On the corner of Swanson and Ritner street, over thirty years of wrestling history exists. The venue now known as the 2300 arena, but historically as the ECW arena, Viking hall and the New Alhambra, has hosted many, many, many promotions since 1993. On November 6th 2024, NXT became the latest, how much do you know about the famous venues history? In this video, we’re mostly going to look at it’s time known as Viking Hall, thats the ECW years and the immediate follow up to that promotion’s closure. If you learn anything new from this video, please consider leaving a like, or letting me know with a comment.
It’s history with pro wrestling begins with ECW’s first event there on May 14th 1993, when their former venue, the gym of Cabrini College didn’t want professional wrestling anymore after just two shows. ECW wasn’t even close to being extreme by then, officially changing it’s name in late 1994, but can you imagine if latter day ECW had run in a Catholic school? ECW’s founder Tod Gordon, who also ran a pawn shop in the area day to day, said in an interview with Kayfabe Commentaries filmed inside the actual building, that Johnny Hotbody, a wrestler on his roster knew a guy who owned the building and suggested it for shows. He then described reaching the main office by balancing on a plank of wood, describing is as “like tight rope walking”. Generally, he describes the place as a shit hole. When Sean Oliver asks Tod what changes he had to make, Tod’s first answer is “we had to put the buckets down when rain came in”, and he also notes that as long as they paid for it, they had permission to break anything they wanted.
ECW’s first show at Viking Hall, the TV taping on May 14th 93 was first aired on television on June 8th ‘93. The show starts with hosts Jay Sulli and Paul Heyman welcoming us to what he calls “the new ECW arena in the heart of South Philadelphia”. The show would feature a handicap match with Road Warrior Hawk against the Samoan Warrior and Don E. Allen, and a sixteen man battle royal to crown the first holder of the short lived ECW Pennsylvania State championship. In the main event of the first episode, a rather different looking Sandman would fail to defeat Don Muracco for the ECW Heavyweight title. Speaking of Sandman, here’s a trivia note for you, the Sandman wasn’t just in the first televised main event from the ECW arena. He was also a part of the final ECW match to take place in the ECW arena. At Holiday Hell on December 23rd 2000, Steve Corino would retain the ECW World title, against Sandman, and also Justin Credible. Though a different physical belt, thats the same title that Sandman fought for in both matches.
Throughout the time that ECW ran in the building, it was more known outside wrestling as Viking Hall. This is because the building was also used by the South Philadelphia Vikings Club. They are a group of Mummers, and not as I had assumed some kind of sports team. According to Bob Magee of Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets, a frequent attendee of the ECW arena while the promotion ran, the Viking club “did “late night bingo” there to fund their group”, which is where the venue gets it’s sometimes derogatory name as a bingo hall. Another wrestling connection comes later in the 90’s, where Al Snow, frustrated with his career and looking for a new gimmick, would find a styrofoam head on a Mummers Day parade float that was being stored in the ECW arena, and this would become the initial inspiration for Head. It says here in my script *plug video*, err, okay.
Almost all of early ECW’s most memorable moments occurred in the ECW arena, but by the time the promotion folded, it had other notable venues like Elks lodge in Queens New York, and the Hammerstein Ballroom. In 2000 ECW ran at least one show in twenty different states, and even visited Canada. Unfortunately Lance Storm had left for WCW by that point, or maybe fortunately, as the shows were in Mississagua, and not his beloved Calgary, dramatic pause, Alberta.
Among many of ECW’s biggest moments in Viking Hall, Barely Legal, their first pay per view occurred there. On that night the generator for the building only just lasted through the event, and moments after the pay per view broadcast ended with Terry Funk celebrating his ECW title victory, the power for the whole building went out. Fortunately since the buildings renovations years later this hasn’t happened since, and many more pay per view events have been held there.
Other noteworthy events from the ECW arena include the 1994 NWA World title tournament, which ended with new champion Shane Douglas throwing the belt down and proclaiming himself the new Extreme Championship Wrestling World champion. The building hosted all kinds of wrestling, as lucha libre was introduced in late 1995, with the likes of Rey Mysterio Jr, Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis among others, and then later on in 1997, the infamously gory barbed wire ropes match between Terry Funk and Sabu.
From May 1993 for six years, ECW was the only promotion that ran in Viking Hall, but on May 15th ‘99, a show featuring talent representing thirteen indie companies was held. The event was called ‘Break the Barrier’, and had talent representing among many others, ECW, CZW, and NWA New Jersey. The idea of an NWA promotion being represented in the ECW arena is pretty funny given that it’s the same building where Shane Douglas threw down the NWA World title in August 1994. According to the Wrestling Observer in the week after the event, Dave Meltzer reported that there were “approximately 400 fans and about 300 paid” at the show.
The event was put on by Al Isaacs, of the website Scoops Wrestling, and it took place just 24 hours before ECW’s Hardcore Heaven pay per view. Despite ECW’s show taking place in Poughkeepsie New York, the indie show ended up having serious ramifications for the next night. On Break the Barrier Shane Douglas, who as I mentioned before was no stranger to controversy in that building, cut a scathing shoot promo on ECW, in which he essentially quit the company, and would no-show the pay per view.
