On March 11th 2025 NXT Roadblock was presented from the venue under the worlds most famous arena, and it would mark the first time a full WWE broadcast had been aired from there. Did you know though, that WWE had run a match in the venue once before? And did you also know that other promotions had run in it too?
In this video, we’ll look at every wrestling show that ever occurred in the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. We’ll look at the circumstances around each event, and what happened on each night.
Before I get into actual shows held in the venue, it’s worth noting that wrestling fans would fill Felt Forum back in the 1970’s and 80’s, as fans who couldn’t get into the WWF cards could watch in there on closed circuit. Felt Forum’s capacity for this was around five thousand, meaning that MSG’s attendance was technically even higher than often reported. This video is more concerned with actual events that took place in there, but it’s still worth noting. The first time a live wrestling show took place in the venue was in the Paramount Theater days, and it might not be who you would expect.
April 14th 1993 WCW
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=54390
On April 14th 1993, WCW would run the Paramount Theater. This might well have been the first time a live wrestling card was presented in the MSG theater, and it was also WCW’s first ever event in New York City, the home base of their biggest rival. In 1989, still under the NWA banner, the company would run house shows in Rochester, Troy, Syracuse and Buffalo. The first time they televised an event from the state was Clash of the Champions 9, New York Knock Out in Troy later that year. Until April 1993, the closest they had come to Madison Square Garden was the Meadowlands, then known as the Brendan Byrne arena, just a few miles away, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
At the time the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the show was considered a complete disaster by fans in attendance, and by staff behind the scenes. Firstly, Ric Flair who had been scheduled to make a non-wrestling appearance was not at the show, as the plane he was flying in from Charlotte on had engine problems. This resulted in chants throughout the night of “we want Flair”, but WCW was unable to fix this. Dave even notes that the show was compared negatively to that years recent Wrestlemania 9, and that’s saying something.
In another interesting note from the week before;’s issue, Rick Rude had appeared on Howard Stern on April 9th to try and promote the event. I say try, as Rick barely got a word in as Stern cracked jokes at Fred the Elephant Boy. The Observer also noted that WCW had far from sold out the venue, drawing two thousand nine hundred paid, just over half of what the venue could hold. In the following week’s issue, this number was corrected to just two thousand three hundred, moving it to less than half.
As far as the card, reports were that the best match of the night, Ron Simmons versus Chris Benoit was stopped abruptly a minute in, for which nobody knew the reason. In the main event, Sting defeated WCW World champion Vader by DQ, when his manager Harley Race interfered. According to the Observer, this “only added to the feeling of being ripped off by the high ($25, $19, $11) ticket prices.” Bloody hell, try getting into a WWE show for that now. WCW would return to the Paramount Theater a few years later, right before one of their biggest moments in history, but we’ll get back to that soon. The next show at the venue might be a surprising one though.
July 27th 1994 AAA/ICW
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=75048
On July 27th 1994, Triple A of all companies ran in the Paramount Theater. Not only did they outsell WCW the year earlier, but they did so by hundreds of fans, with two thousand eight hundred paid reported initially. Dave notes in the Observer that the number may have ended up higher than this, with more fans piling in throughout the night to make the place feel like a sellout by the end. The event was part of a two show tour, with Triple A also running the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago the night before. While both shows were money losers for the promotion, the tickets were priced at between twenty five and fifty dollars, and so made for an impressive looking gate figure.
As early as May, Dave Meltzer had referred to the events, which were promoted as Triple A IWC shows as a “gamble”. He says “While both New York and Chicago have large spanish speaking populations, this is the first time AAA/IWC will have attempted shows outside of the Southwest and in markets where there is no past history of successful Lucha Libre style shows.” Triple A had run in California a fair bit, but as Dave also said the week earlier, “venturing outside of California for Lucha Libre is definitely a major dice roll.”
While many Triple A stars that US fans would come to know in later years were on the card, such as Konnan, Psicosis and La Parka, there were a fair few Americans too. Diamond Dallas Page, Too Cold Scorpio were on both nights, and in the main event, Jake Robers teamed with Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr. While Jake had wrestled for Triple A a few times in the year earlier in California and Mexico, and Scorpio would wrestle for them after the New York and Chicago shows, these would be DDP’s only matches for the promotion.
Going into the show, it was also announced that Pedro Morales would be honored on the night. The Puerto Rican Morales had been WWWF champion from 1971 to 73, and had sold out Madison Square Garden throughout that time.
June 30th 1996 - One week before Bash at the Beach 96
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=44938
On June 30th 1996 WCW would return to the Paramount Theater, this time with a familiar face to the New York fans on the card. No, not Hulk Hogan but more on him in a minute. The semi-main event on the night, Randy Savage versus Ric Flair, a very clever main event to put on given that they had faced off at Wrestlemania 8 a few years earlier, was refereed by Bruno Sammartino, famed seller outer of Madison Square Garden. Pedro Morales also appeared, accompanying Konnan to the ring. Overall this show could be considered a far greater success than the last, as three thousand five hundred paid were reportedly there according to the New York State Athletic commission, much improved over last time.
