5 Strangest Locations For Professional Wrestling Matches

As Jim Morrison once sang, "Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down." The entire planet has been turned upside down in light of the pandemic, and professional wrestling has clearly not been immune to drastic change. As it stands right now, WrestleMania 36 will air in unprecedented form, a two-night event from WWE's unattended Performance Center, with word that several matches could be taped beforehand from alternate locations.

It's hard to imagine WrestleMania taking this form, but that's the lay of the land in these tense and frustrating times. Can you imagine, though, Roman Reigns and Goldberg brawling for the Universal championship at some gym near Goldberg's house? Who knows what lengths WWE may go to not only prevent from too many performers huddling in and around the Performance Center at once, but also to spice up the 'Mania broadcast with something somewhat eclectic?

With only the limits of the imagination confining them, WWE could display a few unique match locales at WrestleMania 36. With that in mind, let's take a look back at some of the strangest places to have ever held a wrestling match.

As Jim Morrison once sang, "Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down." The entire planet has been turned upside down in light of the pandemic, and professional wrestling has clearly not been immune to drastic change. As it stands right now, WrestleMania 36 will air in unprecedented form, a two-night event from WWE's unattended Performance Center, with word that several matches could be taped beforehand from alternate locations.

It's hard to imagine WrestleMania taking this form, but that's the lay of the land in these tense and frustrating times. Can you imagine, though, Roman Reigns and Goldberg brawling for the Universal championship at some gym near Goldberg's house? Who knows what lengths WWE may go to not only prevent from too many performers huddling in and around the Performance Center at once, but also to spice up the 'Mania broadcast with something somewhat eclectic?

With only the limits of the imagination confining them, WWE could display a few unique match locales at WrestleMania 36. With that in mind, let's take a look back at some of the strangest places to have ever held a wrestling match.

5. The Hardy Compound

We're talking about a vast expanse of land surrounding the palatial home of one Matt Hardy.

Backyard wrestling matches aren't all that uncommon, but chances are your childhood home wasn't situated next to a body of water with reincarnative qualities (nor was the yard so immaculately landscaped).

If ever a wrestler possessed an unlimited imagination, it's the "Broken" one himself, cackling mightily upon his trusty lawn mower, in preparation for the massacre ahead.

4. Stu Hart's Dungeon

Quite a few wrestling legends have had their tendons stretched, bones bent, and tear ducts worked into overdrive as Stu Hart tortured them in the basement of his manor - and that's not even counting the many more that painfully fled the house in terror, never to return.

In 1998, Stu's youngest son Owen battled Ken Shamrock in said Dungeon at the Fully Loaded pay-per-view, where Owen demonstrated home field advantage by using the plumbing and a nearby weight set to his advantage.

3. The House Of Horrors

Many believed this to be a horridly-pale imitation of the Hardy-related mayhem on IMPACT Wrestling, and that may have been putting it lightly.

In April of 2017, WWE champion Randy Orton met Bray Wyatt inside an abandoned abode, notable for its sentient lawn mower, and room with suspended dolls. If they were going for scary, they gave us farcical instead, as the fans in San Jose voiced displeasure at a match that was about as chill-inducing as a Pixar film.

2. Ganryujima Island

The spiritual predecessor to the Final Deletion? Could be.

In 1987, Antonio Inoki's long-simmering feud with Masa Saito came to a head on this Japanese island, famous for a duel between two rival swordsmen centuries earlier.

Inoki and Saito fought for over two hours on the island, with fire coming into play. Saito suffered a legitimate eye injury, and Inoki dislocated his shoulder, before Inoki won the bloody deathmatch via TKO.

Four years later, Hiroshi Hase defeated Tiger Jeet Singh in a less-heralded match on the island.

1. On The Back Of A Moving 18 Wheeler

Recent Cultaholic offerings have made light of this infamous match from WCW Uncensored 1995, in which Dustin Rhodes took on The Blacktop Bully (the former Demolition Smash) in a "King of the Road" match, where the object was to be the first to sound off a horn situated at the top of the trailer.

Rhodes and Bully flung bales of hay at each other, as they struggled to maintain their footing inside the moving vehicle, none of which was all that entertaining. You'd think the action would pick up once they were stopped at an intersection, but no.