Some Little-Known Stories About The Early Days Of Viking Hall - AKA The ECW Arena

Several fans who started covering Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW, later named Extreme Championship Wrestling) had a big impact on the company's rise to national awareness. This was due to several factors:

• They were participants on the Usenet forums/boards, which were the early forms of social media. These were the "bulletin boards" with "threads" & posts, such as rec.sport.pro-wrestling
• They later ran fan-controlled ECW-focused websites once browsers became available such as Mozilla & Netscape, which preceded Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Explorer, etc. Those fan-run websites often had in-depth and interesting content such as their recaps, interviews, with wrestlers, etc.
• Many fans later started their own wrestling news websites such as PWinsider.com
• Others ran or worked for the physical wrestling newsletters, writing in compelling ways to create intrigue around the in-ring & behind-the-scenes aspects of ECW. The company seemed to generate more curiosity and high emotion in wrestling fans than any other company except for then-WWF and WCW

We found some articles from 2011 when the building was going to change ownership & stop wrestling events (at the time), 10 years after ECW stopped running shows. These articles have fans reminiscing about their early days in 1993 with the company. The first show at Viking Hall (later named the ECW Arena) was a two-day event; and those dates were May 14 and May 15, 1993. The first match at Viking Hall saw Road Warrior Hawk defeating the Samoan Warrior & Don E. Allen in a handicap match by pinning both at the same time.

Here is Chubby Dudley's YouTube channel recap of the ECW Hardcore TV show which featured that first-ever match from the ECW Arena:

You can see the first-ever fans who attended that show throughout the various segments.

Here are some of the fan experiences from these resources:

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2011/12/as-i-see-it-ecw-arena-memories-547756/

I have a lot of personal memories coming out of the ECW Arena.

I was ready to go to that first ECW show back on May 14, 1993, the date that Eddie Gilbert and Tod Gordon scheduled their first show of Eastern Championship Wrestling in a nondescript looking bingo hall, located in a section of Philadelphia that former Strictly ECW head Tony Lewis later described as "West Hell". I was told by friend and ECW employee Kathy Fitzpatrick that this new building was at Swanson and Ritner Streets. In those pre-internet days, I looked up the intersection on a SEPTA map in my office. 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. So on the afternoon of the show, after asking around the neighborhood, and finally checking at the local Forman Mills discount store, I asked where the Mummers practiced. The sales clerk pointed down the street. Finding the building, I went inside, 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?"

Even those of us used to shows in flea markets, bars, schools, and even parking lots thought..."a Bingo Hall?" We found out that this 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 Mummers parade. We also found out that they did "Midnight Bingo" there to fund the Vikings. This meant that in the promotion's early years, they were supposed to be out of there in enough time to allow set-up for Midnight Bingo. As we left ECW shows, the "bingo ladies" were out there waiting impatiently to get in.

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https://www.wrestleview.com/uncategorized/9485-as-i-see-it-5-11-ecw-arena/

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.

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https://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=49683&p=8

It was a rainy, dreary night, October 1st, 1993 to be exact, as I pulled up to the ECW Arena for the first of many times. Just like all first timers that would journey to the “Mecca of Pro Wrestling”, I was shocked and amazed at the building. I walked into that mostly empty building hardly a teenager. What I experienced in the next eight years with this company was way beyond my wildest dreams. That night was the beginning of a roller coaster ride I will never, ever forget.

That ride got off to a fast start, as the 200 fans that were there can attest to, when Abdullah the Butcher graced the ECW Arena and performed like a true professional. I must admit, at the age of 13, the site of Abdullah the Butcher coming at me with a fork in his hand made me high tail it to the other side of the Arena. Can you blame me? Another thing I remember from that night that made me say, “Wow, this is different from the other two organizations!” is when ref Jim Molineux got busted open during the melee. I was amazed at what had happened. How could I forget seeing Terry Funk for the first time live, as he battled Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka in a steel cage. Terry was still pretty healthy at the time and put on a stellar performance, especially considering he was working with Snuka. Later that night, I saw Tommy Dreamer make his ECW debut. To be honest I can’t remember if it was October 1st or October 2nd. But either way, the man who held ECW’s seams together throughout the years entered the company on that historical evening. Just as important as that, ECW’s greatest feud was born that night. Taz and Sabu had their first encounter. It saw more brawling than their later matches, but it was still a great match. Little did I know, that this night of wrestling was to be the start of the little company that could.

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http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=9;t=040810

There was a pretty outrageous crew on the camera side of the Arena for a number of years. The original ECW Bleacher Bums, including Scherer and Jess McGrath from 1wrestling. Stanley, one of the most disgusting individuals ever who sold pretzels from a road cart and lived with his mother (who also came to the shows a couple of times). Big Vin, a huge black guy who almost got involved in a Public Enemy angle. I think Hat Guy is one of the few left who has been there since 1993. Most of the "characters" have been replaced by a scarier breed, which is why I haven't been back there in about four years. I miss the old place, and the old people. ECW may be bigger than it was, but I doubt it's as much fun.

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As you can tell, these fan experiences with ECW in 1993 - the company's 2nd year in existence - varied markedly from what fans were experiencing going to other company's live shows that year. The fan involvement, the marked difference between other wrestling promotions, fan interactivity, and the ability for fans to become part of the show rather quickly helped make ECW a curiosity to wrestling fans across the country -- rather than just another regional promotion (aka "Eastern" Championship Wrestling) at the time.