Professional Wrestling
The Arena has held numerous professional wrestling events and moments. Promotions such as the World Wrestling Federation has visited the arena quite often. From 1990-1998 189,833 WWF fans have walked through the Times Union Center doors. Three superstars won their first WWF Championship in this arena. 1992's Royal Rumble took place here, with an attendance of 16,307. The event is considered one of the most notable events in WWF History as Ric Flair went for almost an hour to win the Rumble, and claim the WWF Championship for the first time.
In 1999 the then Pepsi Arena, Stone Cold Steve Austin had a beer truck driven down the ramp to the ring and sprayed Vince McMahon, The Rock, and Shane McMahon with beer.
In 2000, the Pepsi Arena hosted the World Wrestling Federation's No Mercy, notable for the return of Steve Austin to active competition after being injured at the hands of Rikishi. This show also featured Kurt Angle winning the WWF Championship for the first time, defeating the Rock. The show was also sold-out with an attendance of 14,342
In 2002, the newly renamed World Wrestling Entertainment hosted the Tour of Defiance and in 2003 the WWE recorded a historic episode of SmackDown when the Undertaker took on the Big Show and Brock Lesnar in a handicap match. Also featured the return of Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi).
Edge also won his first WWE Championship in January 2006, when it hosted New Year's Revolution after cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on John Cena. The attendance was 11,000.
On August 28, 2007 the Times Union Center held the first live televised ECW on Sci Fi accompanied by the first WWE SmackDown taping after WWE Summerslam 2007. The SmackDown taping featured the return of Rey Mysterio to SmackDown after a knee injury. WWE Smackdown also had a double taping, on November 25, 2008 where it featured The Undertaker facing The Big Show in a Steel Cage match.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling held their first live event at the arena on September 7, 2008.
On September 28, 2009, WWE Monday Night Raw was held there with guest host, Al Sharpton. The show returned again on December 27, 2010 at the Times Union Center.
On April 12, 2011, WWE Friday Night SmackDown was once again held at the Times Union Center just one week after WrestleMania XXVII. It is also here where Edge vacated his World Heavyweight title, the day after he announced on WWE Monday Night Raw that he is forced to retire due to a career threatening injury.
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Famous quotes containing the words professional and/or wrestling:
“Three words that still have meaning, that I think we can apply to all professional writing, are discovery, originality, invention. The professional writer discovers some aspect of the world and invents out of the speech of his time some particularly apt and original way of putting it down on paper.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“We laugh at him who steps out of his room at the very moment when the sun steps out, and says: “I will the sun to rise”; and at him who cannot stop the wheel, and says: “I will it to roll”; and at him who is taken down in a wrestling match, and says: “I lie here, but I will that I lie here!” And yet, all laughter aside, do we ever do anything other than one of these three things when we use the expression, “I will”?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)