Lots of House of Hardcore News and Notes

[Big Red Machine]

Source: PWInsider

By Mike Johnson on 2016-04-18 09:33:00

It was a highly successful weekend for Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore as they drew 850 in Queens, NY at the ELMCOR Center and over 1,400 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA. The crowd was up in Queens and Philadelphia was a sellout. Both shows were very good with Chris Hero, Team Tremendous, Pepper Parks and Sami Callihan especially having standout performances over the course of the weekend. The shows had a really fun vibe and a great atmosphere. You can see things are coming together nicely for Dreamer's vision of what he wants for the company.

In a first for the promotion, they placed tickets on sale for their 9/17 return to Philadelphia at intermission on Saturday and did monster business for that show with no matches or even talent announced. Even Tommy Dreamer was shocked at how well the advance sales did.

At the close of the Philadelphia show, Dreamer announced that the promotion would now run monthly with at least 1-2 events in different markets each month.

For those who have asked, I am under the impression Rob Van Dam will work additional dates for the company, but nothing has been announced in that regard.

Underadvertised surprises in Philly included Mickie James (to set up a mixed tag on 5/7), former WWE ECW star Kevin Thorne (doing a run-in to attack Bull Dempsey and Billy Gunn), Sean Waltman (saving Gunn) and The Sandman, who came out to do his grand entrance and have a celebratory sendoff for the crowd with Rob Van Dam, Dreamer and Rhino.

Perhaps the coolest surprise of all was Ricky Steamboat coming out to pay tribute to the fans, leading to Vik Dalishus coming out and getting chopped and run off. I have seen a lot of shocking things in the former ECW Arena, but even my mouth dropped when Steamboat dropped an "F" bomb on the mic.

In a funny moment, Billy Gunn admitted on the mic in Philly that Bull James blew him up in the ring. I guess Bull-Fit isn't a work!

There's talk of finding another venue in the NYC area beyond just running the ELMCOR venue. ELMCOR is great for sightlines, but as anyone who has been there can attest, there is no parking around it and it's not close to public transportation.

ROH's Christopher Daniels was backstage visiting in Philadelphia. He was in town for the ROH training seminar/tryout.

Shane Douglas, who was booked at the Heroes & Icons convention that preceeded HOH in Philly, stayed at the HOH show in order to pay tribute to the late Balls Mahoney and visited backstage until intermission. Joel Gertner also stayed for the tribute.

Former ECW Director Ron Buffone was at the show backstage visiting.

Pro Wrestling NOAH allowed HOH to have two GHC Tag Team championship matches over the course of the weekend and there is a possibility of the two sides doing additional business down the line.

The HOH school will be relocating to a new location in Upstate New York soon.

Next up for HOH will be a 5/7 event in Niagara Falls, Ontario at the Scotiabank Center featuring:

*"All Ontario Main Event" with Bobby Roode vs. Eric Young featuring special referee Jimmy Korderas.
*Extreme Rules Mixed Tag Match: Tommy Dreamer & Mickie James vs. Pepper Parks & Cherry Bomb
*Sami Callihan vs. Rhino
*Also appearing are Colt Cabana, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Eddie Kingston, RJ City, Mindi O'Brien, Team Tremendous, Tony Nese, The Double Duprees and more. For tickets, visit www.HouseofHardcore.net.

The promotion will also have a 6/24 date in Australia. Talent for that should be announced in the weeks to come. They are working out logistics with the local partners there now.