Before Michael Jordan ever bounced a ball at the United Center, Kwang the Ninja Warrior was already throwing spinning heel kicks in it.
On August 29, 1994, WWE’s SummerSlam became the first ticketed event at Chicago’s $175 million arena.
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Chicago’s United Center was the host of WWE SummerSlam in 1994Credit: WWE
Built to replace the crumbling Chicago Stadium just across the street, the United Center was billed as the future of sports in the Windy City.
A joint home for the Bulls and the Blackhawks, it was equipped with private luxury suites, a 40,000-square-foot scoreboard, and enough concourse space to host just about anything. But it wasn’t a basketball that broke in the court – and the court was a ring.
Wrestling ninja beats Michael Jordan to piece of Chicago history
In an untelevised match held before the pay-per-view broadcast went live, Kwang – a masked athlete in the style of a ninja warrior – took on Adam Bomb in front of a crowd that would eventually reach 23,000.
It was a clash few remember – the footage has never aired, never been included in any WWE compilation, and exists only in fan recollection.
But technically, it made Kwang and Bomb the answer to a very strange trivia question: who wrestled before Michael Jordan ever played a game at the United Center?
While Jordan was in the middle of his baseball sabbatical – he’d return to the Bulls the following spring – it was Kwang kicking off the action in the brand-new building, months before “I’m back” echoed through the city.
Kwang, played by Puerto Rican wrestler Juan Rivera, had debuted in WWE earlier that year.
Masked, mysterious, and billed with martial arts flair, he was positioned as an exotic heel in the mould of early ’90s cartoon gimmickry – a green mist–spitting striker with a spinning sidekick and no clear backstory.
Kwang lasted until mid-1995 before gradually fading from screens, but the athlete himself remained in the company’s good graces.
Within weeks, he was repackaged as Savio Vega and became a key figure in WWE’s mid-card during the New Generation era.
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The United Center was the brand new home of the Bulls and BlackhawksCredit: YouTube/TFC Basketball
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Summerslam that year featured iconic Bears running back Walter Payton as a guest enforcerCredit: WWE
He tangled with Stone Cold Steve Austin during Austin’s rise, led the Los Boricuas faction during the Gang Wars of 1997, and remained a fixture on TV into the Attitude Era up until his exit in 1999.
After leaving WWE, he wrestled across Puerto Rico and the US, making an epic WWE return in 2023 for a surprise cameo during Bad Bunny’s street fight at Backlash, earning a hero’s welcome from the Puerto Rican crowd.
But back in 1994, before any of that, he helped christen Chicago’s newest coliseum – with this year’s SummerSlam now fast approaching.
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The United Center would go on to become one of the most iconic venues in North American sports. It hosted the Bulls’ second three-peat, the farewell tours of Jordan and Pippen, the arrival of Derrick Rose, and the banner-raising years of the Chicago Blackhawks. U2, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, and Taylor Swift have all sold it out.
In wrestling, it’s housed episodes of Raw, SmackDown, AEW Collision and All In – and yet none of those came first.
SummerSlam 1994 was a night of big moments: Bret Hart vs Owen Hart in a steel cage classic. The much-mocked Undertaker vs Undertaker main event. But it also marked the first night Chicago’s United Center came alive – and in the match no one saw, Kwang the ninja warrior was first through the curtain.
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Kwang wrestled at SummerSlam at the United Center before the cameras were onCredit: WWE
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As Savio Vega, the same wrestler tangled with Triple H and Stone Cold before they hit their heightsCredit: WWE
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Jordan and the Bulls were dominant in the area in the 1990s but Kwang broke ground firstCredit: AFP/WWE
Now more than 30 years on, the United Center is preparing for its biggest transformation yet.
Construction on The 1901 Project – a $7 billion redevelopment of the 55-acre campus around the arena – is set to begin this summer, bringing with it new green space, retail, a 6,000-seat music hall and hotel.
But before the building ever echoed with MVP chants or championship rings, before statues were unveiled and banners raised to the rafters, WWE got there first with SummerSlam.
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