The Furious Flashbacks – ECW November To Remember 1996

Seeing as I’m writing this off the back of the last review I don’t really have much to say about anything I guess I’ll just shill the Furious on Film column that’s featuring in the Movies section. Check it out, it’s what I do when I’m sober and not watching wrestling. This is the latest in a pile of ECW tapes I borrowed off Stu Harris. Only two more after this then my alternative to UK recaps will be RANDOM STUFF! Everyone loves random stuff. That is unless I can strike a deal for 85 WCW tapes. In which case I’ll be somewhat busy over the coming, er, year or so.

November 16th 1996 and we’re in the ECW Arena in scenic South Philadelphia. Host is Joey Styles.

PROMO TIME – Taz w/Bill Alfonso. “Fuck you Taz” – Philly. Taz talks about signing contracts and he tells Paul Heyman that he’s announcing his big surprise that there’s a big show in the first quarter of next year (that would be Barely Legal). He tells Paul he’ll be the main event “against your boy” (Sabu).

David Morton Tyler Jericho v Big Stevie Cool

Huge “bWo” chant as the Blue World Order are in the house. Meanie has a chicken bone instead of a toothpick. Hollywood Nova says dude and brother a lot, which is almost an extra replica of a Hogan promo from 1989. “We’re taking over” – Stevie. He does the full Nash thing here and threatens to “run this midget back to WCW”. I mark for Big Stevie Cool. His opponent looks suspiciously like Kid Kash. Joey takes the opportunity of a Kevin Nash copy to mock the master of hair care. He has Richards on one count though, his hair is far more immaculate. Jericho gets on the mic and tells Stevie that he’s the “gayest looking son of a bitch” he’s ever seen. Jericho with a few armdrags and I’m convinced this guy is Kid Kash, which would make sense as his name is David and he was trained by Ricky Morton. So to further confuse matters I’m going to call him Kash even though he has 4 other names here. Stevie does the Nash elbows in the corner. Kash responds by dropping a knee below the waistline. Testicular claw! And Kash called Stevie gay looking? Stevie bails on that so Kash hits a PLANCHAAAAA. Springboard clothesline from Kash. Rope assisted leg drop gets 2. Kash goes low another two times. Boston crab applied but Stevie has the ropes so Kash goes low again. HAHAHA. He follows that with his 6th low blow of the evening. Stevie has clearly had enough of that shit and he hoofs Kash in the balls as hard as he can. Stevie calls for the powerbomb but then drops and goes low again. Man, that’s a lot of low blows for one match. Sidewalk slam from Stevie and he throws the fist in the air before pinning for 2. He’s got Nash down to a tee. Kash walks into a Diamond Cutter for 2. Kash tries for a sunset flip but Stevie punches him in typical Nash fashion. “Jack Knife” – Philly. Kash tries to set for it but instead hits the MONEY MAKER…for 2. To the ropes and Kash hits a Super Rana and adds a legdrop for 2. Stevie has had it though – JACK KNIFE (hey, that’s not a Nash parody – he can do a powerbomb properly)! That gets 2 so Stevie tunes up the band. STEVIEKICK is ducked and Kash goes low for the 7th time in this one. Stevie ducks a clothesline and the STEVIEKICK finishes at 9.24. ***. That was really particularly good if you overlook the 9 or so low blows.

Axl Rotten v Hack Myers

Shit. Axl appears to have either turned heel or he’s getting heat because he’s working the Shah. “SHAH, SHAH, SHAH”. All this meaningless punching reminds me of Hulk Hogan! This degenerates pretty quickly into an ugly brawl on the floor. Crowd’s only amusement is waiting for Myers to get some offence in so they can shout “SHAH” in unison. The Shah shows off his chair swinging skills as well for 2. Myers goes to the ropes, which screams bad move and Axl drags him down. No real shock there. Double underhook leads to a faceplant on a chair and Myers is toast at 4.26. Should have stayed off the ropes. DUD. That was fucking ugly and no mistake.

Buh-Buh Dudley v D-Von Dudley

This is before their many years of teaming so I don’t expect a lot of technical chaining based on their knowledge of each others moves. D-Von controls because he’s more of a dick. Bubba is bleeding from the elbow as they hit the floor. Bubba runs D-Von into the rail. Back inside D-Von hits his trademark inverted DDT for 2. Back to the floor and Bubba gets whipped into the crowd. Bubba promptly nails D-Von with a chair and they brawl through the crowd. Back in D-Von tries for something with a chair but Bubba cuts him off and hits a superplex for 2. Powerbomb gets 2. Bubba misses with a splash off the ropes but D-Von does connect off the ropes for 2. D-Von slaps at his fallen brother and wields a chair. Bubba blocks a chair shot but D-Von punches him in the jaw. Bubba throws D-Von into the air and SWEET as you like hits a Bubba Cutter on the way down for the pin at 10.19. Ѕ*. Mostly just a dull brawl but the finish was quite tidy.

