Wrestling Rings

[The Green Meanie]

So the recent belt topic reminded me of another aesthetic that I love about professional wrestling and something completely required, and tends to be overlooked; the rings and the varying color combinations, configurations, etc.

As a child of the 80's I'd be remiss if I didn't start this list off with the classic blue WWF ring, specifically from after 86, when they started putting the logo on the turnbuckles:

 

Second on the list is one that I discovered as a child watching older Coliseum Video tapes, the WWWF/WWF blue and silver ring from the 70's to early 80's. Simple design, but clean and unique with steel posts and matching duct tape ropes and blue velvet turnbuckles and mat/aprons:

 

One that I didn't know about until I got into import gaming is the classic AJPW split color ring. The all-blue mat is nice as well, but not as good at this one:

 

Dishonorable Mentions

I always hated the look of the AWA ring, specifically how the turnbuckle pads always looked like they never fully put them on the turnbuckles since they were only on the top:

 

The ring from the WWF's 1985 Wrestling Classic was just terrible, saggy mat, very thin ropes, no turnbuckle pads but instead the turnbuckles covered with the rope tape:

 

What are some of your favorite rings? There's always a discussion to be had regarding the use of ropes versus cables, rope texture versus smooth cable texture (WCW rings), 3 pad turn buckles versus post turnbuckle (NJPW ring) etc.

 

 

 

[The Z]

1 hour ago, The Green Meanie said:

One that I didn't know about until I got into import gaming is the classic AJPW split color ring. The all-blue mat is nice as well, but not as good at this one:

I also love this classic AJPW ring. I also like the similar split color ring ROH used during their beginning years:

 

I currently love the Lucha Underground ring. It looks slightly dirty, even though it probably isn't, but it's perfect for a promotion called Lucha Underground:

[Technico Support]

Cool topic.  I'd love to hear a wrestler (maybe @Marty Sugar )give their perspective on ropes vs cables.  I feel like WWE's use of ropes is antiquated but what do I know?

Are they using a smaller ring now on Smackdown or is that just forced perspective from the new camera setup?  Speaking of smaller rings, I remember seeing a match on one of the Wrestling Gold DVDs between Terry Funk and Harley Race and the ring was so tiny that the only way to safely do a vertical suplex was to start the move in one of the corners!

[Bustronaut]

The ringside area is bigger now, which makes the ring look smaller

[Web Conn]

This might not be popular consensus but I've always thought TNA's six sided ring looked cool. It made them different and stand apart from WWE.

 

[Lacelle]

I liked the AWA ring & the split colour AJPW ring as well 

[Jerome Miller]

Just curious, did anyone on here ever know of anyone who actually bought a wrestling ring from "Gentleman" Chris Adams when he was advertising them in the Apter mags?

[Matt788]

The ECW ring they used for those old TV tapings always looked scummy, bouncy and broken. It was a shocking sight for you if you grew up on 80's WWF and WCW where more classy rings were the standard. It added another layer of that "someone is going to die/this is unsafe" feeling that made ECW famous.

I hate the shade of green NOAH uses/used on their ring mats. I also hate the NXT ring too, it's ugly for some reason, not sure why.

I loved the screen printed PPV logos on the mat during WCW Nitro era PPVs, but I heard they made wrestlers slip in the center of the ring because the logo was slippery.

[Tromatagon]

9 hours ago, The Z said:

 

I currently love the Lucha Underground ring. It looks slightly dirty, even though it probably isn't, but it's perfect for a promotion called Lucha Underground:

 

The dirt is a work.  They painstakingly clean the ring constantly between matches.  I'm talking using vacuums, disinfecting blood spots, rubbing out any stains that aren't supposed to be there, everything.  While it looks disgusting it's really the least infectious ring in wrestling, probably, because even WWE isn't cleaning the ring up after every match.

[PetrolCB]

2 hours ago, Tromatagon said:

While it looks disgusting it's really the least infectious ring in wrestling, probably, because even WWE isn't cleaning the ring up after every match.

They change the canvas multiple times during shows. A recent example is this past Raw, when after New Day's bloody match it was changed, as well as the Cruiserweight specific canvas that they use. Next time the apron gets flipped up, you'll see a lot of rope tying them all down. 