Reports that came in to the Observer after the event were generally positive, however one wrestler on the card didn’t receive too warm a welcome. United States champion Konnan would defend his title against Kevin Sullivan, but would be heckled throughout the match by the crowd, who were chanting things such as “You still suck,” “ECW,” and “Sandman kicked your ass.” These chants are referring to Konnan’s brief time in ECW, where on his first and last nights in the promotion he would lose to the Sandman for the ECW World title. This poor reception would cause Konnan to go on a profanity laden rant. “Konnan after swearing at the fans, which drew him a lot of heat among WCW officials, said that ECW was in a bingo hall and WCW was where the big boys played and they were drawing 5,000 people. Sullivan quickly got the mic away from him and basically did an apology saying that those weren’t the opinions of WCW and that WCW wasn’t feel that way and then said some politically very nice things about being a fan of ECW.” At Bash at the Beach a week later, Konnan would lose the US title to Ric Flair. Whether this was planned already or a punishment for what happened we might never know, but it’s surely not the thing anyone remembers from Bash at the Beach 1996.
I said before that I would get back to Hulk Hogan, well one week after this event would take place, Bash at the Beach 1996 would happen, where he would do a John Cena as I’m now calling it, and turn on the Hulkamaniacs, forming the New World Order. Neither Hall, Nash or Hogan were on the show, but who knew that a week later the three would make history?
30th August 1998 Summerslam 1998 - Lion's Den match
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=54390
On April 14th 1993, WCW would run the Paramount Theater. This might well have been the first time a live wrestling card was presented in the MSG theater, and it was also WCW’s first ever event in New York City, the home base of their biggest rival. In 1989, still under the NWA banner, the company would run house shows in Rochester, Troy, Syracuse and Buffalo. The first time they televised an event from the state was Clash of the Champions 9, New York Knock Out in Troy later that year. Until April 1993, the closest they had come to Madison Square Garden was the Meadowlands, then known as the Brendan Byrne arena, just a few miles away, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
At the time the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the show was considered a complete disaster by fans in attendance, and by staff behind the scenes. Firstly, Ric Flair who had been scheduled to make a non-wrestling appearance was not at the show, as the plane he was flying in from Charlotte on had engine problems. This resulted in chants throughout the night of “we want Flair”, but WCW was unable to fix this. Dave even notes that the show was compared negatively to that years recent Wrestlemania 9, and that’s saying something.
In another interesting note from the week before;’s issue, Rick Rude had appeared on Howard Stern on April 9th to try and promote the event. I say try, as Rick barely got a word in as Stern cracked jokes at Fred the Elephant Boy. The Observer also noted that WCW had far from sold out the venue, drawing two thousand nine hundred paid, just over half of what the venue could hold. In the following week’s issue, this number was corrected to just two thousand three hundred, moving it to less than half.
As far as the card, reports were that the best match of the night, Ron Simmons versus Chris Benoit was stopped abruptly a minute in, for which nobody knew the reason. In the main event, Sting defeated WCW World champion Vader by DQ, when his manager Harley Race interfered. According to the Observer, this “only added to the feeling of being ripped off by the high ($25, $19, $11) ticket prices.” Bloody hell, try getting into a WWE show for that now. WCW would return to the Paramount Theater a few years later, right before one of their biggest moments in history, but we’ll get back to that soon. The next show at the venue might be a surprising one though.
July 27th 1994 AAA/ICW
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=75048
On July 27th 1994, Triple A of all companies ran in the Paramount Theater. Not only did they outsell WCW the year earlier, but they did so by hundreds of fans, with two thousand eight hundred paid reported initially. Dave notes in the Observer that the number may have ended up higher than this, with more fans piling in throughout the night to make the place feel like a sellout by the end. The event was part of a two show tour, with Triple A also running the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago the night before. While both shows were money losers for the promotion, the tickets were priced at between twenty five and fifty dollars, and so made for an impressive looking gate figure.
As early as May, Dave Meltzer had referred to the events, which were promoted as Triple A IWC shows as a “gamble”. He says “While both New York and Chicago have large spanish speaking populations, this is the first time AAA/IWC will have attempted shows outside of the Southwest and in markets where there is no past history of successful Lucha Libre style shows.” Triple A had run in California a fair bit, but as Dave also said the week earlier, “venturing outside of California for Lucha Libre is definitely a major dice roll.”
