At Liverpool the hall was so vast that it was quite difficult to see properly from the back.Eventually I tried ringside and stayed thereafter. Did all the halls have a ringside view?Did others prefer ringside or further back.
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From the point of view of getting to chat with the wrestlers being at the end of the row was most important. Did not need to push past the other fans. These days if you are ringside when the wrestlers throwing each other into the fans is more common ringside is not too appealing
A lot to be said for sitting nearer the back:
- you can see all the antics of the ringside seaters-
- you get a panorama view of everything.
- easy to dash around autograph hunting without disturbing others.
- cheaper. Much cheaper!
- ringside seats usually all sold out well in advance.
- you'll never get a casual chat with a wrestler ringside.
How strange - I seem to be a lone voice.
I never sat at ringside. The halls I went to were not big, at Barking Assembly Hall I sat in the balcony and at Ilford Baths in the tiered seating at the side of the hall. The view was good at both halls.
It depended on the hall. Digbeth it felt as though you could reach down and touch the wrestlers. The balcony at Preston Public Hall could be very good or dire depending where you sat as the ring wasn't in the centre. Otherwise as near to the front as possible, though I don't think I ever sat in the front row. Somewhere I went (might have been the side balcony at Preston Baths) there were only two rows of seats. That was poor, no atmosphere at all.
I think you want as near as possible but elevation gives a great view.
The pain of it all was pillars. terrible at Belle Vue in the old days and I remember getting a bad deal at Buxton. At Blackpool Tower you looked down on it all.
The slope in old Cinema's like Wryton made it work well.
At the Jack Cassidy Shows in Swinton we were all on the same level on canvas chairs like in school assembly. Fortunately the gate of 200-300 allowed this to work ok.
It was great watching wrestling live from ringside. All the fantastic action.
I tried both, when in my teens it was as close to the ring as possible, from then on it was the bleachers, much better view of the ring as a whole and found the bouts more enjoyable
Further back but not too far for the reasons stated