ECW November to Remember 1995

November to Remember was ECW’s flagship show – their punk-rock version of WrestleMania – beginning (like most flagship shows) when the promotion was barely on its feet in 1993, and still known as ‘Eastern’ Championship Wrestling. The 1993 and 1994 shows were non-pay per view productions, run for ECW’s local fan base, and taped for their television programming, as well as release on home video.

By 1995, with the promotion starting to gain some serious credibility (and notoriety) as an ‘extreme’ alternative to the WWF and WCW’s very polished products, November to Remember was offered as ECW’s first internet pay per view (ECW wouldn’t secure a true pay per view deal until 1997 – and even then, just barely), bringing the annual supercard one step closer to legitimacy.  

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Joey Styles.


Opening Match: Broad Street Bully v Don E. Allen: Buh Buh Ray Dudley (very early in his run, and still sans D-Von) acts as the guest ring announcer (doing his stutter gimmick, which he would revive four years later for his WWF run), but decides to jump Allen with a powerbomb. Bully gets offended, so Buh Buh gives him one, too, and pins him for good measure at 1:16 – then steals his gimmick. Not really a match, but it perfectly illustrated the 'anything goes' nature of the product. DUD-ley.

Konnan v Jason Knight: Taz is the special referee (not wrestling due to a legitimate injury), but Knight makes the mistake of mouthing off to him, and gets decked, allowing Konnan to take him to splash mountain at 0:15. DUD

Stevie Richards v El Puerto Riqueno: Richards messes around on the outside (unwrapping early Christmas gifts from various ECW-superfans), but Riqueno gets impatient, and dives out after him with a moonsault. Inside, Riqueno with a springboard moonsault, and a missile dropkick. Upstairs again, but Richards crotches him up there, and powerbombs him. Richards casually dumps him across the ropes, and then powerbombs him again. Clearly out of ideas, he calls buddy Blue Meanie in to moonsault him - but it misses, and Riqueno schoolboys him for two, only to run into a Superkick at 3:00. A couple of nice spots, but it sorely lacked flow. ¼*

The Pitbulls v The Eliminators: Pitbull #1 starts with Perry Saturn, and they do a stalemate sequence, until Pitbull grounds him with a roundhouse kick. Pitbull #2 comes in with a flying elbowdrop, but Saturn rakes the eyes, and tags John Kronus. #2 powerslams him for two, but walks into a full-nelson suplex, and Saturn spinkicks him to the floor. He follows with a slingshot bodypress, and a moonsault for good measure. Back in, the Eliminators cut the ring in half on #2, but he counters Saturn's attempt at a rana off the top with a powerbomb. That triggers a four-way brawl, and the dust settles on #1 starting a doghouse of fire. Saturn manages a sitout powerbomb on #2 for two, but Kronus gets caught with a 2^nd rope powerbomb - only to have manager Jason Knight save. That allows the Eliminators a brief comeback, but Kronus takes another powerbomb off of the 2^nd rope in the chaos, and it's over at 11:10. Fun match, with lots of nice double-team stuff. **

Mexican Death Match: Psicosis v Rey Misterio, Jr.: The Mexican version isn't much different than the 'Texas' variation (guess it's a border thing) - they battle to a pinfall, and the guy pinned must then respond to a ten-count, or lose the match. Psicosis misses a blind charge right away, allowing Misterio a flying rana for the pin. Psicosis easily answers the count - but Misterio succeeded in frustrating him, and letting him know he won't be pushed around. Criss cross, and Psicosis misses another charge, and Rey ranas him over the top to the floor. He tries a springboard off of the rail, but botches it, and lands on his knee. Psicosis goes right after it, and brings him in for a missile dropkick. Flying moonsault onto the knee gets the pin, but Misterio answers the count. With Rey barely standing in the corner, Psicosis wrecks him with a running dropkick, and press slams him onto the turnbuckles. He knocks him off with an axehandle, and follows with a flapjack. Powerbomb gets another pin, but Rey beats the count. Psicosis with an avalanche, and he powerbombs him into the turnbuckles. Another for good measure, and a flying corkscrew moonsault finishes Misterio again. He answers the count again, and Psicosis is more than happy to cream him with another pair of dropkicks. He grabs a chair to finish the job right, and gives him a DDT onto it. Flying moonsault onto the chair gets another fall, but Rey still won't quit. Psicosis dropkicks the knee, and then moonsaults into it - with some assistance from a chair. It ends up hurting Psicosis as much as Rey, though, and Misterio manages a springboard clothesline to put him onto the floor. Bodypress sends them both tumbling into the first row (casually taking out a fan in the process), and Rey follows with a springboard moonsault - clearing the rail to reach Psicosis in the crowd. They brawl around the arena - Rey dominating with the chair - until they reach the entrance area, and Rey dives off of it with a rana onto the chair for the pin. Rey and the referee head to the ring to start the count, but Psicosis is a goner at 11:47. Fun, chaotic match, much of it serving as a template for what WCW would do with their ramped up Cruiserweight division (featuring many of the same players) over the next couple of years. They worked nice, crisp, hard-hitting spots, and kept a good pace - but the fact that Rey got pinned so many times worked against them a bit (I'm of the Hart/Michaels school of thought that if these are two of the best in the world, they shouldn't suddenly give up falls so easily to suit the stipulations), but the match worked overall. ***