While many Triple A stars that US fans would come to know in later years were on the card, such as Konnan, Psicosis and La Parka, there were a fair few Americans too. Diamond Dallas Page, Too Cold Scorpio were on both nights, and in the main event, Jake Robers teamed with Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr. While Jake had wrestled for Triple A a few times in the year earlier in California and Mexico, and Scorpio would wrestle for them after the New York and Chicago shows, these would be DDP’s only matches for the promotion.
Going into the show, it was also announced that Pedro Morales would be honored on the night. The Puerto Rican Morales had been WWWF champion from 1971 to 73, and had sold out Madison Square Garden throughout that time.
June 30th 1996 - One week before Bash at the Beach 96
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=44938
On June 30th 1996 WCW would return to the Paramount Theater, this time with a familiar face to the New York fans on the card. No, not Hulk Hogan but more on him in a minute. The semi-main event on the night, Randy Savage versus Ric Flair, a very clever main event to put on given that they had faced off at Wrestlemania 8 a few years earlier, was refereed by Bruno Sammartino, famed seller outer of Madison Square Garden. Pedro Morales also appeared, accompanying Konnan to the ring. Overall this show could be considered a far greater success than the last, as three thousand five hundred paid were reportedly there according to the New York State Athletic commission, much improved over last time.
Reports that came in to the Observer after the event were generally positive, however one wrestler on the card didn’t receive too warm a welcome. United States champion Konnan would defend his title against Kevin Sullivan, but would be heckled throughout the match by the crowd, who were chanting things such as “You still suck,” “ECW,” and “Sandman kicked your ass.” These chants are referring to Konnan’s brief time in ECW, where on his first and last nights in the promotion he would lose to the Sandman for the ECW World title. This poor reception would cause Konnan to go on a profanity laden rant. “Konnan after swearing at the fans, which drew him a lot of heat among WCW officials, said that ECW was in a bingo hall and WCW was where the big boys played and they were drawing 5,000 people. Sullivan quickly got the mic away from him and basically did an apology saying that those weren’t the opinions of WCW and that WCW wasn’t feel that way and then said some politically very nice things about being a fan of ECW.” At Bash at the Beach a week later, Konnan would lose the US title to Ric Flair. Whether this was planned already or a punishment for what happened we might never know, but it’s surely not the thing anyone remembers from Bash at the Beach 1996.
I said before that I would get back to Hulk Hogan, well one week after this event would take place, Bash at the Beach 1996 would happen, where he would do a John Cena as I’m now calling it, and turn on the Hulkamaniacs, forming the New World Order. Neither Hall, Nash or Hogan were on the show, but who knew that a week later the three would make history?
30th August 1998 Summerslam 1998 - Lion's Den match
Remember that one WWE match I hinted at in the intro? It happened at Summerslam 1998 on August 30th 1998. While the rest of the card, headlined by Stone Cold Steve Austin defending the WWF title against the Undertaker took place in the main MSG arena, one match did take place in the theater. Half way through the night, Ken Shamrock would do battle with his rival Owen Hart in a brand new kind of match, as they would step into the Lions Den.
At Fully Loaded a month earlier, the two had a fight in the infamous Hart Family Dungeon, where Owen would cheat to win by using a dumbell. For the rematch, they would battle in a cage that was more suited to Shamrock, clearly inspired heavily by the UFC Octagon.
In an interview with James Romero in 2022, Ken Shamrock said that he had input in the design of the cage, including the slanted walls, which according to him allowed he and his opponents to work with them similar to ring ropes, like how Owen jumps off the wall in the Summerslam ‘98 match. In later versions of the match, weapons were hung from the top of it, and Ken also says that was his idea. One other thing Shamrock adds is that the walkway along the top was thought of as something for a wrestler to jump off, though this would never happen in any of the Lion’s Den matches.
In the August 10th Observer, Dave would lay out the tentative plans for the match. “They have booked the 4,500-seat Theater in Madison Square Garden (formerly known as the Paramount Theater and before that the Felt Forum) and will set up a fighting structure similar to a UFC octagon and the Shamrock-Hart match will take place there with all tickets $18 and they’ll probably also do a live angle in that building, and they’ll air the rest of the show on closed-circuit from next door.” In another interesting part, Dave notes that “WWF asked UFC for use of the octagon for the match but even though UFC and WWF have been on good terms, as WWF has given UFC plugs on TV for its PPV events and UFC has allowed WWF use of all Shamrock and Severn footage, UFC felt it would be compromising the product if the octagon structure was used in a worked match.”
Perhaps the reason that WWE hasn’t attempted anything quite like this since lies in the numbers from the night, as fifthteen thousand paying fans were reportedly in the main arena, while the Theatre didn’t do so well. While with the Lion’s Den cage in there, the venue was set up for four and a half thousand fans, only two and a half thousand attended, of which eighteen hundred had bought tickets. While WWF likely wasn’t hurting for money following the night thanks to it’s high ticket sales in the arena, two hundred grand in merchandise sales and seven hundred thousand buys on pay per view, as the Observer notes, “Considering the hype for this show and the state of the business, that theater figure just exemplifies, even more so than the Nitro attempt in Philadelphia some months back, that closed-circuit is dead.”
