ECW November to Remember 1997

Back finally after two months or so and jumping right in to another ECW pay-per-view.

1. Tommy Rogers vs. Chris Candido - 4
On paper this sounded like a good match but in execution I don’t think it panned out as well as it possibly could have. No one seemed to have recognized Rogers, even though he was one half of the Fantastics back in the 80s. Sad really. First portion of this was very by the numbers with a suplex spot off the apron on to the floor was probably the highlight of the first half of this. The thing that knocked this down a notch for me was that Jerry Lynn and Lance Storm randomly interfered and the referee turned it into a tag match with Rogers & Lynn against Storm & Candido. My question is who gave him that authority to do so? The tag portion of this was really spotty with no tagging in at all and was a complete free for all.

2. Justin Credible vs. Mikey Whipwreck - 3
This felt more like a sprint as they just kept hitting move after move with little to no selling. Mikey’s ringpost frankensteiner was pretty cool. Credible has a rough looking mustache … looked like a kid who hit puberty trying to grow his first ‘stache and impress his friends. Top rope whipper-snapped was a wild looking finish. Not really a lot here to get incredibly excited about.

3. Pitbull #2 vs. Taz - 1
I’d forgotten this was even on the show until I looked back at my notes. This was so quick that if you went to the fridge for a snack, you’d probably miss it. Taz was a beast. That’s pretty much it.

4. The FBI (Tracy Smothers & Little Guido) vs. The Dudleys vs. Balls Mahoney & Axl Rotten vs. New Jack & Kronus – Four Way Elimination Match - 3
This started off like a very low level indy match with Balls and Axl hitting chair shots from behind and then doing rope spots. Things get convoluted and messy as soon as New Jack and Kronus hit the ring, accompanied by blaring hip-hop music. So much exaggerated selling on New Jack’s weapon shots, almost cartoonish selling really. Can you imagine New Jack dumpster diving for all this shit the night before the show? I can. Bubba’s dive spot was fun to watch but I saw it coming. Best part of the whole match was Tommy Rich’s selling of a New Jack guitar shot that he sold like a headless, wandering zombie. Powder spot was pretty ridiculous as Bubba initally sold it but then somehow managed to see well enough to do a 3D on Devon. Finish was completely awful with a ref bump and then a crooked ref making a fast count. The rating on this sunk faster than the Titantic.

5. Rob Van Dam vs. Tommy Dreamer - 4
I used to think that RVD and Tommy Dreamer would be a good match. However, I’ve seen numerous RVD/Dreamer matches in recent years (including this match) and I’ve been really disappointed. I keep looking for a classic hardcore battle and I’m always left wishing it was better. This match was no exception to that either. This took forever to get going, much like that terrible Green Lantern flick from this past summer. Weird instance where the match skipped ahead at one point and RVD was bleeding from the eye. I guess we’ll never know how that happened. Dreamer looked really lethargic. Watching this I became bored waiting for this to get going into the next gear which never happened. They were doing ECW vs. WWF here and there seemed to be no heat, even when Furnas and Lafon interfered at the end, not that Furnas and Lafon were going to elicit a big pop anyway. Best thing I saw in this was RVD doing a great sell of a shitty Dreamer piledriver. Second straight shit finish with four ref bumps and about a dozen low blows.

6. The Sandman vs. Sabu – Tables and Ladders are Legal Match - 3
Right near the beginning Sandman carelessly heaves a ladder on the floor and I know this is going to be amusing. Not amusing in the fact that it will be a good match, but amusing in the fact that it’s going to be a huge sloppy mess much like a Manwich. Sandman looked worse than Anthony Bourdain after a night of drunken escapades. I could go on and on and detail every botch here but there were just so many. Loved the spot where Sandman just completely broke his ass diving through a table. Sandman’s sloppiness made Sabu’s offense look tolerable. There was a somersault off a ladder that I described as a miracle since it was the few major spots that actually came off clean. I liked Sabu’s wild dive through a table at the end. Such a sloppy mess but I couldn’t stop watching out of mere curiosity as to what they were going to try next.

7. Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Shane Douglas - 5
Since this show is outside of Douglas’ hometown, Bigelow comes across as the default heel. Saw a number of things here I thought I would never see in a Douglas match, the first being that he’s playing a resilient face. Had a hard time wrapping my head around that one. Second, he took a very wild bump ribs first on the exposed metal part of the turnbuckle. Last, he took a crazy bump straight to the floor from a Bigelow gorilla press slam, very similar to Spike Dudley. Bigelow was tremendous here as a monster heel, just beating Douglas from pillar to post and powerbombing him through a table. Bigelow’s control section went on a bit long for my taste and the finish was rather abrupt with a belly-to-belly through a table and a fast count from the ref to give Douglas back the title.