AS I SEE IT - 3/18/2003:
Ten years at the ECW Arena... will they remember?
by: Bob Magee
After recent events here in Philadelphia, the ECW Arena is fortunately back hosting wrestling again, and not serving as a battleground.
More importantly... May 14, 2003, will bring the tenth anniversary of professional wrestling at the ECW Arena.
What seems like way back when...I was ready to go to that first show at this new arena back on May 14, 1993, the date that Eddie Gilbert scheduled his first show of Eastern Championship Wrestling at a nondescript looking bingo hall in a section of Philadelphia that former Strictly ECW head Tony Lewis once described as "West Hell".
Some notes first...
What was then called Eastern Championship Wrestling had started after Tod Gordon picked up the remains of Joel Goodhart's Tri-State Wrestling Alliance in February 1992. The fledging ECW ran its earliest shows at the Philadelphia's Original Sports Bar, the Chestnut Cabaret, the Tabor Rams Youth Association, and finally Cabrini College.
Cabrini College, in suburban Philadelphia, was the site of the promotion's first TV taping on March 1993 for a small part-time sports station called SportsChannel Philadelphia. 60 people gathered there at Cabrini College on the eve of a massive super-storm that left three feet of snow all over the East Coast.
Back to May 14th, 1993...
I was told by a friend that this new building was at Swanson and Ritner Streets. In those pre-internet days, I looked up the intersection on a map. According to that and another map I looked at, the intersection didn't exist. But she insisted that was the place.
I found out years later that the members of the Viking Club Mummers group had paved over freight train tracks and created an unofficial extension of a street. Thus, the intersection did exist...sort of.
Finally, that afternoon, after asking around the neighborhood and finding the address, I went inside the building she told us about for the first time, and saw the Bingo equipment up on the walls. I went into a place that looked nothing like any wrestling venue I'd ever been to, and thought "What in the hell is this?"
How little we fans knew.
We found out that this strange looking building was Viking Hall, the home of the South Philadelphia Viking Club, the neighborhood Mummers group that practiced there for the yearly Philadelphia New Years tradition. We also found out that they did Bingo there to fund the group.
Even those of us used to shows in flea markets, bars, schools, and even parking lots thought..."a Bingo Hall?"
From May 14, 1993, until the promotion's last Philadelphia show on December 23, 2000... ECW created unparalleled magic in one of the most improbable locations ever to hold wrestling on a regular
basis... the building that became the world's most famous Bingo Hall... the building that truly became the ECW Arena.
On May 14, 1993, we couldn't ever have known what was to come.
If someone had told us that this fledging wrestling promotion owned by a center city pawnbroker, would make its home in this building... would be seen nationwide on cable television... would go on PPV from it in four years... would have wrestling fans around the world chanting
"ECW... ECW... ECW", to this very day...
If someone had told us that it would feature talent ranging from New Japan stars Eddie Guerrero, Dean
Malenko, Chris Jericho, and Chris Benoit to lucha stars Rey Misterio, Jr., Juventud
Guerrera, La Parka, and Psicosis... to Horsemen and Midnight Express members Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton... to All Japan stars Steve Williams, Terry
Gordy, Dan Kroffat and Doug Furnas, and Gary Albright... to Japanese lucha style stars Great
Sasuke, Gran Hamada, and TAKA Michinoku... to wrestling legends like Stan Hansen, Abdullah The Butcher, Jerry Lawler, Terry and Dory Funk, and Kevin Sullivan...
If someone had told us that it would see the creation of the most memorable new character of the last
decade... a character called Raven... and that the company would change the direction of the professional wrestling industry... if someone had told us ALL these things would happen and more...
We would have looked at you, and told you that you were in need of serious psychiatric help.
All we Philly regulars knew was that ECW had a new home after Cabrini College decided they didn't want wrestling in its gymnasium any longer, and that this was ECW's new home.
We went in that May evening to see a promotion featuring Eddie Gilbert and his Memphis flavored product, eventually with an accent of Japanese hardcore.
What became regular faces in the front row and those Section C (TV side) bleachers were seen by fans first on SportsChannel Philadelphia, then on MSG Network, then slowly across the country via commercial tapes, and tapes traded by fans all over North America and beyond.
There were people like John Bailey (seemingly known everywhere as "Hat Guy"), his brother George, Mike Johnson (now indy writer for 1wrestling.com), "Sign Guy" Paul Mellows (from whom Paul Heyman took the Sign Guy Dudley gimmick), Lennie (the Rob Zombie
lookalike), along with yours truly, and many others whose faces would unintentionally become familiar. What we all became a part of was history.