Despite the UFC aesthetic, Hart and Shamrock had a very pro wrestling feeling match in the MMA setting. I don’t know what they used for the flooring of the cage, but the bumps taken in the match sounded pretty gnarly. Former UFC heavyweight champion Dan Severn would refuse to throw in the towel for Owen Hart, allowing Shamrock the win, which would lead to a submission match between Severn and Hart in the following month.
The Lion’s Den would return a few more times, often lurking in the corner of the arena, much like mud pits, graves and other gimmicks had for other matches, and would not be seen again after Ken Shamrock left WWF a year later. Now that WWE and UFC are both under the same corporate overlords, who knows if the Lions Den could someday make a comeback? I do, it’s not likely.
November 16th 2016 NXT House show
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=164496
For the next show, we jump eighteen years ahead. On November 16th 2016 NXT black and gold, the name retroactively given to the super indie days of the brand, presented a live event from the Theatre at MSG, which was reported to have had three thousand fans in attendance. That number sounds massive for what is a developmental brand, but NXT was becoming a very strong at this time, even touring internationally and holding WWE Network specials outside of their regular home at Full Sail University.
I did say at the start that some of these stories weren’t exactly going to be revelations, well the most newsworthy thing that was reported about this NXT event, were some special guests in the crowd. Shane McMahon, his kids and former member of the Mean Street Posse, Pete Gas were all in attendance, and they would even take part a little bit, dancing with No Way Jose following his win over Roderick Strong. That’s right, No Way Jose was a thing, and he beat a former Ring of Honor World Champion. Later in the night it would also be noted that Johnny Gargano would dive out of the ring, nearly landing in Shane’s lap. Well that is one way to get noticed but it might not get you onto the main roster.
The show was headlined by a six man tag team match, in which NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and DIY would defeat Samoa Joe and the NXT tag team champions, the Revival, now known as FTR. Shinsuke would pin Dash Wilder after hitting a kinshasa, just a few days before NXT Takeover Toronto, where Samoa Joe would defeat him for the NXT title. Joe and Nakamura had been trading the championship back and forth for much of 2016, and would continue to into the new year. Shinsuke had originally won it from Joe at Takeover Brooklyn 2 in August, but Joe would take it back in November. Nakamura would win the title back in December in Osaka Japan, and would end the feud by retaining it in a steel cage match in Melbourne Australia one week later, though this would air in January 2017.
Speaking of Takeover Toronto, DIY would also win the NXT tag team championships from the Revival. This match would rank number one in a top twenty five list of wwe.com’s top matches of 2016. These were truly interesting times for NXT, when they had a mixture of guys they wanted to build themselves, mixing with top international indie talent.
September 15th 2019 AAA Lucha Invades NY
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=228061
For the final entry in this video, Triple A would return to the former Paramount Theater twenty five years after their first time there. This would be the only show on this list to take place during the brief time that it was known as the Hulu Theater, though it was originally supposed to take place inside Madison Square Garden itself. The story of this is long and complicated in itself, as Triple A had been trying to get an event in the Garden since the year earlier. WWE had long had a stranglehold on running MSG, but in June 2018, Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported that “the Garden had been reaching out to other wrestling companies as WWE has not been running at the venue consistently, choosing instead to run the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. WWE is running all of their Wrestlemania 35 week events at Barclays, which has been in a promotional war with MSG over touring acts since the Brooklyn venue opened in 2012.” This may well have led to Ring of Honor and new Japan being able to run in the Garden in April 2019.
In the August 26th Observer, Dave reports that the show was officially moved to the Hulu Theater, citing low ticket sales and very poor advertising. PWInsider reported that the decision was “quietly made two weeks earlier after AAA executives met with Garden executives.” Dave adds that at this point they had two thousand tickets sold, so these could likely be transferred over to the smaller venue. Another problem the show faced was the promotion not being able to get work visa’s, which Dave blamed in the Trump administration. “It’s been hard for Japan, but because of Trump’s presidency, it’s ten times worse for those from Mexico. We were told that visas used to take maybe a month, but there are some visas that have taken eight months and they still haven’t been approved.”
On September 15th 2019, Lucha Invades New York would take place, co-promoted with Impact Wrestling. The link with Impact came about only a couple of weeks before the event, as the September 9th Observer notes that Triple A didn’t have a license to promote in New York, but Impact did as they had run there before. At that time, the only match announced that included Impact talent was Taya Valkyrie versus Tessa Blanchard, and possibly due to them coming to help out, more Impact names would be added to the show. Josh Alexander, Sami Callihan and Michael Elgin all represented Impact in a six man tag against Triple A stars, while a couple of other matches would feature regulars for both promotions, as Taya Valkyrie would defeat Tessa Blanchard for the Reina de Reinas championship, while the Lucha Bros would defend the Triple A World tag team titles against Santana and Ortiz.
