment for the regional promotion. The last time they took a chance similar to this was in ’07 in San Francisco, California with Chaos at the Cow Palace. In conjunction with WrestleFest ROH managed to pull in half of what a normal ROH crowd would be and within the 10,000+ arena it was a big money loser for the promotion.
“It’s going to be exciting, especially because Toronto is a hometown for me. It’s always great to come back here and wrestle. Definitely in a place like Maple Leaf Gardens, it’s going to be something big.” – Michael Elgin
Just over 3,000 is a much more reasonable number and with a larger reputation now then it had back then, plus a weekly television show and iPay-Per-View there is a larger chance of succeeding. For me one of the most vital aspects will be how they promote the natives Kevin Steen and Michael Elgin. Toronto and Canadian crowds in-general love nothing more than chanting for their own and I feel these two should be the key figures in the promotion of this event.
Outsiders could always be brought in to further tease audiences. As of now Paul London is still booked for an appearance in the future, most probably against Michael Elgin due to their television taping match being canceled with London suffering a concussion at Border Wars. It is believed ROH want to bring Taiji Ishimori back sooner rather than later and with that connection to Pro Wrestling NOAH you never know who Delirious has up his sleeve, not to mention a decent connection with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
On August 3rd Ring of Honor brings professional wrestling back to one of Toronto’s most historic arenas. Halls the likes of Roddy Piper and Mr. Perfect once walked will now be walked by Jay Lethal and Kevin Steen, crowds that once gathered for Ricky Steamboat and Bruno Sammartino will do the same for Davey Richards and Michael Elgin, and a ring where the blood of The Ultimate Warrior and Ted DiBiase splattered the canvas will now bear the sweat of Eddie Edwards and Adam Cole.
History can be a pretty cool thing and on August 3rd ROH looks to make some more.
If you live in the Toronto area or will be in town the weekend of August 3rd and wish to purchase tickets for Ring of Honor at Maple Leaf Gardens you can do so by clicking here and purchasing them through ROHWrestling.com
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