Backstage At The ECW Arena During Different Eras From 1993 To The Present

Eastern Championship Wrestling was the first pro wrestling company to run shows at Viking Hall in Philadelphia, which later was renamed the ECW Arena. It later became known as the Asylum Arena, and it currently is known as the 2300 Arena.

Over the three-plus decades of running wrestling shows - and now other kinds of entertainment events - the venue has transformed from a warehouse & bingo hall to a more modern entertainment venue. The videos in this post give you different perspectives of the Arena and its backstage configuration.

Bob Artese, in the first video, gives you a tour of the ECW Arena before it was renovated. Bob was a longtime ring announcer in the Philadelphia area, and he is credited (by Tod Gordon) as being one of the former Tri-State Wrestling Alliance (TWA) members who encouraged Tod to start Eastern Championship Wrestling in January 1992 (first show was February 25, 1992). Others credited were Larry Winters and Stevie Wonderful (Steve Truitt).

This quick perspective is from 2002, roughly 1-1/2 to 2 years after ECW's last show at the Arena (December 23, 2000 - a clip of which is on WWE's YouTube channel here

This video shows a boxing perspective of the Arena after it had its first set of renovations over a decade ago:

This video clip shows Tod Gordon walking around the renovated 2300 Arena and what changed from when ECW was running shows in the venue when it still was the ECW Arena:

This video from 2024 shows an ECW reunion show (under Battleground Championship Wrestling) in April 2004, during Wrestlemania weekend in Philadelphia, with ECW alumni wrestling in the reconfigured Arena:

This tour of the Arena is from WWE's YouTube channel and it shows ECW alumni returning to the venue for the NXT show which ran in 2024:

Ethan Page's YouTube channel shows backstage areas of the Arena during the TNA tapings about 6 years ago:

Here is some more history about ECW and the Arena when the Blue Meanie was interviewed before the premiere of "Barbed Wire City" - the ECW documentary:

This video shows the Arena during the time it was the Asylum Arena; and it shows the original entrance still in place on the Southeast corner of the building (Swanson & Rittner intersection). The entrance now is more on the East side of the building after the renovations:

If you have other videos showing backstage portions of the building which you think would be valuable then please leave a link to them in the reply.