Looking at the card, even with the Impact wrestlers on it, one name noticeably stands out. Former two time UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. I should probably warn you here that I'm not well versed in lucha libre, so apologies if I butcher any names here. Cain was taking part in his second professional match, his first being a month earlier at Triplemania twenty seven, a match that also had Cody Rhodes in it. On this night at the Hulu Theater he would team up with Brian Cage, who was an Impact talent at the time, to face El Texano Jr, Rey Escorpion and Taurus, now known as AEW’s Beast Mortos.
Not long after this event, Cain would sign what was reported by major outlets to be a “multi Year deal” with WWE, and later that month, he would have his one and only televised match for the promotion, a two minute clash loss to his former UFC rival, Brock Lesnar in Saudi Arabia. As of me making this video, this would be his one and only singles match of his pro wrestling career. He would wrestle one more match at a house show in Mexico City, before being released on April 28th 2020 as a cost cutting measure during the pandemic, along with a slew of other wrestlers.
Aside from all of the issues I mentioned earlier, there were more woes for Triple A after the show. Lucha Invades New York had been available as both in i-pay per view on Fite, and on traditional pay per view, the numbers for the latter being terrible. In the Observer, Dave reported that “In more than one market with a high percentage of Hispanics, there were 0 buys, as in not a low number, but zero. Based on actual numbers we have, it would indicate less than 60 buys nationwide and even that may be high because the early market actually included heavy Hispanic markets. There must have been some iPPV numbers, but our response level was very low.” In the same newsletter Dave noted that the show would air for free on AXS tv, where Impact also aired.
So that brings us to the present day, and NXT Roadblock. While the event had begun in 2016 as a WWE Network special on the road to Wrestlemania, since 2022 the name had been used for a special televised episode of NXT. This year's iteration was first announced on February 11th, exactly one month before, and was booked into the Theatre to tie in the Raw on the previous night coming from the Garden. NXT has run some really interesting venues over the last year, like the former ECW arena and long may it continue, as it gives these shows a very special look and feel to them. WWE made the place look so stunning, it makes me wonder why they haven’t run the venue more.
As of the afternoon of the show according to Wrestle Tix on X, they had distributed over four thousand seven hundred tickets, with just fifty eight remaining based on the setup they had. The venue was displaying a big “Sold out” sign outside, and as far as I can tell, NXT Roadblock may have been the first show to achieve this. If all of the numbers I have quoted through this video are accurate, that makes this the most successful wrestling show to ever come from the Theatre at Madison Square Garden.
That doesn’t feel too unbelievable though, with WWE riding high these days, breaking some kind of record seemingly everywhere they go. The card for Roadblock was absolutely stacked too, with the Hardy’s defending their TNA tag team titles, as well as a match for the NXT championship, and a title for title match between two of WWE’s biggest acquisitions of last year who seemed to be on a collision course. NXT hasn’t just out sold their own last effort in 2016, they have outsold every other wrestling show the venue ever held, and I bet the LFG legends think they did it too. Except for Mickie James, she seems cool.
Sources:
Wrestling Observer April 26th 1993 WCW show 1 report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-26-1993-observer-newsletter-disastrous-wcw-show-msg-kerry-von/
Wrestling Observer April 19th 1993 Howard Stern https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-19-1993-observer-newsletter-von-erich-death-fallout-hogan-title/
Howard Stern April 9th 1993 - Rick Rude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2veZNPsm3A
Wrestling Observer August 1st 1994 AAA report: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-1-1994-observer-newsletter-mcmahon-titan-not-guilty-92761/
Handheld AAA New York Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlmuOz5jY1U
Wrestling Observer July 4th 1994: AAA ticket prices https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-4-1994-observer-newsletter-jury-selection-mcmahon-trial-horrible/
Wrestling Observer June 20th 1994 Pedro Morales note https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-20-1994-observer-newsletter-wcw-debuts-hulk-hogan-wwf-debuts-fake/
Wrestling Observer May 9th 1994, AAA show is a gamble https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-9-1994-observer-newsletter-charles-austin-receives-gigantic/
Wrestling Observer July 8th 1996 - WCW return and Konnan story https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-8-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-warriorwwe-relationship/
Wrestling Observer July 15th 1996 WCW 2 attendance https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-15-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-bash-beach-1996-recap-ufc/
Wrestling Observer August 10th 1998 Lions Den https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-10-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-96877/
Wrestling Observer September 7th 1998 Summerslam 1998 report
