It’s the third televised event for Extreme Championship Wrestling’s first year of PPV—November to Remember 1997! We have several really intriguing bouts on the card for ECW’s biggest event of the year.
There’s the escalation of the ECW vs. WWF feud as Tommy Dreamer defends the extreme against Rob Van Dam and Sabu takes on The Sandman in a ladder match. Also, Bam Bam Bigelow defends his ECW World title against Shane Douglas.
Let’s dive in!
The Best of ECW November to Remember 1997
Chris Candido taking on Tommy Rogers is a match told in two parts. The opening match was pretty damn solid as these were two extremely sound wrestlers in the ring who were capable of a really good match. Not only that, it’s a showdown between Smoky Mountain Wrestling alums.
Of course, this wasn’t a Smoky Mountain bout, this is ECW and for the most part, it was a straight-up contest that worked as an opener to November to Remember 1997. It wasn’t long or anything and ended in a no contest. Mikey Whipwreck taking on Justin Credible was a solid bout with nothing behind it, really. It was pretty much an exhibition but an enjoyable one. Plus, it wasn’t double the length just to fill PPV time.
Whipwreck and Credible did their sh**, put on an enjoyable match, and I dig it. Not all ECW matches should just be short and move it along but this is something of a blueprint for a contained, structured match that won’t kill the flow of a show when visited years later.
The Rest
Following the conclusion of the opener, Candido is joined by future Triple Threat team member Lance Storm while Jerry Lynn teams with Rogers. This could’ve been dope if it had more time and honestly, it should’ve just been a 16-minute opener with this being the match. The action wasn’t bad but the match isn’t really long enough for a PPV contest for me to rate. However, the Into the Vault rule is “It’s there.”
This rule also applies to Taz running through Pitbull #2 in defense of his Television title. A match that had too much going on and was given a little too much time was the ECW Tag Team title bout as The FBI defended the titles against The Hardcore Chair Swingin’ Freaks, The Gangstanators, and The Dudley Boyz.
Honestly, this could’ve been a potentially solid match if it was The FBI against any of these teams but involving all four just made for one of those ECW matches that drags and seems longer than it actually is. I would’ve just run with The HCSF or The Gangstanators as challengers instead since The FBI beating The Dudley Boyz would’ve been a bit of a stretch even in 1997 and even with the team of Smothers and Little Guido.
The Flag Match between Tommy Dreamer and RVD was another match that was a little messy or too busy. I’ll give thumbs up for the amount of time given as November to Remember 1997 pretty much had a triple main event and the 16-minutes given here is what ECW main events should try to focus around.
Just 15 or 20 minutes, wrap that sh** up before it starts to drag. Make it shorter if things are sloppy in-ring. There was some sloppiness here but I can excuse that, it’s everything else in addition to the mild sloppiness that takes me out a bit.
Yeah, that’s part of ECW’s charm but c’mon now. This match bled into the Sabu vs. The Sandman ladder match. Now, the main thing I liked about the ladder match is that it was a prototypical match for the indy ladder match.
If you’re unfamiliar with that, it’s a ladder match where there may or may not—usually not—be a title or some prize to obtain. The ladder is there purely as the focal weapon…which could’ve just been brought out and used since it’s ECW.
We’ve got Sabu and The Sandman here, it’s 1997, so you know not to expect the cleanest match nor a match that doesn’t run too long. This one went almost 21-minutes and it was a bit much to hold your attention through, honestly.
Bam Bam defending against Shane Douglas suffers from the same thing as Sabu vs. The Sandman in that it was too damn long and not all that exciting. At least RVD vs. Dreamer and Sabu vs. The Sandman had a couple of exciting moments.
Then again, those are entirely different kinds of matches within the umbrella of extreme. Each of the three main events has a story to tell, it’s just that stories go on and on, each one is told out of order without followable progress, and they all kind of end anti-climatically.
The World title main event is the most criminal of the three in the same way Triple H just had to have a lengthy match on a PPV, Douglas just had to have a lengthy match on ECW’s biggest show of the year. It doesn’t get the dub from me.
ECW November to Remember 1997 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.15/5)
It’s very rare that we get a PPV where there is no clear-cut match of the show. That’s because this whole thing had a bunch of matches that were just meh at most. It’s almost as if there was no attempt to try and capture the magic and excitement of Barely Legal 1997 and shoot for Hardcore Heaven part two…with a little more meh thrown in for good measure.
This just wasn’t an enjoyable PPV throughout, folks. I’ll give the match of the show to Chris Candido vs. Tommy Rogers as I actually enjoyed it and had the least bad to say about it besides Whipwreck vs. Justin Credible.
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