Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Jun 20, 2014 8:45:35 GMT -6
May 14, 1993, was the date that Eddie Gilbert and Tod Gordon scheduled their first show of Eastern Championship Wrestling. It was in a Bingo Hall, run by the Viking Club Mummers organization, located at Swanson and Ritner Streets. The building was called Viking Hall. Back in those pre-internet days, if someone tried to look up the intersection on a SEPTA map, they'd have found the intersection officially didn't exist.
It turned out the Viking Club had paved over freight train tracks and created an unofficial extension of Swanson Street. In those days, Philadelphia area independent wrestling fans were used to going to shows at flea markets. They were used to going to shows at elementary, junior high schools, and high schools. So when they heard a Bingo Hall, they scratched their head. First, this show is at a street corner that doesn't exist, and it's located at a Bingo Hall?
So on the afternoon of the show, fans asked around the neighborhood. Finally arriving at the local Forman Mills discount store, I asked where the Mummers practiced. The sales clerk
pointed down the street. Yup, it was there. They walked in, looked up at the wall, and saw the Bingo board up on the wall.
It's a part of Viking Hall lore that they did "Midnight Bingo" at the Viking Club there to help fund the Viking Club's annual march up Broad Street in the annual Mummer's Parade.
In the early years of what became known as the ECW Arena, wrestling was supposed to be out of there in enough time to allow set-up for Midnight Bingo. As fans left ECW shows, the "bingo ladies" were out in line waiting impatiently to get in. Some nights ran a bit long.
Beginning that night, Viking Hall became the home for ECW, Eastern Championship Wrestling, and later Extreme Championship Wrestling. Viking Club, which solely became known to fans at the ECW Arena, became the home of the most controversial wrestling promotion of the 1990s. It featured incredible technical wrestling, unbelievable violence and some of the most creative booking ever.
It turned out the Viking Club had paved over freight train tracks and created an unofficial extension of Swanson Street. In those days, Philadelphia area independent wrestling fans were used to going to shows at flea markets. They were used to going to shows at elementary, junior high schools, and high schools. So when they heard a Bingo Hall, they scratched their head. First, this show is at a street corner that doesn't exist, and it's located at a Bingo Hall?
So on the afternoon of the show, fans asked around the neighborhood. Finally arriving at the local Forman Mills discount store, I asked where the Mummers practiced. The sales clerk
pointed down the street. Yup, it was there. They walked in, looked up at the wall, and saw the Bingo board up on the wall.
It's a part of Viking Hall lore that they did "Midnight Bingo" at the Viking Club there to help fund the Viking Club's annual march up Broad Street in the annual Mummer's Parade.
In the early years of what became known as the ECW Arena, wrestling was supposed to be out of there in enough time to allow set-up for Midnight Bingo. As fans left ECW shows, the "bingo ladies" were out in line waiting impatiently to get in. Some nights ran a bit long.
Beginning that night, Viking Hall became the home for ECW, Eastern Championship Wrestling, and later Extreme Championship Wrestling. Viking Club, which solely became known to fans at the ECW Arena, became the home of the most controversial wrestling promotion of the 1990s. It featured incredible technical wrestling, unbelievable violence and some of the most creative booking ever.