Long Island, New York’s Nassau Coliseum is shutting down indefinitely, marking a sad day for longtime wrestling fans who grew up with the venue as their home base.
The arena’s lease is currently held by Onexim Sports and Entertainment, a company owned by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. According to Bloomberg, Prokhorov will shutter the venue ‘indefinitely’ while it seeks investors to take over operations and pick up the remaining debt on the building. Arena employees are being laid off.
The venue has hosted WWE events since 1985. In addition to hosting dozens of live events (1985-1991) and TV tapings (1985-2019), the Coliseum also hosted some notable WWE pay-per-views:
- Select matches from WrestleMania 2 (1986), including Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T.
- SummerSlam (2002), featuring Brock Lesnar defeating The Rock to become the youngest WWE Champion in history.
- Evolution (2018), WWE’s first all-women’s pay-per-view.
A few non-WWE events also took place from the Nassau Coliseum, including the NWA’s Bunkhouse Stampede pay-per-view (1988) and two episodes of WCW Nitro (1999/2000).
The arena was closed from 2015-2017 to undergo a much-needed $180 million renovation. During that time, the National Hockey League’s Islanders franchise played at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which has hosted WWE shows in recent years as well. The Islanders are in the process of building a new arena at Belmont Park, which would create another competitor for the Nassau Coliseum, if it ever reopens.