A FORMER sporting venue that previously hosted WWE extravaganza the Royal Rumble has now been transformed into a GIANT CHURCH.
WWE fans are preparing for the road to Wrestlemania to officially begin this weekend.
WWEBig John Studd won the 1989 Royal Rumble[/caption]
WWEIt took place at The Summit in Houston, Texas[/caption]
The 37th annual Royal Rumble takes place on Saturday at Tropicana Field in Florida and promises to be a thriller, with some of wrestling’s biggest names set to take part.
Way back in 1988, ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan eliminated One Man Gang to win the first-ever over-the-rope Rumble match at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Twelve months later the second edition of the now yearly event took place in Texas at Houston’s The Summit.
The card was stacked with a host of star names on the match card.
It kicked off with ‘Hacksaw’ linking up with The Hart Foundation to beat Dino Bravo and The Fabulous Rougeaus in a two-out-of-three falls bout.
That was followed by Rockin’ Robin retaining her WWE Women’s Title against Judy Martin and then King Haku tasting victory over Harley Race prior to the main event.
This time it was Hall of Famer Big John Studd that had his hand raised by eliminating Ted DiBiase to win the Rumble.
However, all these years later, the venue is completely different and is now known as the Lakewood Church Central Campus – a megachurch and the main facility of Lakewood Church.
The building was used as a multi-purpose sports arena from 1975 until 2003 and was the home of NBA’s Houston Rockets.
It was called The Summit until technology firm Compaq bought naming rights and dubbed it Compaq Center in 1998.
However, the name changed again when the Toyota Center opened as that became the new home of sporting events in the city.
That led to the building being leased to Lakewood Church.
It was bought outright in 2010 and transformed into its modern day superchurch where resident pastor Joel Osteen preaches to around 25,000 people each and every week.
GettyThese days the building is a superchurch and called the Lakewood Church[/caption]