POST MATCH Joel Gertner steals Bob Artese’s microphone to announce D-Von as the winner, which was his gimmick even after the Dudley Boyz teamed up. Gertner claims that D-Von won on points calling Bubba’s finisher “mediocre”. Gertner tells “fat boy” to get out of his way. That’s like a red rag to a bull, until Axl Rotten runs in here to clean house but Spike Dudley makes the save for Bubba. D-Von takes the Acid Drop. Axl lariats him though and the Dudleys (minus D-Von) get a beat down until Big Dick shows up. Axl bails as does D-Von but Gertner doesn’t see him. Bubba takes him down and Big Dick HITS A FUCKING MOONSAULT. Admittedly he nearly fucked it up and landed on his head but nevertheless – that was a moonsault.

Rob Van Dam/Sabu v The Eliminators

Talk about a dream ECW tag match. Shame the Eliminators had Kronus in or they might have been good. Joey talks about the anticipation for this one. Saturn and Sabu start out and that’s really very good on the mat. Traditionally they’re better in the air. They throw armdrags and hip tosses before the duelling dropkicks leads to the stand off. Kronus wants in. Shit. He also wants RVD. The latter breaks out his martial arts skills with the standard splits and kicking. Kronus avoids him with a few leapfrogs and hits a suplex. RVD gets back suplexed for 2. Sabu interferes, which brings Saturn in and we have ourselves a big 4-man brawl. Damn ECW and their lack of structure! Saturn powerslams RVD for 2 despite not being legal. Although since when has that ever mattered here! RVD tries his best to drop Saturn on his head with a powerbomb. Rolling legdrop gets 2. Saturn comes back and connects with a quebrada for 2. Kronus comes back in with that leapfrog shit again so RVD catches and powerbombs him for 2. Sabu blasts Kronus in the head with a chair and comes in. Triple Jump Legdrop and the ARABIAN FACEBUSTER gets 2 because Saturn saves. RVD in with a Michigan Jam for 2. Kronus goes low and dumps RVD on the ropes. He clobbers Sabu to make sure he gets some time on offence this time around. Saturn comes in to aid him in kicking shit out of RVD. Sabu gets back in to break it anyway. Saturn takes exception and nails him in between the eyes. He then brawls out into the crowd with him. Saturn is clearly pissed off here! Sabu runs the rail to crush Kronus’ face against the apron though. This has fallen apart again. RVD starts throwing chairs. Sabu follows suit. Like he needs encouraging. Air Sabu on Kronus and a somersault legdrop off a chair gets 2. RVD tries to bash Saturn with a chair but ends up getting it dropkicked back into his face. Saturn with a slingshot clothesline on Sabu that takes both men outside. Kronus slams RVD in completely the wrong place for what he was going for so he decides to hit a backflip over the ropes instead. Now RVD is ready to fly too and he hits a somersault plancha. Sabu is in no mood to be outdone – TRIPLE JUMP PLANCHAAAA! Sabu breaks out the hardware. Kronus gets dumped on the table but Saturn wipes Sabu out as he goes for the triple jump. Saturn hits a Diamond Cutter while Kronus beats up RVD on the floor. Saturn threatens to suplex Sabu through a table, which he blocks 3 different variations of before BULLDOGGING Saturn off the apron through the table. Kronus is now screwed because he’s alone. RVD surfs the chair for 2. Slingshot legdrop and splash from the RVD/Sabu. Saturn is back in and bleeding. SAVAGE ELBOW on RVD for 2. RVD goes after a chair but Saturn is having none of it and keeps kicking at RVD. Sabu takes advantage with an ARABIAN FACEBUSTER for 2. Now we’re back to tags it seems as Sabu comes in and hooks a half crab. RVD makes a mockery of that by throwing a chair in. Kronus dropkicks him off the apron for revenge. Saturn legsweeps Sabu for 2. Sabu dropkicks Kronus’ shin and hooks a half crab. RVD in for a spinning heel kick. That gets 2. ARABIAN PRESS as Sabu comes back in for 2. Tags aren’t required anymore apparently. Saturn with a Northern Lights on Sabu for 2. Saturn with a second buckle moonsault on RVD for 2. Still no tags, he just happened to be in there. It really doesn’t matter as the time limit has run out at 20.00.

