When I do Into the Vault, I like to make sure there’s at least a year’s worth of shows. Fortunately, WWE has most of the ECW shows such as ECW November to Remember 1996.
Yeah, it was Raven vs. Dreamer and Raven vs. The Sandman but Raven’s Nest was fighting with everyone in the company before Raven bounced for WCW.
Let’s get into November to Remember 1996!
Low-Tier
Axl Rotten vs. Hack Meyers was as expected but we’ve seen Axl in better bouts in 1996. I’m surprised it wasn’t put third to cool everyone down but it had a solid place on the card.
While not even decent, 2 Cold Scorpio steamrolling Devon Storm, JT Smith, and Hack Meyers in less than three minutes was entertaining.
As he was leaving ECW for WWE, he offered newcomer Louie Spicolli a chance to join him in New York City. Spicolli declined and would go on to defeat Scorpio in a quick fashion.
These matches made for a fun, brief segment with 2 Cold Scorpio playing the cocky, big-league heel well. There just wasn’t enough there to actually say they were good matches but they didn’t exactly suck.
However, if they were “Loser Leaves Town” and Scorpio admitted he was taking an offer to WWE anyway—never mind. Moving on.
Mid-Tier
Stevie Richards—or Big Stevie Cool—came out with the blue World order for the opener. His opponent was David Tyler Morton Jericho—a future Kid Kash—who was dressed like his mentor Ricky Morton.
This was a solid match. We didn’t see any of the flashier high flying Kash would do towards the end of the 1990s but it was still an enjoyable bout.
Richards showcased some strong skills as usual when he got to wrestle.
Buh Buh Ray and D-Von Dudley went at it in a wild brawl that had a finish that got two thumbs up from me!
It was exactly how things should’ve escalated with D-Von poking and prodding the Dudleys into being more vicious. We’ve been covering ECW’s 1996 year and it has been particularly wild for what would become the Dudley Boyz.
In the fourth match, The Eliminators drew the team of Sabu and Rob Van Dam when the match went to the time limit. The match was restarted at 20 minutes but still ended in a draw.
A scuffed finish aside, this was a super exciting match you’d love if you’re into spotty match and a go-go-go pace. As a result, both teams would go on to face The Gangstas in the ECW World Tag Team title bout.
While not nearly as good as the number one contender match earlier in the show, The Gangstas’ defense of the ECW World Tag Team title against The Eliminators and Sabu & RVD was a fun three-way dance.
Rounding out the mid-tier offerings is the main event bout with Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk taking on Shane Douglas and Brian Lee.
It was a solid brawl with moments where things were kind of scuffed and others where things were sloppy. Also, the fans were done after the ECW World title bout.
Things just seemed to meander after a while. If it had the same length as say Mikey vs. Candido or The Sandman vs. Raven, it would’ve been fine with the same approach.
That aside, it did its job in pushing the beef with Raven’s Flock and Shane Douglas. I have to say, The Franchise was just kind of involved ECW beef without having an actual rival or foe in 1996.
Exotic-Tier
Chris Candido vs. Mikey Whipwreck was the cleanest match in the exotic-tier. While it didn’t feature any of the hoopla and story development of other matches in this tier, it was a good, straight-up match.
If this was on an episode of ECW Hardcore TV, it could’ve been an awesome main event to just drop on the fans. It’s the kind of match you’d want to send the fans off with before they turn to something else.
The ECW World Championship saw The Sandman defend the belt against Raven in a paced match. With Raven having brainwashed the champion’s wife and kid, Hak once again had nothing to lose.
If you want to see The Sandman as a man with nothing to lose, watch his feud with Tommy Cairo over his wife.
The action here was pretty standard ECW big brawl fare with some mild shenanigans thrown in. Raven attempting a technical approach to counter The Sandman’s wild brawling actually worked. It wasn’t some top-tier mat work but it was effective at keeping things going and slowing down Hak.
This wasn’t even the best match on the card and you got your usual Sandman sloppiness–plus he was winded pretty early in. However, it was consistent in you knew what to expect from these two.
Ultimately, it was saved by having just the right amount of time and not going too long like the main event.
ECW November to Remember 1996 Verdict: Low-Tier (4/10)
What really knocked things off the rails were the Loser Leaves Town matches. Also, the unwieldy lengths of the number one contender match and the main event.
The sloppiness in a lot of matches didn’t bother me much as I’ve gotten used to it with ECW but this is a card where some stuff should’ve been placed elsewhere on the card.
Also, a couple of these matches could’ve used less time while a few of them I wanted more. The ECW World title bout had the perfect maximum time for the product.
Match of the Night goes to the ECW World title bout. While there was some sloppiness in it, it wasn’t long and sloppy. ECW November to Remember 1996 marks a stumbling block in a strong year for the company.
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