Flying chairs, thumbtacks, broken tables and blood are just some of what ECW what it was in the mid to late 90s. Now as the wrestling world turns its focus on Philadelphia for WrestleMania next month, take a look back at the promotion that entertained hundreds of fans out of an old warehouse in South Philly.
Originally known as Eastern Championship Wrestling, the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion became a stalwart of professional wrestling, thrilling fans from what was known as ECW Arena on Swanson St.
The 90s was the start of the “Attitude Era” in WWE as it fought for attention with the Ted Turner-owned WCW promotion. As the two top companies battled for cable TV ratings on Monday nights, the far smaller ECW put together events that helped push the industry to get more extreme and violent.
Beyond just pushing the envelope on violence, ECW also broke the mold of what wrestling characters could be, going for a more realistic appearance than the often cartoonish approach that had been a constant for WWE.
“ECW came at a time of characters coming out of the territory days of wrestling. This was when there used to be small territories all over the place where ECW didn’t exist,” said Woody Kumetat, the brand manager at Suplex Vintage Wrestling.
Fans who had grown up watching wrestling in the 80s were looking for more of an edge to their wrestling, and they found it in Paul Heyman. Heyman bought ECW in 1995 and amplified the realism.
Heyman incorporated more bloodshed, weapons like canes, and other gimmicks that became a way for people to view ECW as “real.” This interested a more mature audience and the fanbase started changing. What might have seemed like a scripted match often became somewhat superficial in nature as fans got to see the wounds that these wrestlers received.
As a smaller promotion, ECW was able to take chances on young talents and wrestling styles that changed the way the audiences viewed wrestling. They were one of the first promotions that started bringing over the high-flying luchadores-style of wrestling that became popular in Mexico and Japan.
“It wasn’t just the violence in that because that’s so easy to focus on because it’s, you know, captivating, but the fact that we’re willing to take chances and really see amazing talent from Stone Cold Steve Austin, Eddie Guerrero, and more,” Kumetat said.
The realism helped ECW become more mainstream in the 90s and more widely known outside of Philly and across the nation.
The growth in popularity drew more fans to ECW Arena, now known as 2300 Arena, giving life to the space, feeding off the passion of the city.
“When it came to Philly wrestling fans, they were the most passionate fans,” Kumetat said. “So they would have, you know, a 600-person arena, but we’ll feel like there were 1,000s there with the way that people were so loud and rowdy.”
ECW also encapsulated feelings of GenXers who may have felt uncertainty in where they might be in life. ECW gave those people a chance to escape and touch that anger that Gen X might have with that uncertainty in life.
“You know sometimes, if you’re not going to act out yourself, you might still want to see someone act out because a large part of professional wrestling goes to just the basic myths of, you know good versus evil,” said CarrieLynn Reinhard, professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Dominican University in Illinois. She’s also the co-founder of the Professional Wrestling Studies Association.
Many of the fans wanted to see the uncertainty and pain reflected in these larger stories and the characters that they were rooting for.
As ECW became more extreme and embraced the hardcore approach, Philadelphia became more of a focal point for wrestling, as opposed to the traditional hotspot of New York or the surrounding areas.
“I kind of have a feeling that might have been the relationship going on, that ECW might have seen themselves as ‘No one’s paying enough attention to us. Why is everyone paying attention to these people from New York City, people pay attention to us now,’” Reinhard said.
“When it came to wrestling, that was exactly what the sport needed,” Kumetat said. “We had that brash, loudmouth Philadelphian attitude, sewn into the violence, and the crazy, hectic nature of wrestling. It was a perfect marriage.”
Despite the arena’s small size, which is common when it comes to indie promotions, it became part of the identity of ECW as a place to see new, edgier wrestling. As Kumetat explains it, it was sort of how the fans just attached themselves to the arena and it became a soul while the fans were the heartbeat.
“[The arena] presents part of the identity of what the promotion is trying to present themselves”. Reinhard said.
As ECW fans grew to love the arena, so did the wrestlers as they started to experiment with how to use the space as part of their story.
That included jumping off balconies and using props like trash cans, tables and chairs in their fights. They also found a way to cultivate violence in a different way than was done before with canes, thumbtacks and even barbed wire.
ECW also offered wrestlers the chance to deviate from the normal script and were the first to do the long-term storytelling on a huge scale. Wrestlers would have maybe a year-long feud between each other, but never actually fight. They would just trade barbs on the microphone back and forth, building up anticipation to a major conflict.
“What ECW was allowed to do because of the passion of the fans, they were able to elongate that process, which they saw wrestlers didn’t do. They didn’t do that with wrestling because they didn’t think people could stay involved.” Kumetat said
As other companies like WWE started to follow suit, but on a larger scale, and it was hard for ECW to keep up.
The promotion’s growing popularity raised the profile of many of its roster, sometimes leading ECW wrestlers to join WWE. Eventually, ECW closed in 2001. The company was eventually bought by WWE in 2003. Heyman was able to bring some elements of ECW into WWE.
“If ECW was around now, I don’t think they’d have to fold. I think they might have partnerships like New Japan Pro Wrestling. They have these relationships and I think that can still happen”. Reinhard said
As for the old ECW Arena, it’s been revived and now known as the 2300 Arena where it once again hosts combat sports including wrestling and boxing matches as well as concerts, and corporate and private events.
Before WrestleMania, the arena will host a show with New Japan Pro Wrestling and WrestleCon, an annual wrestling fan convention on April 4. On April 5, the arena will host Battleground Championship Wrestling’s Born to Die event.
