From Alfred Feliciano: The most important pro wrestling event week of the year is just around the corner. In part one of the Road to Mania W...
The most important pro wrestling event week of the year is just around the corner. In part one of the Road to Mania Week in Philly, we look at the history of pro wrestling's greatest venue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the legendary 2300 Arena. to this date fans in the City of Brotherly Love and all over the world still fondly call the the ECW Arena.
Humble beginnings led to the Arena of Extreme
Located at S. Swanson St. and intersecting W. Ritner St. in South Philly, the Arena was a storage warehouse throughout the 1970s, where the trains dropped off freight to continue toward their destinations. During the 80s the old railroad tracks were paved and the place was named the Viking Hall. after being purchased by the South Philadelphia Viking Club. for over a decade, the organization used the former Warehouse for the annual Mummers Parade as well as for their midnight Bingo hall games. That is until 1993 when an up-and-coming promotion and former NWA member became what many of us, longtime wrestling fans and historians known as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) created by Paul Heyman. The place became the ECW Arena. In its eight years of existence, the promotion had the ECW Arena as its home base where loyal fans even bought items from the local dollar store in Swanson Street to give to the wrestlers as part of the Hardcore matches, its rise from a local promotion to the third biggest national promotion it reached fans worldwide (Mexico and Puerto Rico included, inspiring IWA Puerto Rico's original and current run with their Hardcore Weekend events and Mexico's Destruccion Total Ultraviolento promotion owned by Super Crazy and the faction Perros Del Mal). In 2001, as the Monday Night Wars was on its last legs, ECW was deep in debt and was finally purchased by Vince McMahon and WWE, leaving the Arena without its hometown promotion.
At the time, ECW was purchased by WWE, rival WCW was also purchased, leading to the Alliance Invasion. which lasted for almost a year, until Survivor Series 2001 at the Greensboro Coliseum. The Winner Take All match was the final nail to the Alliance's coffin, and the WCW United States and World Tag Team Championships became defunct, only for ECW to become a third brand for WWE in 2005, having the real ECW World Championship replaced with the silver title. The majority of the ECW Originals left, leaving Tommy Dreamer the last to leave the promotion, and in 2010, ECW said goodbye for the last time and was replaced by WWE's new development brand NXT.
Wrestling promotions that followed ECW into the Arena
Over the past twenty-three years since ECW folded, countless promotions have put on live events with memorable moments at the Arena. Here are two of the promotions that were out of business and returned in full force, and one that is dormant, that will come back soon.
XPW, owned by Rob Zicardi, came in to the Arena in 2002 (the same year, Ring of Honor, Chikara, MLW, and TNA Wrestling were born) and renamed the building as the XPW Arena. For over a year, it had some of the toughest hardcore matches. Due to many controversies, XPW folded in 2003, only to return full force almost twenty years later.
MLW is owned by a former WWE writer, Court Bauer. On their first original run, MLW's debut event was at the Arena in 2002. Since their return 2017, the company has held numerous events at the 2300 Arena.
Soul City Wrestling owned by Lenwood "Hard Rock" Hamilton, based out of Norristown, Pennsylvania, began in 1997. Unlike many other indy promotions in yhr area, Soul City Wrestling is family-oriented, with a goal of showing positive examples and helping inner city youth to stay in school, and also teaching them by being positive role models to the community with the Soul City Mentoring Program. Hamilton was the Soul City Heavyweight Champion of the World and very popular with the kids. the promotion had live events throughout Montgomery and Northampton Counties as well as Philadelphia. The promotion also had WWE legends and Hall of Famers like King Kong Bundy, and stars like The Ghetto Blaster (who appeared in Puerto Rico for WWC in 1997 for a short time). SCW also appeared at the ECW Arena in 1998. Although it has been a minute, Philly wrestling fans still remember Soul City Wrestling as the promotion stays true to the logo, "The Children are the Future". With their return soon, there is the saying "Never say never".
The fans who came throughout the years to the live events at the 2300 Arena saw shows from TNA, Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Dragon Gate, Germany's Westside Extreme Wrestling, United Kingdom's Progress Wrestling, Montreal, Quebec, Canada's International Wrestling Syndicate, Game Changer Wrestling, local Lucha Libre promotions in Philly brought in stars from AAA Lucha Libre, and CMLL, New Orleans' Wildkat Pro Wrestling, CZW and more. Promotions owned by ECW originals that appeared at the Arena and later went out of business included Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling owned by Jasmine St. Clair and The Blue Meanie, IWA Mid-South owned by Ian Rotten based out of Jefferson, Indiana, former AWA/Wrestling Superstars Live! member promotion Pro Wrestling World -1 owned by Steve Corino, Main Event Championship Wrestling owned by Jason Cain out of Evansville, Indiana, Jersey All Pro Wrestling and hometown ECW replacements like Chikara Pro, Velocity Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Unplugged, Pro Wrestling Xplosion and neighboring promotions, Heritage Wrestling Alliance, American Luchacore owned by Sammi Callahan, Wicked Hanuman, as well as the now-defunct Dragon Gate USA and Evolve Wrestling, The building also hosted one-tim events like Break the Barrier in 1999 and ECW Original reunion shows such as Hardcore Homecoming, Extreme Rising, and Wrestling with Disaster in 2014.
Mania Week events at the 2300 Arena will include tival promotions throughout the City of Brotherly Love and Southern New Jersey. Japan's Top Joshi Promotion, Stardom will appear for the first time in South Philadelphia, along with this year's WrestleCon's premier event, The Mark Hitchcok Memorial Show. The one match most talked about is in my opinion, the Survivor Series style match, Team CMLL led by Mistico (the Original Sin Cara) takes on Team Dragon Gate led by Ben K. and Battleground Championship Wrestling will have their two evening event, plus the Hardcore Hall of Fame ceremonies, This year's inductees are the Dudley Boys.
To check out more info and to buy tickets for the Mark Hitchcock Memorial Show, Stardom Joshi, and other Mania week events. go to the 2300 Arena Website. Also check out the 2300 Mania mini site for the entire Mania week schedule.
Did you know that the 2300 Arena (ECW Arena) has hosted live Boxing and MMA events over the years? It was also used while filming Rocky in January 2006 as part of the movie.
In part two, we will look at events from the promotions mentioned as part of WrestleCon 2014, 2300Mania and indy wrestling promotions from the Philadelphia area.
Below are videos from the events that have been at the 2300 Arena over the years from the last original ECW event in 2000, reunion shows, as well as this past Sunday's Espiritu Pro Wrestling Dojo event House of Lucha from Prelude courtesy of Contralona, plus episodes of Booker T,'s Reality of Wrestling and more.
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