Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent, England. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium. It was built for the 1934 Empire Games, by Arthur Elvin and originally housed a swimming pool, as reflected by its former name, Empire Pool. The pool itself was last used for the 1948 Summer Olympics. The building is used for music, comedy and family entertainment and for sport. Music predominates, as the arena doesn't currently have a tenant sports team.
Wembley Arena was renovated, along with Wembley Stadium, as part of the regeneration of the Wembley area. The arena refurbishment cost £35m and the new arena opened to the public on 2 April 2006, with a concert by Depeche Mode. With 12,500 seats it is London's second largest indoor arena after The O2 arena and third largest indoor concert venue after the O2 and Earls Court, an exhibition hall which regularly stages concerts.
World Wrestling Entertainment taped its flagship television shows Raw and SmackDown! at the venue on 21 April 2006 and 22 April 2006 respectively. The company returned in October 2007 with the 'Survivor Series Tour'. WWF Insurrextion 2002, which also emanated from this venue, was the last ever World Wrestling Federation pay-per-view; the company was re-branded World Wrestling Entertainment just two days later on 6 May 2002.
Events[]
- Insurrextion 2002 - May 4, 2002
- RAW - April 24, 2006
- Heat - April 28, 2006
- Smackdown - April 28, 2006
- Velocity - April 29, 2006
- Impact Wrestling - February 16, 2012
- Impact Wrestling - February 23, 2012
- Impact Wrestling - February 14, 2013
- Impact Wrestling - February 21, 2013
- Xplosion - February 26, 2014
- Impact Wrestling - February 27, 2014
- Xplosion - March 5, 2014
- Impact Wrestling - March 6, 2014
- Xplosion - March 4, 2015
- Impact Wrestling - March 6, 2015
- Impact Wrestling - March 13, 2015
- Impact Wrestling - March 20, 2015
- NXT Takeover: London - December 16, 2015
- NXT - December 23, 2015
- Xplosion - February 13, 2016
- Impact! - February 23, 2016
- Impact! - March 1, 2016
- Joker's Wild IV - March 4, 2016