5 Of The Best TV Events At Baltimore Arena

 

AEW Dynamite hails from my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland tonight. This will be the fourth Dynamite held here since the Company's inception in 2019, and the 5th AEW event the first Full Gear was here in 2019. I wrote a blog last year about 5 of the best wrestling pay-per-views to hail from what is now the CFG Bank Arena, but is more commonly known to locals as The Baltimore Arena (among other names). 

                                         

So my brain started randomly thinking about some of the best episodes of weekly television wrestling programs, held in Baltimore. I did some research and went back in the archives to sort through 5 of them. While tonight's Dynamite is from the Cheaspeake Insurance Employees Arena (located on UMBC's college campus), the list focuses on episodes stemming from CFG Bank Arena (downtown Baltimore) where most events have been held.

5. Smackdown November 11, 1999

                                        

This episode was the 12th episode of Smackdown and was hyped because Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared to hype his film End Of Days. He even received his own replica championship (before WWE gave them to celebrities like candy), as the World Box Office Champion. Honestly, that was probably the highlight of the night as the rest of the card was ok. However Arnold's appearance, along with WWF's popularity at that time just made the whole episode seem more important than it was, and the excitement in the air that night even in hindsight is still there.

Arnold even got his hands dirty a little bit during the 8 man tag main event. Outside of that the next biggest occurrence on the show was Jericho hitting Chyna with a bottle busting her open, ahead of their intercontinental championship match at Survivor Series. And the poor vignettes of Bossman hijacking the Big Show's father's funeral.  Thanks to Arnold this was a special moment at the arena. 

4. Monday Night Raw May 11th, 1998

Interesting fact that this episode of RAW was the first held at the Baltimore Arena, in what was at that time the show's 5th year on air. It aired during the time the Attitude era was really taking off, so all the power players of that era were on this episode. Highlights of the episode included Dude Love showing up as his "corporate" self.  Dustin Rhodes burning his Goldust, vignettes of D-X visiting Atlanta and WCW headquarters during their takeover efforts. Owen Hart facing off against Triple H at the beginning of the Nation and D-X feud.

The Main Event featured Stone Cold Steve Austin & Vince McMahon facing off against The Rock & D' Lo Brown. Which ended in a wild brawl when Vince McMahon and his cronies started attacking Stone Cold, leading to Dude Love, Dustin Rhodes, The Nation, and D-X joining in the fray as the show went off the air.

3. Monday Night Raw August 5th, 2024

I was live in attendance for this episode last summer, coming off Summerslam that weekend which I also attended. The energy in the arena was sizzling before the show even kicked off, and when it did it was a blast. Highlights of this episode included a hard hitting fight between Sheamus and Ludwig Kaiser. Randy Orton appearing on RAW to become the first challenger for Gunther's new world heavyweight championship.

Damien Priest and Rhea getting their payback on Judgement Day after the group turned on them both. Bronson Reed completely annihilating Seth Rollins. In addition one of the many heated promos between CM Punk, Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre.  The main event featured The Wyatt Sicks, when folks were still terrified of them facing off against American Made.

2. Monday Night Raw July 8th, 2013

On the surface this episode seems kind of eh, but it had a damn good main event and included the debut of one of the most unique figures and faction in pro wrestling. The original trio of the Wyatt Family Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erik Rowan finally debuted after weeks of vignettes. The trio attacked Kane and left the Big Red Machine laying to display they were a force to reckon with. Vickie Guerrero was fired from her role as general manager of RAW and Brad Maddox (remember him?) took over those duties.

After Mark Henry shocked the world by faking his retirement and laying out John Cena, he had some work for Cena ahead of their match at the upcoming Money In The Bank card. Again, Henry left Super Cena lying in agony. The main event featured a hard fought bout between CM Punk and Randy Orton, one in which Punk won but Daniel Bryan had the last laugh.

1. Monday Night Nitro December 29, 1997

You maybe thinking huh?, but hear me out why this is number one on the list. WCW was still red hot at the time, the episode dealt with the fallout from Starrcade the previous night. Arguably the greatest promoted event in wrestling history, even if the results were lackluster. Sting won the World Heavyweight Championship the night before, and a supposed new era had dawned on WCW. All of that combined had electricity in the air that night, and you can still feel it watching on TV.

This was actually only the 2nd Nitro held at the arena at the time. Bret Hart and Ric Flair gave promos proclaiming where they stood on things. Chris Jericho's tantrums and frustrations at constantly losing that led to his heel turn started that night. Ultimo Dragon defeated Eddie Guerrero to win the WCW Crusierweight Championship. Diamond Dallas Page defended his newly won WCW United States Championship against Mortis to begin his rise up the card. Booker T. defeated Disco Inferno that night to win the WCW Television Championship and start his historic reign, and path to becoming a pillar of WCW. 

The main event saw Hogan and Sting faceoff again and ending in a world of chaos as the show was going off the air. Which WCW dragged out a little too long exactly what happened when the show went off, but they needed to hook people in for the debuting WCW Thunder. It was a night of excitement even if the follow up wasn't there, and made for a special night at the arena.