8 Wrestling Shows With EMBARRASSING Attendances
4. 5* Wrestling Live In Belfast (Manchester Arena)
The UK's 5 Star Wrestling was a curious case in that it sprung to life, similar to TNA's Suicide, as a tangible embodiment of a video game. It was quite fitting then, that this virtual company ultimately had virtual fans.
The company's first show - the snappily titled 5 Star ReGenesis, after the PS4 game of the same name - took place in Edinburgh. It's hard to understand why it was greenlit (quite literally also - it looked like it was taking place under aurora borealis) given how few people John Morrison could realistically attract to the city's Meadowbank Sports Centre.
5 Star started as they didn't mean to go on. The first date of their UK tour the following January opened before swathes of empty seats at Newcastle's Metro Radio Arena, despite featuring a relatively strong line up including Rey Mysterio and AJ Styles. Arguably the company's nadir - take your pick - came on their big TV debut. Renamed 'Dominant Wrestling' - presumably to attract Channel 5's mid-'90s grot audience - the Dundee special saw its wrestlers emerge to the same music before a virtually empty hall.
In 2017, CM Punk was offered $1 million to star in a Liverpool show, which he smartly refused. Shortly after, an ambitious date for Manchester's MEN Arena was cancelled, with the promoters cravenly citing the recent terrorist attack on the venue for its nixing.
The grift came to a humiliating end in 2018, with a Belfast show attracting just 180 people to the 11,000 seater SSE Arena - about 1%, in other words. The company's future dates were fairly swiftly cancelled.