ECW World Tag Team Title Match: The Sandman and 2 Cold Scorpio v Public Enemy: The entrances/ring introductions take no less than fifteen minutes - and that's not including a dance-off.  Public Enemy cross the line when they ask Sandman/Scorpio manager Woman to join in, and the champs double-team Johnny Grunge, but Rocco Rock makes the save with a flying clothesline. PE clean house so they can get appropriately funky, until it finally gets going with Sandman and Grunge - but only in theory, as they both stall forever. Dance-off? No problem! Wrestling? Uh, give us a minute. Criss cross ends with Grunge hiptossing Sandman to the floor, and Rock following with a plancha, so Scorpio responds by nailing Grunge with a flying bodypress. Everyone spills to the floor to grab chairs, and we get the obligatory dueling chairs bit - with the challengers getting a slight edge. Everyone busts out weapons (Beer can! Frying Pan!), and Rock tries a headscissors takedown on Sandman - only to get caught in a backbreaker. Sandman with a slingshot legdrop, and Scorpio with a slingshot splash for two. Grunge goes all George Wilson and breaks up the slingshot party, but Scorpio still manages to drop Rock with a sidewalk slam. Scorpio tries a cartwheel to set up a dropkick during a criss cross, but Rock (in the best counter to that ridiculous spot I've ever seen) just sidesteps him. Scorpio responds with a superkick (missing by about a foot), and a sloppy butterfly powerbomb for two. Standing moonsault hits the knees, but the champs still manage to hold Rock back, and cut the ring in half. It doesn't take long for a four-way brawl to break out, and PE try their double-team table stuff on Sandman, but end up crashing into each other, and the champs retain at 16:05. Took forever to get going, and once it did, it had a couple of nice bits, but was loaded with sloppy stuff - particularly from the always unreliable Scorpio. ½*

Tod Gordon v Bill Alfonso: Gordon is playing a commissioner role here (he really was a co-founder of the promotion), facing off against Alfonso, who had come into ECW earlier in the year as a referee - with the twist that he actually enforced the rules, angering ECW's bloodthirsty fans. Beulah gets special referee duties, looking as hot as ever. Alfonso jumps Gordon during the entrances, and demands Beulah count him out. When she refuses, he straight up decks her, as Gordon runs in to unload some shots. On Alfonso. This wasn't 'beat Beulah' night - though I'm sure at least a few people beat off to her at some point during the evening. Gordon absolutely destroys Fonzie, but gets blown low, and dumped to the floor. Gordon comes back with a cookie sheet, and then with a more appropriate weapon choice, a steel chair. Inside, Gordon gets a frying pan (Bed, Bath, and Beyond must have made a killing off of ECW fans), and now we're cooking! Big shot knocks him out, but referee Beulah is dead, so Taz (presumably because he turned in such a fair, unbiased performance earlier) takes over. He counts two, then stops to deck Gordon, and put Alfonso on top for the pin at 7:06 - turning heel. He cuts a great promo on the fans afterwards, knocking them for calling themselves 'hardcore' and claiming to 'support workers,' but noting that not a single one of them wrote him, called him, or offered assistance through his injury - except Bill Alfonso. Match was overlong for what it was, but certainly historically significant, with the heel turn and the beginning of the Taz/Alfonso union. ¼*