[Wyld Samurai]

Lucha Underground's ring is my favoritr. I love the whole Azteca look. The mat isn't too bouncy or mic'd. The ropes have the right amount of tension. It is the perfect centerpiece for what LU is trying to pull off.

The old AWA ring annoyed the hell out of me. Take everything I just said about LU and reverse it. The WCW rings I never care for because they were so small.

[Thomas Bugg]

DAMMIT! I was JUST about to start this subject!

 

Personally I've always loved the WCW rings. My favorite design is the one that I'm posting the image of- blue, black and yellow ropes, or white in place of the black. Yes they were small compared to WWE's rings, but I always thought that it added to WCW's character.

 

http://prntscr.com/cns85p

 

I like ROH's current rings. Very professional looking, and from what I've seen I think they're the same dimensions as the WWE ring. And you almost never hear about any incidents of their ring breaking or anything.

 

I totally agree with you all, the AWA ring looked awful. In that picture it looks like the ring crew just sort of slapped the turnbuckles on there without properly installing them, like they were in a rush to get to the Showboat Pavilion from whatever town they were running the night before.

I love New Japan, but something about those boxing-style corner pads always bothered me.

[RIPPA]

21 hours ago, Web Conn said:

This might not be popular consensus but I've always thought TNA's six sided ring looked cool. It made them different and stand apart from WWE.

And was disliked by almost all of the wrestlers.

Yes there is irony in my posting this but... here is Lance Storm's take down on why 6 sided rings suck

[Technico Support]

Possibly an apocryphal story, but it's hilarious to me that NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol was to blame for WWF's hard rings of the mid-80s through late 90s.  Apparently, when WWF and Ebersol were ramping up to the first Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC, he didn't like how springy and fake the old rings looked on TV, so they were rebuilt with far less give.

The late 90s rollout of softer rings and Vince McMahon starting to take more bumps happened around the same time but that's probably unrelated. 

[Thomas Bugg]

47 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

And was disliked by almost all of the wrestlers.

Yes there is irony in my posting this but... here is Lance Storm's take down on why 6 sided rings suck

My only problem with the six sided ring is this- unless TNA opens up an official wrestling school (and at this point they're so broke they can't pay attention) or you go to Mexico to train in AAA, what wrestling school do you know trains its students to work a match in a six sided ring?

[The Green Meanie]

1 hour ago, Thomas Bugg said:

DAMMIT! I was JUST about to start this subject!

Personally I've always loved the WCW rings. My favorite design is the one that I'm posting the image of- blue, black and yellow ropes, or white in place of the black. Yes they were small compared to WWE's rings, but I always thought that it added to WCW's character.

I love New Japan, but something about those boxing-style corner pads always bothered me.

So as a kid the WCW rings fascinated me due to the fact that they had smooth ropes that had a lot less give (which I learned later were cables) and the turnbuckle pads were different looking compared to the WWF's, more of the Japanese style turnbuckles. The NWA/WCW would come up with so many different color combinations using blue/white/yellow/black with sometimes a splash of color thrown in for the aprons, compared to a lack of variety for the WWF rings. The only time you'd get something different was when the ring crew (I would assume) accidentally put the blue rope on top instead of the usual red rope.

 

One way you could tell which arena or city the show was in was to look at the ring itself. Certain towns had their own certain quirks as far as what the ring looked like.

The Spectrum in Philaedlphia stands out as they usually had an all-red color scheme with red turnbuckle pads/posts/aprons and the Spectrum logo, then moved to a standard color set but retained the Spectrum logo:

 

One case that I always found interesting was that of the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. It was an NWA territory before the Tunneys sold out to the WWF. For the first few years on WWF shows they pretty much used an NWA ring for WWF matches! It had dark blue canvas, black thin ropes, and blue/yellow turnbuckles. Then they switched to a version with the standard red/white/blue ropes but still used the NWA turnbuckle pads:

Some shows had them use a hybrid of NWA and WWF pads before they went fully WWF.

[Thomas Bugg]

if you go back and watch the Black Saturday episode of World Championship Wrestling, particularly when Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdock took on SD Jones and Nick DeCarlo, you see where it was an NWA style ring. Hell, with the exception of the WWF commentators calling the match you'd swear you were watching an episode of Mid-Atlantic or World Wide.