As far as the matches on the card, out of the thirteen on the night, eight of which went under ten minutes, and ten were for championships. In the opening match on the card presented by Steel City Wrestling, Mike Quackenbush would defeat Don Montoya and Lou Marconi to be crowned the inaugural, and what would turn out to be only ever SCW Lord of the Dance champion. I couldn’t find a ton of information about this championship, other than Mike held it until the promotion closed in the following year, and that he seemed to only have defended it once. While the name sounds a bit odd, it seems the title was designed to only be defended in ‘three way dance’ matches. How fitting then that the only champion was crowned in the ECW arena, the match type made famous in that building. A three way dance is not to be confused with the more famously named Triple Threat match by the way, as the latter is one fall to a finish, whereas the ECW version was usually held under elimination rules. Mike Quackenbush was fairly young in his career, having debuted in 1995. He would go on to wrestle all over the world, and also found his own promotion and school, Chikara Pro and the Wrestle Factory respectively.
Later in the night, Combat Zone Wrestling’s offering would be Nick Gage defeating his brother Justice Pain for another newly created championship, the CZW Interpromotional hardcore title. This title, again has little information about it online, however Nick held it for two weeks before losing to Lobo, who was the only other champion.
Other notable names that wrestled on the show that night include Stevie Richards, who won the Allied Powers Wrestling Federation Heavyweight title. According to Richards in a 2013 interview with Wrestlecrap, he was at the time considering hanging up his wrestling boots, having had a run in WCW, and a brief return to ECW. Not long after this event he would get the call to join WWE, prolonging his career by several more years. Also of note an active WWE star appeared on the card. Get ready, it was… Headbanger Mosh. Despite still being signed to WWE as best as I can tell, he wrestled for a few different indies throughout early 99, and a few NWA promotions. He worked as a singles wrestler as Thrasher was out with an injury. At Break The Barrier he would defend his Maryland Championship Wrestling Heavyweight title, and a couple of weeks later he would resurface on the May 25th ‘99 Raw as Beaver Cleavage. Less said about that the better…
Before I get to life for the building after ECW, there was one more very different promotion that ran the Viking Hall before Break the Barrier did. In 1998, Lenwood Hamilton, a former football player and wrestler under the name Hard Rock Hamilton, started a promotion called Soul City Wrestling. Perhaps as a direct response to the attitude era, Hamilton promoted his show as family friendly, even in the house of hardcore. According to an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer after the event, “His idea was to establish what he calls the first minority-owned wrestling federation in the country, and bring back the golden age of wrestling, rather than staging bloody contests where guys use foul language and bang each other over the head with chairs.” There isn’t a lot of information out there about Soul City Wrestling, not Hamilton’s in ring career, however he is slightly more famous for suing the makers of Gears of War, claiming that their character Augustus Cole beared striking resemblance to him and his background as in football and wrestling.
Post-ECW, other local companies such as Jersey All Pro Wrestling and CZW would run the venue. In 2002, 3PW, Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling would be founded by ECW alumni the Blue Meanie and Jasmine St Clair, and they would run there too until an outside force would take over. XPW, owned by Rob Black, a company formed in short because of bad blood between he and Paul Heyman, saw an opportunity to stake their claim on ECW’s most famous venue. On October 5th 2002, XPW signed an exclusive lease to the building the would have began in 2003 and run for three years. This meant that no other wrestling companies could run there, however they were open to booking other events in the space. According to the press release that was put out at the time that you’re seeing on the screen, XPW even brought in their own people to run the venue, and renamed it officially the XPW arena, which can’t have gone down well with the ECW faithful. In March 2003, the buildings owners would end the lease due to XPW not paying the rent. Their exclusive lease ended up lasting two months, with CZW being the first promotion allowed back into Viking Hall.
The 2300 arena of today is very much a different place within the same walls of the world's most famous bingo hall. Since it’s ECW days, many, many promotions have run in the building for house shows, dvd releases and even pay per view’s. Most recently, NWA held it’s 76th anniversary event there, and next it’s NXT’s turn.
Venue search: https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&view=results&name=&Day=&Month=&Year=2001&promotion=&showtype=&location=&arena=Viking+Hall®ion=&minRating=&maxRating=&minVotes=&maxVotes=
Tod Gordon KC Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLFGu6fr1E8
ECW June 8th 1993, 1st in Viking Hall: https://network.wwe.com/video/73403?seasonId=15446
Mummers: http://www.pwbts.com/columns/2008/b051208.html
Break the barrier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrEo3anLnn0
Cageside Seats article on Break the Barrier: Cageside Seats article: https://www.cagesideseats.com/2014/5/13/5714090/break-the-barrier-the-untold-story-of-the-night-the-iwc-put-on-a
Wrestling Observer May 24th 1999, Break the Barrier 1: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-24-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-hardcore-heavenwwf-no/
WrestleCrap, Stevie Richards on possible 99 retirement: https://archive.ph/20150203062115/http://www.wrestlecrap.com/rants/stevie-richards-answers-the-count-of-10/
Soul City Wrestling: https://web.archive.org/web/20140103205236/http://articles.philly.com/1998-05-25/news/25739679_1_wrestlers-clean-fun-foul-language
Hamilton GOW lawsuit: https://www.afslaw.com/perspectives/the-fine-print/court-body-slams-wrestlers-claim-gears-war-video-game-character
XPW Press release https://web.archive.org/web/20061119214629/http://www.wrestling-news.com/nm/publish/news_1653.html
XPW kicked out: http://www.pwbts.com/columns/b030403.html
Instagram accounts of Soul City Wrestling and Al Snow
