06.06.2005, 19:53
Hier mal ein ECW Rueckblick von Bob Magee
http://www.pwbts.com/messages/2745.htm
AS I SEE IT 6/6: Looking back at the real ECW...
By Bob Magee
With the upcoming weekend's events...this week's columns pesents some thoughts on what you're going to see all weekend...and the history behind it for those of you who weren't lucky enough to be around back in 1993.
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".
A little history 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 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 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?" Even those of us used to shows in flea markets, bars, schools, and even parking lots thought..."a Bingo Hall?"
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.
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 eventually be seen nationwide on cable television... would go on PPV from it in 1997... and 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.
http://www.pwbts.com/messages/2745.htm
AS I SEE IT 6/6: Looking back at the real ECW...
By Bob Magee
With the upcoming weekend's events...this week's columns pesents some thoughts on what you're going to see all weekend...and the history behind it for those of you who weren't lucky enough to be around back in 1993.
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".
A little history 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 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 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?" Even those of us used to shows in flea markets, bars, schools, and even parking lots thought..."a Bingo Hall?"
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.
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 eventually be seen nationwide on cable television... would go on PPV from it in 1997... and 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.