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-7-1998-ric-flair-legal-battle/
Ken Shamrock on the Lion's Den Cage - WSI November 18th 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_tLK3BBs8o
Wrestling Observer November 23rd 2016 NXT show recap: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-28-2016-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwe-survivor-series/
WWE.com’s top matches 25 of 2016: https://www.wwe.com/article/top-25-matches-of-2016
PWInsider June 22nd 2018 MSG upset with WWE https://www.pwinsider.com/article/118328/does-aaa-still-have-dates-at-madison-square-garden.html?p=1
PWInsider August 16th 2019 Show moved to Hulu Theater: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/128831/aaa-nyc-return-moved-from-madison-square-garden.html?p=1
Wrestling Observer August 19th 2019 Visa issues https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-19-2019-observer-newsletter-summerslam-and-g1-finals-reviews/
Wrestling Observer August 26th 2019 AAA moved from MSG: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-26-2019-observer-newsletter-birth-wednesday-night-war-more/
Wrestling Observer September 9th 2019 Impact involvement https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-9-2019-observer-newsletter-aew-all-out-review-chris-jericho/
Wrestling Observer September 23rd 2019 AAA show report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-23-2019-observer-newsletter-nxt-debut-usa-clash-champions/
ESPN reporting Cain’s WWE signing: https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/27822250/cain-velasquez-signs-multiyear-deal-wwe-tyson-fury-appear
Wrestle Tix on X from March 11th 2025: https://x.com/WrestleTix/status/1899598476377272563
At Fully Loaded a month earlier, the two had a fight in the infamous Hart Family Dungeon, where Owen would cheat to win by using a dumbell. For the rematch, they would battle in a cage that was more suited to Shamrock, clearly inspired heavily by the UFC Octagon.
In an interview with James Romero in 2022, Ken Shamrock said that he had input in the design of the cage, including the slanted walls, which according to him allowed he and his opponents to work with them similar to ring ropes, like how Owen jumps off the wall in the Summerslam ‘98 match. In later versions of the match, weapons were hung from the top of it, and Ken also says that was his idea. One other thing Shamrock adds is that the walkway along the top was thought of as something for a wrestler to jump off, though this would never happen in any of the Lion’s Den matches.
In the August 10th Observer, Dave would lay out the tentative plans for the match. “They have booked the 4,500-seat Theater in Madison Square Garden (formerly known as the Paramount Theater and before that the Felt Forum) and will set up a fighting structure similar to a UFC octagon and the Shamrock-Hart match will take place there with all tickets $18 and they’ll probably also do a live angle in that building, and they’ll air the rest of the show on closed-circuit from next door.” In another interesting part, Dave notes that “WWF asked UFC for use of the octagon for the match but even though UFC and WWF have been on good terms, as WWF has given UFC plugs on TV for its PPV events and UFC has allowed WWF use of all Shamrock and Severn footage, UFC felt it would be compromising the product if the octagon structure was used in a worked match.”
Perhaps the reason that WWE hasn’t attempted anything quite like this since lies in the numbers from the night, as fifthteen thousand paying fans were reportedly in the main arena, while the Theatre didn’t do so well. While with the Lion’s Den cage in there, the venue was set up for four and a half thousand fans, only two and a half thousand attended, of which eighteen hundred had bought tickets. While WWF likely wasn’t hurting for money following the night thanks to it’s high ticket sales in the arena, two hundred grand in merchandise sales and seven hundred thousand buys on pay per view, as the Observer notes, “Considering the hype for this show and the state of the business, that theater figure just exemplifies, even more so than the Nitro attempt in Philadelphia some months back, that closed-circuit is dead.”
Despite the UFC aesthetic, Hart and Shamrock had a very pro wrestling feeling match in the MMA setting. I don’t know what they used for the flooring of the cage, but the bumps taken in the match sounded pretty gnarly. Former UFC heavyweight champion Dan Severn would refuse to throw in the towel for Owen Hart, allowing Shamrock the win, which would lead to a submission match between Severn and Hart in the following month.
The Lion’s Den would return a few more times, often lurking in the corner of the arena, much like mud pits, graves and other gimmicks had for other matches, and would not be seen again after Ken Shamrock left WWF a year later. Now that WWE and UFC are both under the same corporate overlords, who knows if the Lions Den could someday make a comeback? I do, it’s not likely.
November 16th 2016 NXT House show
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=164496
For the next show, we jump eighteen years ahead. On November 16th 2016 NXT black and gold, the name retroactively given to the super indie days of the brand, presented a live event from the Theatre at MSG, which was reported to have had three thousand fans in attendance. That number sounds massive for what is a developmental brand, but NXT was becoming a very strong at this time, even touring internationally and holding WWE Network specials outside of their regular home at Full Sail University.