Todd Gordon is out here and we get 5 more minutes. Sabu straps a Boston crab on Saturn after missing a dropkick to the shin. RVD adds a legdrop for good measure. Kronus takes exception and powerbombs both guys. Eliminators bring the double leapfrogs and the double team kicks. Sabu goes after a double DDT but Kronus just falls over meaning Saturn gets SPIKED. How did I just not notice how sloppy Kronus was? Then RVD and Sabu manage to drop Saturn on his head as well just for kicks. That still doesn’t get the pin. Eliminators kick at Sabu for 2. RVD plants Saturn on his face, which must be a nice variation for him. Kronus hits a clothesline off the second rope and Saturn heads up only to miss a moonsault. Now RVD is up but Kronus gets him and tries his damn hardest to powerbomb him onto Saturn. His partner rolled out of the way 3 times and was still nearly hit. Sabu takes advantage by hitting a moonsault onto his own goddamn chair, which looked incredibly painful. He ends up lying on Kronus for 2. Apparently that’s another 5 minutes, which it wasn’t but these guys will kill each other if they let it go on longer. Crowd was chanting “three way dance” at the start of this and do so again. Saturn wants another 5 minutes though.

Most of the crowd don’t want 5 more minutes. I don’t want 5 more minutes. The last 5 minutes wasn’t even 5 more minutes. Outside right away and Sabu hits a TOPE SUICIDAAAAA, which lands him in the front row after he hit the rail hard. Sabu has to have broken at least one of his ribs tonight. RVD hits a backflip off the rail on the other side. That leaves Saturn and the injured Sabu. Saturn drops a knee for 2. Saturn with a rana for 2. Everyone in, AGAIN. Why did they even have bits in this with actual tagging in? They’ve not bothered with the rest of it. RVD falls off the ropes. I’d have trouble trusting anyone out there the way this is going. Sabu and Saturn have the same springboard idea and collide. Saturn falls on his partner for good measure. Another 5 minutes is up at 3.09. Crowd once again wants a 3-way dance later. Gordon decides to make it a 3-way dance, which is what everyone wanted 10 gimmicked minutes ago. **1/4. An absolute clusterfuck even by these guys standards. It’s such a shame because I’d love to see a straight up tag match with these teams in.

Chris Candido v Mikey Whipwreck

This must have been very shortly after Candido left the WWF (I remember him being in the WWF up until late Summer before injuries put him on the shelf). Candido points out that Sunny is at the Hall of Fame ceremony so “shut the fuck up, I’m trying to wrestle”. They run some nice amateur style mat stuff into the standard counters. Both men get back up to polite applause (although I catch some asshole shouting “boring” at the very thought of a headlock – hey, jackass, it’s called wrestling. Go and watch some fucking NASCAR or something there’s more chance of someone dying). Meanwhile back outside of my rant Mikey hits a Northern Lights for 2. Mikey hits a rana over the ropes and Candido gets re-introduced to the ECW fanbase. Mikey hits the ropes and hits a plancha into the crowd. It doesn’t get the response it deserves because the match before this had a dozen such crazy (or stupid depending on your perspective) bumps in it. Candido stays down holding his neck, which he actually injured in the WWF, which suckers Mikey in. After the cheap shot he hits a powerslam for 2. Suplex from Candido and a New Jersey jam for 2. They start fucking up and for some reason the normally evil ECW fans don’t chew them out for 3 or 4 straight fuck up’s. Candido makes amends with a gutwrench Doctorbomb although it was more Mikey’s fault anyway. He goes for another but Mikey switches to a rana for 2. Dropkick gets 2. Mikey climbs but gets crotched and Candido adds in a Super Rana for 2. Candido is starting to get pissed off now. Flying Wolverine misses. No water in the pool. Mikey gets a roll up for 2. Another dropkick scores for 2. Come on, Mikey, variation. Mikey heads up top and just wipes out Candido with what looked like it should have been a spinning heel kick. Missile dropkick gets 2. Tornado DDT gets 2. Candido goes low (not 9 times like Kid Kash though – amateur!) Mikey gets caught going for a moonsault press but Candido can’t hold him up properly so just goes for the TOMBSTONE. OUCH! Mikey lands on his head but still doesn’t sell it. But that’s necessary to set up the BLONDE BOMB for the win at 11.54. **1/2. Well Mikey sure tried to fuck this one up but Candido walked him through it as best as he could.