 

By the way I totally hated the Memphis rings.

[Technico Support]

Not specifically rings, but it was always cool to watch old WWF Coliseum videos and be able to take one look at the arena and be able to tell what city they were in.  Boston Garden always had the short walkway and those shitty wooden steps, Toronto had the elevated ramp, etc.  Now because of "branding" and the misguided aim for consistency, everything looks the same.

[Thomas Bugg]

21 minutes ago, The Green Meanie said:

 

 

 

One case that I always found interesting was that of the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. It was an NWA territory before the Tunneys sold out to the WWF. For the first few years on WWF shows they pretty much used an NWA ring for WWF matches! It had dark blue canvas, black thin ropes, and blue/yellow turnbuckles. Then they switched to a version with the standard red/white/blue ropes but still used the NWA turnbuckle pads:

Some shows had them use a hybrid of NWA and WWF pads before they went fully WWF

I remember they put a few of those Maple Leaf Gardens shows on WWE 24/7, and when I watched it not only did they use NWA rings, but guys like Valentine and Murdoch were in the ring- I was majorly freaking out!

[The Green Meanie]

12 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Not specifically rings, but it was always cool to watch old WWF Coliseum videos and be able to take one look at the arena and be able to tell what city they were in.  Boston Garden always had the short walkway and those shitty wooden steps, Toronto had the elevated ramp, etc.  Now because of "branding" and the misguided aim for consistency, everything looks the same.

Yup! Boston Gardens always had the all-yellow floor with the yellow ring steps with black handrail and black wooden crowd barriers. Toronto had that elevated walkway a la NWA/WCW of the 80's.

11 minutes ago, Thomas Bugg said:

I remember they put a few of those Maple Leaf Gardens shows on WWE 24/7, and when I watched it not only did they use NWA rings, but guys like Valentine and Murdoch were in the ring- I was majorly freaking out!

The funny thing is when you're a kid you don't notice stuff like this till later on, one of my favorite matches of all time was when Valentine beat Santana for the IC title in Toronto in a full blown NWA ring. First time I saw it I knew the ring looked weird but had no idea why.

[Toolman]

HWA in Cincinnati was a developmental program for WCW and WWE so they had an old WWE rings that they no longer use and a couple WCW rings.  WCW ropes were lower and the boys loved those rings compared to the old WWE ring, which hurt my hand when I slapped the mat hard as a ref.  I can't imagine bumping regularly in those old WWE rings or someone like Foley, who fell through the HIAC onto one.

[Thomas Bugg]

1 hour ago, Toolman said:

HWA in Cincinnati was a developmental program for WCW and WWE so they had an old WWE rings that they no longer use and a couple WCW rings.  WCW ropes were lower and the boys loved those rings compared to the old WWE ring, which hurt my hand when I slapped the mat hard as a ref.  I can't imagine bumping regularly in those old WWE rings or someone like Foley, who fell through the HIAC onto one.

 

Cornette said in a shoot interview that WWE did the same thing with OVW, sent them their throwaway rings. Cornette argued that it wasn't safe, and sure enough Mark Henry got hurt in one when he was sent down to OVW for a spell.

[AxB]

Even in a straight wrestling match, you still wouldn't really want to bump on something like this, would you? (Spoilered for NSFW)

Spoiler

 

[Ace]

9 hours ago, Toolman said:

HWA in Cincinnati was a developmental program for WCW and WWE so they had an old WWE rings that they no longer use and a couple WCW rings.  WCW ropes were lower and the boys loved those rings compared to the old WWE ring, which hurt my hand when I slapped the mat hard as a ref.  I can't imagine bumping regularly in those old WWE rings or someone like Foley, who fell through the HIAC onto one.

I remember when WWE shipped all the WCW rings out to the developmentals. UPW refused to us their's, so they traded it to the local lucha group for free rent of their ring.

 

[Thomas Bugg]

On 9/29/2016 at 9:51 PM, AxB said:

Even in a straight wrestling match, you still wouldn't really want to bump on something like this, would you? (Spoilered for NSFW)

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What the fuck kind of backyard fed is this? I bet bul got paid $10 tops for putting himself through that crap, literally and figuratively.