This is a bit of a long post, but I thought maybe some of yous would enjoy the story of what The Arena in South Philadelphia meant to me, and all of that junk. But yeah!



The Arena

So I let this settle for a little bit, took some time to think about the happenings of last night and what I thought about the shows. The shows that I’m talking about being the final two wrestling events at the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I wasn’t really planning on making a big post on this, it’s rare that I’ll do stuff like this, but I thought that since I’ve spent so much time in that building, it’d make sense to shed some light on how I feel about the whole thing, and give you guys some insight on what The Arena meant to me.

I found out about ECW just around the time that it was coming to a close. When I started watching it, I don’t even think I realized that it was so close to me. I live about 25 minutes (by car) from The Arena, which has helped fuel my wrestling addiction for many, many years. The first event that I ever went to at The Arena was the first XPW show in Philadelphia. It was in 2002, and I was just 10 years old. Yeah, I know, XPW and a 10 year old probably shouldn’t mix, but whatever, I loved wrestling just as much then as I did now. I remember the first few moments of me walking inside of The Arena for the first time. I was with my dad and my best friend at the time, and AC/DC’s “Who Made Who?” was blaring over the sound system. It was cool as fuck. I don’t remember much else from that show, and some of my memories from the XPW shows are a bit jumbled together, but the for sure thing I know is that the main event was Terry Funk vs. Shane Douglas. Terry Funk FUCKED his arm up in the match, and I mean badly. A huge slice down his forearm, and I’m pretty sure you could see his bone from how bad this cut is. He ended up using Lizzy Borden’s panties to tie up the wound, as if that helped, but it was still hilarious, and still is. Funk/Douglas brawled outside of The Arena, and we’re almost positive that they fell into my dad’s car at the time, because when we came out, there were hand prints on the windshield and little drops of blood on the hood of his car. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world at the time.

So after that, I went to a few more XPW shows, and then stopped for awhile. I don’t know if they went back to California or if there was another reason, but I didn’t end up going back to The Arena until a few years later. 3 years, actually. November 12th, 2005. It was my birthday, and there were two things that I was choosing from that I could attend. One, being a Nine Inch Nails concert in Philadelphia. NIN was, and still is, my favorite band in the world, and I had never been to a concert before (still haven’t, actually! ahh shit) and I was really wanting to go to that. Now, I don’t know for sure if I just didn’t end up going because it sold out, or if I chose to go to this other show instead, but I’m partially happy that it went the way it did. The other show happened to be CZW’s Night of Infamy 4, right back at The Arena. That show led to me being allowed to go to the next CZW show at The Arena, CZW’s Cage of Death 7. Holy shit, that show. From the opener to the closer, I loved the fuck out of that show. Everything I could have asked for in a wrestling show, they had, and it was awesome.

Then after that, I went to the January show..then the February show..then March..years pass by and I start going to CHIKARA, and other various wrestling companies that ran at The Arena..and 7 years later, I’m still going. I think I’ve only missed a handful of shows at The Arena since that show in 2005, which is pretty crazy now that I look back on it.

To some, The Arena is “that place ECW ran”, but to me, it wasn’t really that. I understood the importance of The Arena to fans of pro wrestling, or at least the Philadelphia ones. After going to The Arena for so many years, it become a home away from home for me. I’ve met some of my best friends there, people that I will more than likely talk to for the rest of my life, and continue on this wrestling journey with. Every month, I would walk into that arena, and every few feet, there would be someone I knew, and could just walk up to and spark a conversation. Home away from home. Wrestling brought us all together.

The importance of The Arena has obviously died down since the heyday of ECW, and I still wish I would have went to at least one of those shows, but the amount of shows that I’ve been able to attend there has meant way more to me than one ECW should could have. Some shows sucked dick, for sure, but that’s wrestling for ya. What makes me a bit sad about this whole ordeal isn’t that it’s just some building isn’t running wrestling shows any more. CZW, CHIKARA, ROH, and others will find other buildings to run at, and I’ll continue to go with no problem. What does it is that I won’t be able to continue the routine that I’ve done for years now, at the place that I’ve practically grew up at. Though, at the same time, even as I write this, I do have a feeling that wrestling will return there some day. 6 months, a year, two years, whenever. If it doesn’t, it’s been a really fun run, but if it does, then hooray!

Does wrestling die in Philadelphia now? Of course not. Who knows, maybe The Arena not hosting wrestling any more will force promotions to expand to new areas and gain new fans. Will they lose some old fans? Maybe. Maybe that’s for the best, though. The Arena’s crowd has gotten a lot of slack over the years (some of it being rightfully deserved), but then again at other times, they can be the best crowd in the world (CHIKARA’s crowd has always been fun for me, as well as various CZW/others that ran there).

I love The Arena, and it’s kinda disheartening that I have no idea where CZW will be running next month, as I’m so used to just knowing “oh, second saturday of the month, CZW time, let’s go to The Arena”.

As a sidenote, the whole Sami Callihan thing didn’t really make sense to me at first last night. I felt like the crowd was really confused about it (or maybe I just was), but now that I’ve let it settle, I think it was a pretty cool way to let things go. Sure, everyone would have liked for the ECW guys to say goodbye and everyone go home happy, but I think what happened was way cooler. This hungry, dangerous indy guy just killed the memories, the hereos, and the legacies, with a few blows to the guy that some consider the man who put ECW on the map, Sabu. He pulled the trigger on ol’ yellar. He put the final nail in the coffin. He cut the lights and let it all fade to black. I can’t wait to see the DVD of it, because I think it’ll come off way cooler to me once I re-watch it. Or I’ll hate it and complain. Who knows.

Nonetheless, it’s been fun. Bingo Hall, ECW Arena, Viking Hall, New Alhambra, Asylum Arena, The Arena, whatever you want to call it, is probably one of my favorite places ever, and I’ll miss it, but I won’t forget it.



Goodbye, friend.