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The former Chestnut Cabaret, a nightclub located at 38th & Ludlow Streets in Philadelphia, is slated to be torn down soon according to local reports and social media postings.
The venue, mostly known for concerts, was at one point the home to the original Eastern Championship Wrestling, which ran there regularly in 1992. The promotion debuted there in July 1992 with an event headlined by Jimmy Snuka vs. The Sandman. Don Muraco won the ECW title there in September 1992, defeating Snuka. When ECW began taping TV, they moved to Cabrini College before finding the infamous ECW Arena, which became synonymous with the promotion and still exists as an event venue today as the 2300 Arena because of ECW placing that venue on the map as a world famous destination.
PWInsider.com reached out to ECW founder Tod Gordon, who's memoir Tod is God: The Authorized Story of How I Created Extreme Championship Wrestling will be released this July for comment on the venue's importance to the original ECW.
Gordon commented, "The Chestnut Cabaret was a small intimate club, not much larger that the Sports Bar we began in, but it did offer better chairs, lighting, and an actual dressing room! Even though we only ran there for less than six months, I actually have some great memories from the shows we held there. JT Smith got hired to work at Carver W. Reed right out of something that happened at a show there. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka teamed up with Ivan Koloff to pull a hilarious rib on one of the young workers. It's a classic story and both the aforementioned are told in detail in my upcoming book. So I'll raise a toast to what turned out to be a memorable venue that was important in our infancy."
The venue, later re-named Blockey's in 1995, closed for good in December 2013.
The plan is to build a "large mixed-use development" at the property. The new 13-story structure will have retail space on the ground floor and office space above.
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