POST MATCH Candido says he’s spent the last 2 years “carrying pieces of shit”. He gives Mikey the respect and claims Mikey is the reason why the match was so good. Well, that’s true but not in the way he meant it.

ECW tag titles – Gangstas (c) v Rob Van Dam/Sabu v Eliminators

I had no real desire to see either of the teams come back from earlier unless they’ve decided to plan something. But the presence of the Gangstas probably negates that anyway because they suck. Predictably New Jack and Mustafa bring the garbage with them. Sabu attempts a camel clutch but New Jack blasts him with a hubcap. Kronus is bleeding, which means his usefulness is over. RVD is being wasted brawling with Mustafa in the crowd. Sabu and Saturn fight off onto the stage. Saturn dives off the higher stage but barely connects. Kronus tries to duel with New Jack and his chair with a bin. Yeah, pick something that will never look good. Way to go! More garbage. Saturn off the top with a…er…nothing. I wish he’d make his mind up and just do a move off the ropes instead of diving off and thinking about it while he’s on the way down. Sabu tries for a tope but Kronus puts a chair in the way. RVD hits him at higher speed with a somersault plancha. Saturn goes up and hits a plancha of sorts. What the fuck is wrong with him tonight? Sabu fucks up his dive so RVD has to set up a contrived spot on the floor again. Sabu fucks it up AGAIN and ends up just hitting a hilo onto the table. RVD sees Taz coming out and saves Sabu but Taz CHOKES HIM OUT. Sabu is now left alone. TOTAL ELIMINATION and Sabu/RVD are eliminated (no pun intended) at 9.16.

Eliminators v Gangstas. Just when I thought the match couldn’t get any worse. Luckily this is over in short order as New Jack dives off the top with a chair and bashes Saturn in the skull for the pin at 9.24. Kronus curiously dives out of the ring so that he can’t possibly save his partner. Ѕ*. No really, this was altogether fucking awful. It never once resembled a match in any way, shape or form. I’ll go half a snowflake for Sabu getting wiped out with Total Elimination but everything else was rubbish. It has to be said that both sets of challengers were in no state to go after the belts after going most of 30 minutes earlier in the night in a spotfest.

PROMO TIME – Joey Styles comes out to talk about the quality athletes that ECW have had. Now there’s another guy leaving. It’s Too Cold Scorpio. Or should I say FLASH, YOU ARE SO FUNKY! Joey puts Scorpio over for winning 4 TV titles and the tag straps with Sandman. Joey puts Scorpio over some more. Crowd applauds. Get ready for gimmick hell Scorpio! “I’m not gonna miss none of you motherfuckers” – Scorpio. Yeah, heel turn on the last night. Scorpio says he’s going nowhere because he’s going to wrestle here and in the WWF. Scorpio talks about passing the torch on the way out. “I’m gonna do a job for the next motherfucker that comes out” – Scorpio. He’ll go for 15 days if he loses his next match.

Too Cold Scorpio v Devon Storm

Storm is still an ex-WCW wrestler rather than an ECW guy so this doesn’t sit too well with the fan base. Scorpio dropkicks him in the face. Back suplex and Scorpio hits the ropes. TUMBLEWEED. 3 spot. Time is 53 seconds. DUD. Not even a match.

POST MATCH Scorpio points out he just booted Storm for 15 days. He calls out anyone in the locker room to take him out. Now it’s 30 days.

Too Cold Scorpio v JT Smith

JT has Little Guido in his corner. JT is aggressive and goes after Scorpio with elbows. Scorpio side slams him and hits a moonsault for the pin at 32 seconds. DUD.

POST MATCH Scorpio finds all this really amusing. He’s sent two guys packing on his last night in the company. 60 days now.

Too Cold Scorpio v Hack Myers

Now it’s just blatantly obvious that Scorpio has had jobbers lined up for him. Myers goes one better than the last two guys by clubbing Scorpio down for 2. Back suplex from Scorpio though and the 450 Splash sends Myers packing for 2 months at 1.16. DUD. Hey, squashes! Great.

POST MATCH I’d question the wisdom of Scorpio beating 3 jobbers in succession. He wants one year now. Spicolli is out here to check on Hack Myers so Scorpio challenges him. “Fuck him up Louie, fuck him up”. Scorpio starts talking about Survivor Series and he says that Spicolli is his mystery partner tomorrow night (it was Jimmy Snuka). Scorpio goofs around some more and generally the crowd is getting pretty sick of this. Scorpio predicts a 60 second victory.