Here are some of those ECW Arena moments from my memory:
1993
- Eddie Gilbert and Terry Funk go at it in the "Texas Chain Match Massacre" to give ECW its largest crowd to date, with the match seen across the country via the first of many ECW commercial tapes.
- In August 1993, many ECW fans got their first live exposure to Japanese wrestling through
W*ING workers The Headhunters, Miguelito Perez, Crash the Terminator (aka Hugh Morris), and Mitsuhiro
Matsunaga.
- September 1993's Ultra Clash brought Stan Hansen, Abdullah The Butcher, Kevin Sullivan, and The Dark Patriot (Doug Gilbert) against JT Smith in a Scaffold Match.
September also brought an end to the Eddie Gilbert era and the beginning of the Paul Heyman era in ECW; as Gilbert left the promotion due to disagreements over a prospective involvement with Jim Crockett's WWN (a promotion that, ironically enough, never took off). Gilbert, however, did an unannounced run-in, and told fans to keep supporting the promotion despite his departure.
Some of the other names in ECW during that year included Kevin Christopher, Herve
Rinesto, Don E. Allen, Jimmy Snuka, JT Smith, Tony Stetson, Larry Winters, Tommy Cairo, Rockin' Rebel, Sandman, Don Muraco, Sal
Bellomo, Stevie Wonderful, Super Destroyer, Johnny Hotbody, Chris Michaels, and Hunter Q. Robbins III.
1994
- There was a January weekend of ice storms that cut off power to 350,000 people in the Philadelphia area. Yet ECW drew a crowd of 200 just on word of mouth and from calling the company's telephone hotline... to see Terry Funk and Shane Douglas work a 45 minute broadway that set up the original "three-way dance" on February 5, 1994 with "The Night The Line Was Crossed" featuring Sabu vs. Shane Douglas vs. Terry Funk.
- The April night when Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton invaded the ECW Arena unannounced in one of the best kept secrets in wrestling history. The TV of that night shows one of the wilder crowd pops in ECW history.
- The Public Enemy-Dory/Terry Funk barbed wire match that took place at Heat Wave 1994 in a full house despite indoor temperatures within the Arena estimated at as much as 130 degrees.
- Cactus Jack's ECW debut in July 1994..in what became one more chapter in his love affair with the Philadelphia fans...that made his "anti-hardcore" program, that included shoot comments directed at the Philadelphia fans all the more memorable.
- The NWA Title Tournament in August 1994 featuring Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Osamu Nishimura, Shane Douglas, and Two Cold Scorpio, a show that would be better remembered for Shane Douglas trashing the NWA Title, then declaring that the promotion was no longer NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling, but EXTREME Championship Wrestling.
- The October-November 1994 Sandman "blinding angle" that was voted Angle of the Year: so well done, it had the late Brian Hildebrand calling me to ask if it was a work.
Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1994 were 911, Chad Austin, Mr. Hughes, Sal
Bellomo, Tommy Cairo, Sandman, Gary Wolf, Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge), The Sheik, Pat Tanaka, Road Warrior Hawk, The Bruise Brothers, and Mike Awesome.
1995
- February 1995 gave fans both the "Double Tables" show featuring the main event of Sabu and Tazmaniac against The Public Enemy, Chris Benoit vs. Al Snow, and "Return of The
Funker" featuring Terry Funk's return after a six month absence.
- April 1995 had the debut of the two and a half year storyline of Raven and Tommy Dreamer, and the first match actually billed as a "Three Way Dance" with The Public Enemy vs. Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs. Tazmaniac and Rick Steiner. Another Arena show one week later brought the first of the classic Eddie Guerrero-Dean Malenko matches we saw for the next five months.
- The spring also brought the psychotic bloodletting of the Axl Rotten-Ian Rotten matches, with matches involving barbed wire baseball bats all the way to the Taipei Death Match in July, with each man having glass glued to his hands.
- On August 29, 1995, the Dean Malenko-Eddie Guerrero farewell match happened...with the smartest wrestling audience in North America in tears (not to mention Guerrero and Malenko themselves)... chanting "Please don't go...please don't go" with a heartfelt passion from the crowd worthy of two departing world class talents and world class people.
- September 1995 featured one of the top matches in Arena history in a best 2 out of three falls Double Dog Collar Match for the ECW Tag Team Championships with The Pitbulls vs. Raven & Stevie Richards.
