Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
There is no question that WWE is a global attraction to millions of fans worldwide. Whether they attend shows at arenas, stadiums or simply watch on television…WWE has been a billion dollar business. The popularity of the brand, has allowed Vince McMahon and company to try and spread their wings in other avenues like music, books, movies and even a restaurant. In 2002, the Canadian Niagara Hotels Incorporated wanted to get in on the hot property that was/is WWE by opening up their own WWE attraction.
Canadian Niagara Hotels Inc. would partner with WWE Canada President Carl DeMarco and create a WWE licensed retail store in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. It would be the very first WWE attraction of any kind outside the United States. Originally, there were talks to bring a WWE restaurant to the location, but Canadian Niagara Hotels Inc. did not want it to compete with their nearby Rainforest café themed eatery. So a retail store was agreed upon, that was not owned by WWE…just an agreement for licensing official WWE merchandise and name branding.
The announcement of the store’s opening was made at the Wrestlemania 18 Fan Axxcess which was held in Toronto, Canada that year. The store officially opened that Summer in July of 2002. Thousands of fans lined up overnight to be the first to enter this new establishment. Canadian WWE superstars Val Venis, Trish Stratus and Chris Benoit attended the grand opening to meet and sign autographs for fans.
The store itself, was a two story building that had WWE Niagara Falls employees dressed in WWE referee shirts and sold everything from action figures, bobble heads, t shirts and replica title belts. WWE matches were shown on big screen TVs and WWE entrance music was played in their sound system. On the outside, were cement hand prints of several WWE wrestlers. While all of that was nice, the real attraction was a 220 ft high ride on the roof of the Niagara Falls location called ‘The Pile Driver.’
The Pile Driver ride lifted patrons up high to overlook the entire area of Niagara Falls and then quickly plummeted all the way down. Unfortunately, the ride would find itself shut down for the remainder of the 2002 summer season, as the proper permits were not filed. The prices of the officially licensed merchandise was apparently very expensive as well and over time, would become outdated. As word had it, Vince McMahon was not a big fan of the WWE Niagara Falls store and never promoted it on TV outside of the Canadian market…unlike his restaurant and other WWE ideas. Despite that, other WWE stars would appear at the retail store from time to time when the company was in town…including John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Edge, Batista and Rob Van Dam.
Ultimately, in March of 2011, WWE decided to pull the licensing from the location and WWE Niagara Falls simply became an average gift shop. It was completely gutted of most, but not all WWE merchandise. Gone were the cement handprints in the front, gone was the huge WWE title belt marquee and the Pile Driver ride was shut down.
Eventually, the Pile Driver ride was sold to an amusement park in the middle eastern nation of Jordan…where it still stands today.
The WWE Niagara Falls location was eventually remodeled and became a brewery.
