Viking Hall memories

[LucharesuFan619 0]

In mid-2003, I started a retrospective about the history of Viking Hall. I never finished it because I soon began devoting all of my resources to an XPW retrospective, which can also be read in this forum. I talked to a couple wrestlers/wrestling employees and got their thoughts and memories of Viking Hall. I'm not gonna be doing anything with them, as I was just cleaning out my hard drive and found this, so I figure I might as well post what I've got. I know I had a contribution from Tony DeVito. I don't know where it went, though, and I can't seem to find it. But here's what I have. Enjoy what's here, I guess...

 

Eric Gargiulo: "Viking Hall is very important me to me in a lot of ways. First off, it was the building that made me a wrestling fan again. I went to my first ECW shows more just to hang out with friends, than to see the actual show. WWF and WCW had become so terribly boring, that being a wrestling fan was nothing more than a childhood memory. ECW was something much different than anything else I had seen before. Month by month, the shows kept getting more exciting. The building was jammed for The Night The Line Was Crossed, and everything changed from there. The whole atmosphere was just something that I cannot even express in writing. The electricity was turned on that night and has not been shut off since. I had some brief opportunities to be in front of the crowd in ECW. I was involved in some pull-aparts, which were always a lot of fun.

 

"My favorite Viking Hall memory personally has to be from CZW's A Night Of Infamy. I took a bump in my favorite wrestling building, which allowed me to share the stage with so many of the greats in this sport. I compare it to a relief pitcher, who may throw one inning in Yankee Stadium. Sure, for the world it was just another pitch from a journeyman pitcher. For the pitcher, it was a dream come true. He just pitched an inning in Yankee f'n Stadium, the same stadium that Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle called home! That is how I feel when I reflect back on that special moment. As a kid I always heard about Madison Square Garden as the mecca. My dream was to just go see a show in MSG. I would hope that the same legacy continues for Viking Hall."

 

Chris Hero: "I've only had the pleasure of wrestling in Viking Hall a handful of times, but there is definitely a magical feeling in the air. There's so much history in that building and one, like myself, can only wonder what it was like to actually perform there during ECW's heydey. The building located at the corners of Swanson and Ritner will forever be known as Extreme Championship Wrestling's own little Madison Square Garden."

 

CW Anderson: "I guess my best memory is the night I worked Super Crazy (on March 4, 2000) and got a standing ovation from the fans on my match. I had always watched ECW on TV before I was there (in the promotion) and seeing the electricity in that place was just awesome. Stepping out in front of that crowd, you had better be on your 'A' game because they'd let you know how they felt. After my match with Crazy and they were applauding my efforts, I knew I had done something great to appease these fans and knew I belonged in ECW."

 

Gabe Sapolsky: "As someone who was at every show ECW held at the ECW Arena from Sept. 18th, 1993 up until the final ECW event ever, except for one TV taping during a blizzard in January of 1994, to say that the building is something special to me and that I have a million memories is an understatement. Watching the entire wrestling business change right there in an unknown bingo hall was incredible. You see the fingerprints of what happened in the ECW Arena all over the wrestling business whether its all the talent that is now in WWE that got their first break there to the fact that every company seems to be able to get on PPV now when it was consider impossible back in 1997 until ECW broke through on PPV from the ECW Arena to the fact that American wrestling completely changed based on styles we first saw at the ECW Arena. I'm proud to say that one of my jobs in ECW was to have just about every ticket go through my hands that was sold in that building. The ECW Arena is where I learned a ton of lessons I use now as booker of Ring Of Honor, its where I met some great friends and people and its where as a wrestling fan I got to have just about all my dreams come true by seeing so much fantastic wrestling. Nothing can ever compare to what happened at the ECW Arena."

 

Chris Hamrick: "The very first time I pulled up to the arena, I thought we must have been in the wrong place, but once you got in there and the show started, the chemistry in that building was like no other."

 

Rockin' Rebel: "Well, to start off, in '93, I smashed Sal Bellomo's face when he turned over and really screwed his face up. Or the at the Summer Sizzler show, I was wrestling Sandman and Tammy Sytch did a suprise run-in. She was fucking Eddie Gilbert in the back, before the show. Another funny note that year was when Tony Stetson and I ran in and pulled Angel's top off, exposing her tits. I also was the one who trained and brought Francine and Sandman in, along with Tommy Dreamer and others to ECW. It was a blast working there and working with some of the legends. That’s how I got my job in WCW – thru Kevin Sullivan, who came in and asked me to come down. That’s when Paul E. and my friendship fell apart. But I was doing it to better myself. Tommy called me about 9 months before ECW went under and asked me to come back. They needed a mouth piece because all they had at the time was Corino, and I sat and spoke with Paul, but the money didn’t jive and a lot of the boys were telling me checks [were] bouncing and 3-4 weeks behind in checks. So, I walked away and was happy with my earlier run in ECW when the cash was good. Working in the building for 10 years is a real honor. One month, the crowd would love ya, the next they’d hate ya. That’s what kept ya on your toes and work[ing] hard, or the fans would let you have it. And I hope when I retire, it’s in the arena, a place I called home for years."