I did say at the start that some of these stories weren’t exactly going to be revelations, well the most newsworthy thing that was reported about this NXT event, were some special guests in the crowd. Shane McMahon, his kids and former member of the Mean Street Posse, Pete Gas were all in attendance, and they would even take part a little bit, dancing with No Way Jose following his win over Roderick Strong. That’s right, No Way Jose was a thing, and he beat a former Ring of Honor World Champion. Later in the night it would also be noted that Johnny Gargano would dive out of the ring, nearly landing in Shane’s lap. Well that is one way to get noticed but it might not get you onto the main roster.
The show was headlined by a six man tag team match, in which NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and DIY would defeat Samoa Joe and the NXT tag team champions, the Revival, now known as FTR. Shinsuke would pin Dash Wilder after hitting a kinshasa, just a few days before NXT Takeover Toronto, where Samoa Joe would defeat him for the NXT title. Joe and Nakamura had been trading the championship back and forth for much of 2016, and would continue to into the new year. Shinsuke had originally won it from Joe at Takeover Brooklyn 2 in August, but Joe would take it back in November. Nakamura would win the title back in December in Osaka Japan, and would end the feud by retaining it in a steel cage match in Melbourne Australia one week later, though this would air in January 2017.
Speaking of Takeover Toronto, DIY would also win the NXT tag team championships from the Revival. This match would rank number one in a top twenty five list of wwe.com’s top matches of 2016. These were truly interesting times for NXT, when they had a mixture of guys they wanted to build themselves, mixing with top international indie talent.
September 15th 2019 AAA Lucha Invades NY
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=228061
For the final entry in this video, Triple A would return to the former Paramount Theater twenty five years after their first time there. This would be the only show on this list to take place during the brief time that it was known as the Hulu Theater, though it was originally supposed to take place inside Madison Square Garden itself. The story of this is long and complicated in itself, as Triple A had been trying to get an event in the Garden since the year earlier. WWE had long had a stranglehold on running MSG, but in June 2018, Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported that “the Garden had been reaching out to other wrestling companies as WWE has not been running at the venue consistently, choosing instead to run the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. WWE is running all of their Wrestlemania 35 week events at Barclays, which has been in a promotional war with MSG over touring acts since the Brooklyn venue opened in 2012.” This may well have led to Ring of Honor and new Japan being able to run in the Garden in April 2019.
In the August 26th Observer, Dave reports that the show was officially moved to the Hulu Theater, citing low ticket sales and very poor advertising. PWInsider reported that the decision was “quietly made two weeks earlier after AAA executives met with Garden executives.” Dave adds that at this point they had two thousand tickets sold, so these could likely be transferred over to the smaller venue. Another problem the show faced was the promotion not being able to get work visa’s, which Dave blamed in the Trump administration. “It’s been hard for Japan, but because of Trump’s presidency, it’s ten times worse for those from Mexico. We were told that visas used to take maybe a month, but there are some visas that have taken eight months and they still haven’t been approved.”
On September 15th 2019, Lucha Invades New York would take place, co-promoted with Impact Wrestling. The link with Impact came about only a couple of weeks before the event, as the September 9th Observer notes that Triple A didn’t have a license to promote in New York, but Impact did as they had run there before. At that time, the only match announced that included Impact talent was Taya Valkyrie versus Tessa Blanchard, and possibly due to them coming to help out, more Impact names would be added to the show. Josh Alexander, Sami Callihan and Michael Elgin all represented Impact in a six man tag against Triple A stars, while a couple of other matches would feature regulars for both promotions, as Taya Valkyrie would defeat Tessa Blanchard for the Reina de Reinas championship, while the Lucha Bros would defend the Triple A World tag team titles against Santana and Ortiz.
Looking at the card, even with the Impact wrestlers on it, one name noticeably stands out. Former two time UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. I should probably warn you here that I'm not well versed in lucha libre, so apologies if I butcher any names here. Cain was taking part in his second professional match, his first being a month earlier at Triplemania twenty seven, a match that also had Cody Rhodes in it. On this night at the Hulu Theater he would team up with Brian Cage, who was an Impact talent at the time, to face El Texano Jr, Rey Escorpion and Taurus, now known as AEW’s Beast Mortos.
Not long after this event, Cain would sign what was reported by major outlets to be a “multi Year deal” with WWE, and later that month, he would have his one and only televised match for the promotion, a two minute clash loss to his former UFC rival, Brock Lesnar in Saudi Arabia. As of me making this video, this would be his one and only singles match of his pro wrestling career. He would wrestle one more match at a house show in Mexico City, before being released on April 28th 2020 as a cost cutting measure during the pandemic, along with a slew of other wrestlers.
