Views From The Turnbuckle: The Biggest Event In Wrestling History

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Ever since Frank Gotch wrestled George Hackenschmidt in their famed rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship in front of 30,000 fans in Chicago's Comiskey Park in 1911, wrestling has been about the big event. 99% of the wrestling calendar is filled with smaller events, some of them mattering significantly, while others barely at all. In the grand scope of things, they are all just fodder for the big event.

But what wrestling event was truly the biggest? What massive events remain significant years after they happened? The main telling point is attendance. If we are truly calculating what event had the largest audience, then the answer is Wrestlemania 28, with its 1.27 million PPV purchases, it was the most widely seen wrestling event in history. But, Wrestlemania 28 had some modern advantages, including marketing, the increase in PPV availability, and a variety of other things. To compare events from across different eras, it makes more sense to compare attendance figures. While attendance figures are controversial and wrestling promoters are famous for inflating their total beyond reality, it at least creates a generally level playing field in which to compare events from different eras.

By sheer numerical supremacy, WCW and New Japan Pro Wrestling's supershow Collision in Korea, is the biggest event of all-time. The actual attendance figure for the second day of the event (the larger of the two) is debatable, but even the most modest of expectations put it at 160,000, making it far larger than any other event in history. However, it is debatable on whether Collision in Korea should really be considered for largest wrestling event.

First, the event took place in North Korea, as part of the two-day International Sports and Cultural Festival for Peace in 1995. Wrestling was the main attraction to the event, but it was also a patriotic rally for North Korea. For one of the few times in North Korean history, western entertainers were coming to the isolated country. The event was accompanied by massive military demonstrations and all sorts of propaganda expounding North Korea's dominance over the West. It was one of the only times in the nation's history that its citizens could enjoy a Western (or in Japan's case, Eastern) form of entertainment, so of course people poured into the massive May Day Stadium (an arena that was originally constructed for massive demonstrations of appreciation for Kim Il-Sung and his family) to watch the event. It was more of a manifestation of citizens living in a totalitarian government, a wrestling event just happened to also be going on.

The event also doesn't quite measure up to other top contenders when it came to the impact it had on the wrestling world. The card was uneventful except for the main event, when Antonio Inoki defeated Ric Flair, and WCW cared so little about this event that they didn't even bother airing it until four months after it took place. Comparing that to historically significant shows like Wrestlemania III and The Inoki Final, it isn't even close.

Moving beyond Collision in Korea, the next contender would be Wrestlemania III, when a reputed 93,173 filed into the Pontiac Silverdome. This number is widely disputed, mainly by Dave Meltzer, who claims that the events promoter, Zane Bresloff, told him that the real attendance was around 78,000, and that the WWE and Vince McMahon inflated the numbers so that they would set the indoor attendance record. The fact that WWE would inflate the attendance numbers wouldn't be surprising, and it is very interesting that arenas that have had similar set-ups haven't even come close to touching the 93,000 mark. Mainly, Summerslam 1992, which was held in a larger stadium and similar set-up to Wrestlemania III (there was not massive stage walling off a section of seats like in today's WWE events) and only drew 80,355, despite a sell-out crowd. On the other hand, the Silverdome had 80,000 seats for Detroit Lions games, and considering the smaller size of a wrestling ring, it is not inconceivable that 13,000 seats could be added. In addition Pope John Paul II's sermon given at the Silverdome just a few months after Wrestlemania III drew 93,682, so it is very plausible that there really were that many people at Wrestlemania III.

There are a few other WWE claimants to the title. Wrestlemania 29 at MetLife Stadium and Wrestlemania 23 at Ford Field in Detroit also drew around 80,000, putting them in the running.

In Japan, the Tokyo Dome has hosted more major events than any other venue in history, but it just lacks the overall size to matchup with some of its rivals. The largest crowd ever in Japan was for The Inoki Final, the culmination of a four year retirement tour for Antonio Inoki. Around 77,000 people filled the Tokyo Dome to see Inoki defeat Don Frye in four minutes in his final match. The Tokyo Dome can at least claim the record for the largest wrestling crowd to see an event that mainly featured women's wrestling, as an estimated 42,500 came out to see All-Japan Women's Wrestling and their landmark show AJW Doumu Super Woman Great War ~ Big Egg Wrestling Universe.

Up until this point, we have dealing with mostly modern wrestling events, with relatively stable attendance numbers. Moving backwards in time, there are several major events that could be the largest in wrestling history, but their attendance figures become increasing harder to prove. Perhaps most puzzling is the reputed 100,000 attendance figure that the Great Gama ran up at the National Polo Grounds in Karachi, Pakistan in 1949. The fact that it is hard to figure out who Gama even wrestled should be telling enough, and let's face it, attendance figures for pro wrestling matches in 1940's Pakistan are going to be pretty fishy. I have no doubt a lot of people showed up for this event, but it would be impossible to state the exact number with any certainty. Staying in that area, Arjit Singh of India met Lebanon's Sheik Ali in 1960 in New Delhi for a match that reportedly drew 80,000. This number might have a little more trustworthy value than the previous one, but it is still suspect.

Lastly, we turn back the clock one final time to what I personally believe should be thought of as the largest wrestling event of all-time. On September 20th, 1933, Jim Londos (statistically the greatest attendance draw in wrestling history) traveled back to his native Greece and wrestled an obscure wrestler by the name Kola Kwariani in front of a reported 110,000 fans in Athens. As many as 30,000 more spectators were turned away from the stadium, and Londos would wrestle Kwariani again a few nights later in front of another 60,000.

While the numbers are always going to be questioned, I believe the 110,000 for a few reasons. First, Londos had been a top draw all over the world for nearly the last two decades, and was finally coming back to the country he left when he ran away from home when he was 13 years old. Secondly, Londos, who was nicknamed The Golden Greek, was a national hero during a very trying time in Greece. Lastly, the event took place in a recognizable venue that had the sheer size to hold such a crowd. Panathenaic Stadium was the main stadium utilized in the 1896 revival of the Olympics and had a capacity in the 1930s around 100,000. If they jammed a few more Greeks in there when there was such a demand, it wouldn't shock me.

The big events in wrestling are what make the product all worthwhile. They are the ones we remember forever and that make impressions on us that affect the way we feel about the medium for the rest of our lives. Wrestling is all about the perception and not the reality, and the events with the largest crowds tend to give the perception that they are the most important, most significant events that have ever taken place. In wrestling, bigger is always better.

Here are my star ratings for NXT Takeover: Rival

Hideo Itami vs Tyler Breeze: ***1/4

Baron Corbin vs Bull Dempsey: **

Blake and Murphy vs Lucha Dragons: **3/4

Finn Balor vs Adrian Neville: ****1/4

Bayley vs Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks vs Charlotte: ***3/4

Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens: ****1/2

Here are my star ratings from New Japan's New Beginning in Osaka PPV:

Sho Tanaka vs Yohei Komatsu: **1/2

Mascara Dorada and Tiger Mask vs Captain New Japan and Manabu Nakanishi: **1/4

Jushin Thuder Liger and Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Chase Owens and Rob Conway: **1/4

Tomoaki Honma vs Kota Ibushi: ****

The Young Bucks vs Time Splitters vs reDRagon: ***3/4

Kenny Omega vs Ryusuke Taguchi: ***3/4

Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba vs Bad Luck Fale, Yujio Takahashi and Tama Tonga: **1/2

YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii and Shinsuke Nakamura vs Tetsuya Naito, Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima: ***1/4

Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows vs Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto: ***3/4

AJ Styles vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: ****