- November to Remember 1995 was one of the best top to bottom shows ever held in the Arena with such matches as Rey
Misterio, Jr.-Psicosis, and Terry Funk/Tommy Dreamer vs. Cactus Jack/Raven.
- Fall 1995 also brought lucha libre to Philadelphia for the first time with Rey
Misterio, Jr. Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, Konnan, and La Parka appearing.
Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1995 were Hack Myers, Al Snow, Osamu Nishimura, Tully Blanchard, Paul
Lauria, Mikey Whipwreck, Stevie Richards, Hector Guerrero, Marty Jannetty, DC Drake, Jason Knight, Ron Simmons, Vampire Warrior (aka
Gangrel), Dudley Dudley, and Dances With Dudley.
1996
- January 1996 featured the first of many Rob Van Dam-Sabu matches, Raven and Sandman battling for the ECW Heavyweight title, and the
Gangstas-Eliminators feud.
- March 1996 featured Rey Misterio, Jr. and Juventud Guerrera giving a lucha clinic in a 2 out of 3 fall match. It also featured the emotional farewell of Cactus Jack, who defeated Mikey
Whipwreck.
- Chris Jericho debuted in ECW at the "Matter of Respect" show in May 1996 against Mikey
Whipwreck. The summer of 1996 also featured the wars of The Eliminators against The Gangstas in a "steel cage weapons" match.
- Heatwave ‘96 gave us a tremendous four way ECW TV Title Match Scorpio-Chris
Jericho-Pitbull #2-Shane Douglas.
- Autumn 1996 featured such world class tag team action as Terry Gordy and Steve Williams against The Eliminators and Sabu and Rob Van Dam against Dan Kroffat and Doug
Furnas. It also featured one of the sickest scaffold matches in history in October at "High Incident" with Tommy Dreamer throwing Brian Lee off a "scaffold" attached to the roof of the ECW Arena, into a ring full of tables.
Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1996 included Mr. Hughes, The Blue
Meanie, Too Cold Scorpio, El Puerto Ricano, Bad Crew, The Headhunters, Big Titan, Damien Kane, Little Guido, Brian Lee, Beef Wellington, Devon Storm, and the Samoan Gangsta Party.
1997
- Barely Legal- The moment that ECW fans had waited for since the last year's worth of rumors had started finally arrived on April 13, 1997. Even with the usual pre-show atmosphere at the ECW
Arena... this was something special. Fans waited outside the ECW Arena from early on that morning.
The Arena was filled as full as physical space would allow, well beyond anything permitted by city or state fire laws. The atmosphere was electric.
At 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, in the most improbable of locations: the converted Bingo Hall that staff had painted and fixed up on their own, down the street from a bargain basement store and vacant buildings... the home of a wrestling promotion founded by a downtown storefront pawnbroker, started with little more than hopes and dreams... the impossible dream came true, as "Barely Legal" went hot and started the era of ECW on PPV to the United States.
The show itself included The Eliminators defeating ECW Tag champs D-Von & Buh Buh Ray Dudley for the ECW Tag team Titles, Rob Van Dam-Lance Storm, Taz over
Sabu, Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada/Masato Yakushiji wrestling TAKA Michinoku/Dick Togo/Terry Boy (aka Mens
Teioh), and Terry Funk defeating Raven for the ECW Heavyweight Title.
- 2 1/2 years of the most creative character in recent wrestling history ended within ECW, as Raven lost a loser leave match to Tommy Dreamer at Wrestlepalooza 1997.
- In what was likely the single most violent match in ECW history, Sabu pinned Terry Funk in a barbed wire match at August 1997's "Born to be Wired", to a point that even Paul Heyman was reported to be sickened in the promo for the show's commercial video tape. Having seen the match in person, I can safely say he wasn't the only one.
Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1997 included Tommy Rich, Tracy Smothers, Chris
Chetti, Bam Bam Bigelow, Louie Spicolli, Big Dick Dudley, Spike Dudley, Balls Mahoney, Tom Pritchard, JC Ice and Wolfie D, Paul Diamond, and Tommy Rogers.
1998
- January 1998 gave us the first Stairway To Hell Match with Sandman taking on
Sabu.
- Japanese talent returned to the ECW Arena throughout the year with names like Gran
Hamada, Gran Naniwa, Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka.
- The pairing that gave a ECW Match of The Year nominee two years running gave Arena fans a match to behold on August 8, 1998 as Jerry Lynn took on Rob Van Dam.
- The first of many Masato Tanaka-Mike Awesome matches happened in August, matches that took the phrase "stiff" to a whole new level.
Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1998 included Danny Doring,
Roadkill, Bobby Duncum, Jr., Doug Furnas, Super Nova, Mike Lozansky, Jack Victory, Ulf Hermann, Big Sal Graziano, Rod Price, and One Man Gang.
1999
- 1999 saw the ECW Arena featured around the United States and Canada as TV tapings were done for TNN at the Arena, allowing fans to see what the Arena experience was all about.
- Lucha and Japanese talent again made their way into the ECW Arena as Antifaz Del
Norte, TAKA Michinoku, Super Crazy, El Mosco De La Merced, Yoshihiro Tajiri, and Mr. Aguila (aka Papi
Chulo). This gave us matches over 1999 such as Jerry Lynn-Yoshihiro Tajiri, Super
Crazy-Antifaz Del Norte, TAKA Michinoku-Papi Chulo and a series of Super Crazy-Yoshihiro Tajiri matches.
- We got a Match of the Year nominee for the second time with Rob Van Dam-Jerry Lynn on August 28, 1999.
Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 1999 included Skull Von
Krush, Bill Wiles, David Cash, Uganda, Tom Marquez, Kid Cash, Bo and Jack
Dupp, and Ikuto Hidaka.
2000
Even with all the obvious financial problems and the fact that attention was often elsewhere most of the time, there were still a few classic moments left in 2000 for ECW fans at the ECW Arena.
- March 2000 featured a great Raven/Mike Awesome-Masato Tanaka/Tommy Dreamer Tag Team Match.
- April 2000 gave the ECW Arena the one and only appearance of Dusty Rhodes at the Arena as he took on Steve
Corino.
- August 19, 2000 gave us the 2000 ECW match of the year as the returning Psicosis took on Yoshihiro
Tajiri.
The last ECW show at the ECW Arena took place on December 23, 2000. With all that had been happening and all that had been reported online, many fans going inside that night suspected that this might be the last show at the ECW Arena, although nothing was ever announced or even acknowledged to that effect.
The final ECW match at the ECW Arena, was Steve Corino defending his ECW World Heavyweight Title over The Sandman and Justin Credible.
Some of the other names seen in the ECW Arena during 2000 included Rhino, Christian York and Joey Matthews, Scotty Anton, Prodigy, CW Anderson, Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, Da Baldies
(DeVito and Angel), Carl Oulette, Vic Grimes, Jado and Gedo, and Erik Watts.
The ECW Arena sat vacant for several months, until Frank Iaedevia of Jersey All-Pro Wrestling ran the Arena during spring 2001.
Combat Zone Wrestling then became the most successful of the independent promoters running the ECW Arena since ECW's departure; debuting at the ECW Arena in December 2001 with the Cage of Death III show. The promotion has been running monthly at the Arena since then, with an interlude of two months when XPW signed an exclusive lease to run the
venue... one voided only weeks ago by Viking Hall ownership.
3PWrestling also ran the Arena, with some degree of success until XPW's attempted takeover that lasted all of two months. They've since moved to legendary Philadelphia music venue The Electric Factory.
So it's the tenth anniversary of the ECW Arena... but will that anniversary be remembered?
With all these memories, it would be nice if the independent promoters of Philadelphia could find some sort of way to run a ECW Arena Tenth Anniversary event on May 10th, the closest possible date to the May 14th anniversary date.
CZW, the promotion that's run the most shows there since ECW, would typically be at the ECW Arena on the second Saturday of the month...which just happens to be May 10th.
Tod Gordon, founder of ECW, is now working with 3PW... who could use the date to promote their own show that month at The Electric Factory (especially since they use former ECW talent in their shows). It'd be nice if Tod Gordon were at any show run that night to be recognized for starting all the magic you read about earlier.
Ring of Honor is the inheritor of the off-the-charts technical matches ECW ran, especially between 1994-1996, and runs shows 4 blocks away from the ECW Arena at the Murphy Recreation Center. It'd be nice if they were somehow involved in such a show.
Some of the WWE talent that worked for ECW will be in the Philadelphia area on May 10 University of Delaware Ice Arena in Newark, Delaware, just an hour or so drive from the ECW Arena. It'd be nice to see Tommy Dreamer return to the ECW Arena for the venue's tenth anniversary.
Hmmm... are there any fans or promoters reading this who'd like to make suggestions to all of the above parties? Here are their public addresses, if you'd like to send them an e-mail.
Until next time...
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(If you have comments or questions, I can be reached by
e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)