Aside from all of the issues I mentioned earlier, there were more woes for Triple A after the show. Lucha Invades New York had been available as both in i-pay per view on Fite, and on traditional pay per view, the numbers for the latter being terrible. In the Observer, Dave reported that “In more than one market with a high percentage of Hispanics, there were 0 buys, as in not a low number, but zero. Based on actual numbers we have, it would indicate less than 60 buys nationwide and even that may be high because the early market actually included heavy Hispanic markets. There must have been some iPPV numbers, but our response level was very low.” In the same newsletter Dave noted that the show would air for free on AXS tv, where Impact also aired.
So that brings us to the present day, and NXT Roadblock. While the event had begun in 2016 as a WWE Network special on the road to Wrestlemania, since 2022 the name had been used for a special televised episode of NXT. This year's iteration was first announced on February 11th, exactly one month before, and was booked into the Theatre to tie in the Raw on the previous night coming from the Garden. NXT has run some really interesting venues over the last year, like the former ECW arena and long may it continue, as it gives these shows a very special look and feel to them. WWE made the place look so stunning, it makes me wonder why they haven’t run the venue more.
As of the afternoon of the show according to Wrestle Tix on X, they had distributed over four thousand seven hundred tickets, with just fifty eight remaining based on the setup they had. The venue was displaying a big “Sold out” sign outside, and as far as I can tell, NXT Roadblock may have been the first show to achieve this. If all of the numbers I have quoted through this video are accurate, that makes this the most successful wrestling show to ever come from the Theatre at Madison Square Garden.
That doesn’t feel too unbelievable though, with WWE riding high these days, breaking some kind of record seemingly everywhere they go. The card for Roadblock was absolutely stacked too, with the Hardy’s defending their TNA tag team titles, as well as a match for the NXT championship, and a title for title match between two of WWE’s biggest acquisitions of last year who seemed to be on a collision course. NXT hasn’t just out sold their own last effort in 2016, they have outsold every other wrestling show the venue ever held, and I bet the LFG legends think they did it too. Except for Mickie James, she seems cool.
Sources:
Wrestling Observer April 26th 1993 WCW show 1 report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-26-1993-observer-newsletter-disastrous-wcw-show-msg-kerry-von/
Wrestling Observer April 19th 1993 Howard Stern https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-19-1993-observer-newsletter-von-erich-death-fallout-hogan-title/
Howard Stern April 9th 1993 - Rick Rude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2veZNPsm3A
Wrestling Observer August 1st 1994 AAA report: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-1-1994-observer-newsletter-mcmahon-titan-not-guilty-92761/
Handheld AAA New York Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlmuOz5jY1U
Wrestling Observer July 4th 1994: AAA ticket prices https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-4-1994-observer-newsletter-jury-selection-mcmahon-trial-horrible/
Wrestling Observer June 20th 1994 Pedro Morales note https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-20-1994-observer-newsletter-wcw-debuts-hulk-hogan-wwf-debuts-fake/
Wrestling Observer May 9th 1994, AAA show is a gamble https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-9-1994-observer-newsletter-charles-austin-receives-gigantic/
Wrestling Observer July 8th 1996 - WCW return and Konnan story https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-8-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-warriorwwe-relationship/
Wrestling Observer July 15th 1996 WCW 2 attendance https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-15-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-bash-beach-1996-recap-ufc/
Wrestling Observer August 10th 1998 Lions Den https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-10-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-96877/
Wrestling Observer September 7th 1998 Summerslam 1998 report
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-7-1998-ric-flair-legal-battle/
Ken Shamrock on the Lion's Den Cage - WSI November 18th 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_tLK3BBs8o
Wrestling Observer November 23rd 2016 NXT show recap: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-28-2016-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwe-survivor-series/
WWE.com’s top matches 25 of 2016: https://www.wwe.com/article/top-25-matches-of-2016
PWInsider June 22nd 2018 MSG upset with WWE https://www.pwinsider.com/article/118328/does-aaa-still-have-dates-at-madison-square-garden.html?p=1
PWInsider August 16th 2019 Show moved to Hulu Theater: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/128831/aaa-nyc-return-moved-from-madison-square-garden.html?p=1
Wrestling Observer August 19th 2019 Visa issues https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-19-2019-observer-newsletter-summerslam-and-g1-finals-reviews/
Wrestling Observer August 26th 2019 AAA moved from MSG: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-26-2019-observer-newsletter-birth-wednesday-night-war-more/
Wrestling Observer September 9th 2019 Impact involvement https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-9-2019-observer-newsletter-aew-all-out-review-chris-jericho/
Wrestling Observer September 23rd 2019 AAA show report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-23-2019-observer-newsletter-nxt-debut-usa-clash-champions/
ESPN reporting Cain’s WWE signing: https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/27822250/cain-velasquez-signs-multiyear-deal-wwe-tyson-fury-appear
Wrestle Tix on X from March 11th 2025: https://x.com/WrestleTix/status/1899598476377272563
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