Too Cold Scorpio v Louie Spicolli

Scorpio starts with a powerslam for 2. Powerbomb and Scorpio hits the ropes. Leg jam gets 2. Moonsault misses and his minute is up. Spicolli with a spinebuster for 2. Scorpio turns the tide back with a kick and a lariat. Diving clothesline gets 2. Spicolli hooks him up with the DEATH VALLEY DRIVER and actually pins Scorpio clean in the middle of the ring at 2.12. ѕ*. At least that was a match albeit a really short one. Scorpio is out of ECW for a year. The point of putting Spicolli over was to create a new star but then he died.

POST MATCH Scorpio demands someone come out here and run him off. Which is never a good idea in ECW. So out comes…TAZ. He offers Scorpio two choices – “get while the getting’s good” or get his ass kicked. Scorpio talks about not having to work in this “Bingo Hall” anymore so he’s going to bigger arenas and bigger money. Taz gets on the mic as he’s walking. “Bye-bye. Flash. Get the fuck out of my house, bitch”.

PROMO TIME – Taz #2. He calls out Sabu. That’s hardly generous as Sabu has already worked 40 minutes tonight. Taz warns Bob Artese not to give Taz any bad news. Bob tells Taz to get out of the ring because there’s a match up next. Taz takes him hostage. Todd Gordon brings out the Dudley family. Gordon tells him that now isn’t the time for this. Taz promptly chokes him out. Now Paul Heyman is out here. Taz promptly grabs Heyman in a head and arm Tazplex. TAZMISSION. Sabu is out here and I’m getting chills…in June! Crowd goes completely batshit. They charge each other and the lights go out again with them hooking up. When the lights come back up everyone is gone.

Raven w/everyone v The Sandman

Raven says he’s here to win back his ECW title. He tells us he’s beaten the best brawlers in the business but tonight he’s going to out wrestle Sandman. Love Tyler doing the Raven crucified pose. The Blue World Order get on the mic to tell the fans they don’t know wrestling. He calls rana’s and moonsaults “horseshit” and “cheap acrobatics”. Stevie tells us he doesn’t care if the fans enjoy this match or not.

Raven takes it to the mat, true to his word. Stevie decides to do commentary live on the mic to tell the fans what’s happening. Joey starts getting really irritated with that. “He’s better than Eric Bischoff, Tony Schiavone and Vince McMahon but he’s no Kevin Kelly, I’ll tell ya that” – Joey. Raven goes after the arm with a hammerlock with Stevie calling it all and pointing out Raven is going after the left arm because Sandman is left handed. Crowd applaud that. Sandman can’t find his way out of the hammerlock. Raven gets dragged through the ropes and Sandman follows out with a pescado. Raven uses the rail and apron to help him on a dropkick. Raven goes back to the arm. “Die Sandman” – Lori Fullington (“looking as chipper as ever” – Joey tongue firmly in cheek). Sandman with a Cactus clothesline and he keeps resorting to desperation stuff because Raven keeps tying him up. Sandman goes low and Meanie complains about it allowing Stevie to run in and knee Sandman in the shoulder. Raven hooks on an armbar. Raven gets thrown out of the ring and hits the rail on the way down. Sandman starts bashing Raven with crap and he dumps him on the rail before dropping a leg. Sandman tries to set up a table so Raven drives his head through it. Raven is bleeding all over the place, which is to be expected in a straight up wrestling match! Sandman dropkicks a chair into his face for good measure. Sandman can’t do a DDT properly because his arm hurts. PSYCHOLOGY THAT SHIT DOWN! Then he does it anyway but won’t pin because he’s so pissed off with Raven stealing his ex-wife and son. Sandman is out of control. Raven chair shots him in the injured arm and hits the DDT. His flunkies set up a table. Raven sends Meanie up but Stevie miscues and STEVIEKICK on Raven. MEANIESAULT ON RAVEN. The table doesn’t break and Sandman gets 2. Steviekick on Sandman gets 2. Raven sets up the table again and whips Sandman through it for 2. Raven legdrops the remains of the table on Sandman. He gets in charge again with pure hatred. Tyler gets in the way of Raven and Lori jumps in MISSING 4 swats with the Singapore cane. Oh dear. Raven hits the DDT for 2. Steviekick to the back of the head and Raven hits another DDT for 2. Why have that as a finisher when it so rarely ever finished? Raven misses with the loaded boot and gets rolled up for 2. Rail into the ring. Sandman hits a DDT on it and keeps the title (although not for much longer) at 15.08. **. Weird match. The opening was all technical stuff then it just got progressively more and more overbooked and crappy with the whole technical thing going out the window after they did the psychology on it once. Although for Sandman-Raven matches this was pretty good.