 

M-Dogg 20: "Viking Hall (the old ECW Arena) is far and away my favorite place to wrestle. Being the home of ECW, the building personifies that company and the many stars that have been through its doors. ECW is solely responsible for rekindling my interest in professional wrestling and making me pursue it as a possible career. In that regard, the ECW Arena, to me, is essentially the Mecca of professional wrestling. Though the building itself may not be anything special, it's the history it holds that makes it something special. The fans of the area have always been a pleasure to work for and appreciative of what we workers give them. I'll never forget my first time there and how awe struck I was by the whole experience. My favorite personal memory would have to be from September of 2002 when I faced Josh Prohibition in our feud ending TLC match for CZW. Hoping to add a small footnote to the building's impressive history, I climbed one of the support beams at ringside and did several pull-ups in the rafter's before climbing back to the "I" Beam, only to leap off it, crashing onto Josh Prohibition on a table below. Someone should really clean up there. It's filthy. LOL."

 

Nick Berk: "In 1993, I attended my first indy wrestling show; It was at Viking Hall. ECW was mildly known, and you could show up at 7:00 and get either a front row seat or damn near close. I remember little about that actual show, but I'm sure I witnessed some history. Through the next few years I attended the majority of shows held there. I saw things like the Broad Street Bully beat the hell out of The Jersey Devil up through the ECW debut of Rey Misterio, Juvy, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, and many more. I saw classic acts from Eddie Gilbert to Steve Austin. I saw Mikey Whipreck overcome all odds, as well as J.T. Smith busting his head on a mishap during a tope. I saw the ever-so-classic chairshot from Tommy Dreamer onto Raven as he was chained to the fence...when the handcuffs were cut off that fence, I took two halves that were thrown to the ground. I witnessed Cactus Jack whipping a fire-lit-chair into the crown, only two rows in front of me. I witnessed a lot...a lot that was probably not mentioned, but I was there. When I was 15 years old, I met Trent Acid on top of the back bleachers that faced the camera, and he told me where to train to become a wrestler. I hated that kid at that time. After I began training, I stopped going to the ECW shows. However, that's where MY LEGACY in pro wrestling started. So, on top of all the history in that building that all you have witnessed, I owe that building my wrestling career."

 

Simon Diamond: "I remember standing in the middle of the ring for my first match in Viking Hall, thinking how much larger it looked on TV. I was wrestling Skull Von Krush (later became Big Vito in WCW) and was absolutely terrified the crowd would eat me up. I had only been in ECW a couple of months and was still not comfortable in my surroundings and it showed in my performance up to that point. I remember after the match was finished, I was standing in the ring by myself and the crowd started to clap...and clap...and clap. My heart stood still. I acknowledged the crowd and they cheered even louder. It was their way of saying, "you can wrestle for us," because in a way, that's what Viking Hall was all about. It was you wrestling for the Philly fans, who took it personally when you didn't put forth an effort that satisfied them. Right or wrong, that was the ideology of that place. You played on their team and they loved that team and when things weren't going well they would let you know about it. I always look at my first match there as my baptism into ECW. I was accepted by the most critical fans of them all."

 

Rob Feinstein: "My memories of Viking Hall are all very fond. I learned the wrestling business in that building from guys like Paul Heyman, Eddie Gilbert and Tommy Dreamer. I can remember the very first ECW show I have ever watched there when it was on a Sunday and there were like 70 people in the place. I watched the crowds grow and grow as each show progressed. I saw kids become legends and local talent become national stars. I saw matches that left impressions in my head to this day. I owe a lot to the arena because if I never went to that building to see wrestling and meet the guys that I did I can honestly say that RF VIDEO and ROH would not be where we are today. The arena to me is where I went to school for 7 years and studied the art of pro wrestling. Every other building to me was like extra credit. But if someone were to ask me what is the one building that I love the most it would be Viking Hall. I can probably write about all the backstage politics, fights, drug use, self abuse that I have seen as if the walls can talk in that place there would be a great movie. To me that building will always be the ECW arena no matter even if WWE runs there. Long live ECW and Viking Hall."