Wrestling

THE WORLD’S biggest stadium is twice the size of Wembley with 200,000 seats – and yet is barely used. North Korea is home to the astonishing Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, located in Pyongyang
The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium has been left to the elements after it opened in 1989Credit: Alamy
The 242,000 sq ft pitch once hosted a mega wrestling show on its grounds that broke global attendance recordsCredit: Alamy
The arches of the stadium peak at over 200ft above the groundCredit: Alamy
It first opened its doors in 1989 – and stadium of its scale you expect to be hosting massive shows and sporting events seen around the world.
And yet despite standing for more than 40 years, most of the time it sits gathering dust.
Most of those who file through its doors when it is used are also not there by choice, often being press-ganged by the North Korean state.
Footage from inside the stadium is often eerie as thousands upon thousands of people pack the venue to the rafters.
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North Korea use it for their biggest showcases to the rest of the world – but most of the time it sits in silence.
The stadium was for years left to rust until Kim Jong-un decided to refurbish it in 2015.
It was given a lick of paint and all 1,300 of its rooms were renovated.
But it is only known outside of North Korea to have been used for a handful of large scale events since then.
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The impressive stadium has 16 arches in the scalloped roof which covers the massive 242,000 sq ft pitch below.
Its total floor space is over 2,230,000 sq ft which spans eight stories, as the roof peaks at more than 200ft above the ground.
The May Day Arena has capacity for up to 200,000 seats, outshining the UK’s Wembley Arena which can only hold up to 90,000 people.
The stadium was built after the 1988 Summer Olympics had been awarded to Seoul and North Korea pushed to present itself as the legitimate Korean state.
During this period, North Korea hosted the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students which was the reason behind the building of the Rungrado stadium.
At the time of completion, it was the largest stadium ever built in Asia.
Its giant capacity has even seen the stadium break attendance records.
In 1995 the arena hosted 350,000 spectators for the wrestling event “Collision in Korea”, which was a world attendance record.
The mega wrestling show saw the likes of 16-time world champion Ric Flair, the man with the “largest arms in the world” Scott Steiner, a tag team legend Road Warrior Hawk, and even boxing icon Muhammad Ali.
The show was a joint venture between World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling and made history when it took over the May Day Stadium.
The top wrestlers performed two nights in front of 350,000 “fans” – who Eric Bischoff, the man behind WCW, believes were told to come along by Kim Jong-un’s dad in a giant publicity stunt promoted as a “peace festival”.
Bischoff told The Daily Star that the sheer size of the show was “mind-boggling”.
But he added: “These were not fans who bought tickets, these were fans who had been required to go by the North Korean government.
“While it was great to see all the people there, we knew they were not there because they chose to be there – and even if they knew who anybody was.”
And despite the event’s immense size, it has never been placed on the WWE’s subscription streaming service the WWE Network.
Following the largest professional wrestling pay-per-view event ever, the stadium was later used in 2002 as the site of the giant Arirang Festival gymnastic and artistic performance.
The extravaganza involved over 100,000 participants—double the number of spectators, and was open to foreigners.
After the stadium closed its doors for a renovation project in 2013, it reopened in 2015 before hosting six group-stage matches as part of the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification in 2017.
The May Day arena was used again in the  September 2018 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang where President Moon Jae-in of South Korea gave a speech with Chairman Kim Jong-un to 150,000 North Korean spectators.
In July 2019, Kim Jong-un hosted Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping at the stadium for a special gymnastics and artistic performance called “invincible socialism”.
It was finally used in December 2022 to host a concert commemorating New Year’s Eve, which was presided over by Kim Jong-un.
But now, the super-sized arena has been left to the elements as it is barely touched at all, leaving behind a creepy history of filled seats of crowds that once would have been forced to attend shows and games.
The massive stadium eerily stands in the city, waiting to be used what seems only once every few years.
The stadium is currently used for small-time football matches, a few athletic events, and most often the games of the Arirang Festival.
Although it remains just a shell of the majestic building it once was, May Stadium still holds the crown for the world’s biggest stadium, according to the Olympics.
In second place is The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, which has notably hosted the 1987, 1996, and 2011 Cricket World Cups.
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The third spot belongs to the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which has a capacity of up to 107,000.
It comes as a football stadium larger than Wembley was spotted lying abandoned with cranes still looming over the unfinished stands in Guangzhou, China.
Once a buzzing stadium in North Korea, the grounds are only used for small athletic events and football matches nowCredit: AFP
In 1995 the arena hosted 350,000 spectators for the wrestling event ‘Collision in Korea’Credit: Getty More