Tommy Dreamer/Terry Funk v Shane Douglas/Brian Lee

Dream partner tag match. Originally Pitbull #2 was Dreamer’s partner but Douglas injured him so Dreamer called on Funk. “Welcome back” – Philly. Lee jumps all over Dreamer to start this. He fires back with a Russian legsweep and fists of fire. Shane dives in to stop that but Funk takes him down for a brawl on the floor. Francine interferes and Funk looks like he’s going to kill her. This allows Shane to blindside him with a chair shot. Dreamer gets much of the same. Dreamer with a bulldog, of sorts, on a chair for 2. Everyone brawls into the crowd. That eats up a few minutes. Dreamer and Funk bring some guardrail in because that looked like fun in the last match. Funk chair shots the heels down and then they’re whipped into the rail. Then the rail is dumped on Lee and Douglas slammed on top. Douglas and Dreamer get crotched on the rail. Does Dreamer have something in his contract about being crotched in every match? Douglas suplexes Dreamer on the rail for 2. Dreamer gets dumped knee first on the rail. Douglas with a dropkick to the knee. Thankfully that rail is now out of the ring. Francine comes in with a crossbody and Douglas clips the knee to give him a 2 count. Dreamer gets dumped knee first on the chair and that looked very painful. The chair is stuck to Dreamer’s knee so Douglas dropkicks it off for 2. Funk meanwhile is bleeding. Dreamer goes low and Francine is in again but Dreamer sees her and gives her an atomic drop. Lee in to big boot Dreamer. Douglas gets a big boot too after Dreamer ducked a follow up. Funk clotheslines Douglas for 2 while Lee chokeslams Dreamer out of the ring and through the timekeeper’s table. Funk is suitably pissed off and runs the referee into the rail before trying to take on both heels at once. Funk and Lee start wailing on each other allowing Douglas to piledrive Funk. Spike piledriver as well and now Funk isn’t moving. Douglas hits a DDT just to make sure but there’s no referee here. The heels decide to set up another table and PILEDRIVE FUNK OFF THE APRON THROUGH IT. Heels celebrate but Dreamer is back up and he fires away with punches. Lee channels his brief spell as the Fake Undertaker – TOMBSTONE. Ref is back in and that gets 2. Douglas with a full nelson and in comes Francine to slap at Dreamer. This brings out – BEULAH. She nails Francine with a baking tray – CATFIGHT. Lee grabs Beulah and headbutts her. Douglas gives her the belly to belly. Damage Control is out here to remove Beulah’s corpse. Funk is back up though and the guys are fighting on the floor so Terry hits the ropes – MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! Lee tries to finish Dreamer off but Funk chair shots him in the knee. Douglas gets one too. Make that half a dozen! FUNK SPINNING TOEHOLD! Lee breaks the hold. Dreamer grabs a TV camera and blasts Lee in the head with it. Funk DDT’s him for 3 at 26.12. Oh that was a long, long, long match. *3/4. Mostly just overbooked garbage that certainly didn’t justify nearly 30 minutes. Any minor bits of psychology were soon buried under another 10 minutes of garbage.

POST MATCH the heels beat down the winners, which brings out Pitbull #2 to clean house.

Overall show thoughts – C-

One of those really bad ECW shows where every match was the same shit. Crowd loves the whole thing but I was bored senseless by the repeated garbage spots and lack of variety. Add to that the sheer number of mistakes. This is one of these shows that highlight the kind of constant screw up’s that Sabu would do when he wasn’t feeling terribly motivated. Those tag matches were horrible and there were three tag matches on the same show that followed the exact same ECW “anything goes” formula, which essentially ruined all of them. Aside from a half decent opening match showcasing a younger Kid Kash there really is nothing to see here wrestling wise. Taz is quite entertaining but the thing with Sabu was an ongoing deal so there are other shows that demonstrate that great dynamic they had going on. Raven persists that Barely Legal was sold on him losing the title but this is one of the shows that started the build for that PPV and it’s all Taz-Sabu. It has to be noted that November to Remember, despite being built up as the big ECW show, was more often than not rubbish.