ECW World Title Match: Mikey Whipwreck v Steve Austin: This is scheduled as Sandman getting a title shot, but Steve Austin (part of his short (a couple of months) but highly influential (basically the template for the 'Stone Cold' character) run through ECW) jumps Sandman in the aisle, and decides to take the title shot himself. Austin runs him down on the mic before firing off a cheap shot, and he drops him onto the rail - all while dumping shit in his ear. Figuratively. He just destroys Whipwreck - even shrugging off getting whipped into the rail to hammer him some more. Stungun gets two, but a backdrop attempt allows Mikey to catch him with a sunset flip for the pin at 4:38. Not much of a match, but as a sign in the crowd said of Austin, 'the future has arrived.' DUD

Sabu v Hack Meyers: This is Sabu's return to ECW, after a short, misguided WCW run - and the crowd is pumped to see him. He goes right at Meyers, taking him to the mat for... a leglock. ECW! ECW! ECW!! Springboard leg lariat gets two, and Sabu goes to the chinlock. Meyers tries to power out, but gets DDT'd for his troubles, and hit with a chair assisted version of the leg lariat for two. Sabu continues to run the gauntlet of restholds with an armbar, and hits another springboard leg lariat (variety!) before going to a chinlock (double variety!). Sabu was never a great wrestler, but he had a very distinctive style - flipping and flopping allover the ring, blowing half the spots, and making a mess of the other half. It doesn't work watching the guy actually try to wrestle, because he's a freakshow, and he only works as a freakshow. Cross corner clothesline, but Meyers gets sick of his shit, and powerslams him for two. Flying faceslam for two, but Sabu catches him with a flying legdrop. DDT for two, and a sloppy spinkick puts Meyers on the outside. Sabu follows with a slingshot rana, and props Meyers against the rail for a bodyblock. Inside, Sabu with a flying rana, but Meyers powerbombs him for two. Hack with a suplex, but Sabu catches him with a victory roll for two. Flying moonsault, but Meyers crotches him on the top, and whacks him off with a chair. He tries a faceslam onto it, but Sabu reverses, and catches him with a rana back to the floor. He sets him up on a table out there for a somersault senton, but that only gets two, so Sabu kills him with a chair assisted flying somersault legdrop at 12:58. Sabu's 'wrestling' in the early going was brutal, the rest was the usual assortment of sloppy highspots. *

Main Event: Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer v Raven and Cactus Jack: Jack and Dreamer had been tag partners earlier in the year (with Jack trying to convince Tommy to scale back the hardcore style - or end up as battle scarred as he had), eventually leading to Cactus turning on him, and joining forces with fellow Dreamer rival Raven. To hammer it home, he comes out in a custom Dungeon of Doom t-shirt, with a big heart airbrushed around the members. Big brawl to start, with Dreamer taking Raven, and Funk going for Cactus. To the floor almost immediately, as Terry paintbrushes Jack with slaps, and bashes him with a chair. Funk uses a road sign on both men, as Raven's Nest member Stevie Richards brings a literal shopping cart full of plunder. Funk and Dreamer quickly take him out, and drive him into the post with the cart before stealing the weapons. Terry unloads on Jack with a snow shovel, as Dreamer nails Raven with a cable TV box. Jack comes back with a pool cue, as Raven chokes Funk out with a toilet seat. Back to the floor, Cactus finds a piece of broken glass, and sadistically slices Terry Funk's arm open with it. Dreamer tries to come back with a DDT on Raven, but Jack saves with a road sign shot, allowing him to unveil a second t-shirt - one with Eric Bischoff's face airbrushed on the front, and 'Forgive Me, Uncle Eric' on the back. Dreamer pulls it up over his face to figuratively punch Bischoff in the face, but more weapon fun slows him down, and Raven dives onto him with a plancha. Funk is dead in the middle of the ring, but the referee had long since been bumped, so Taz and Bill Alfonso run in to make the count. It doesn't count (they're really playing fast and loose who is and isn't a referee tonight - even for ECW), so Dreamer piledrives Raven onto a chair, and Funk pins him at 13:36. Bad match, that was literally all about weapon shots. ¼*

BUExperience:  As with most ECW shows, it’s less about actual in-ring quality than atmosphere – and at this point, nostalgia, too. It works in that vein, though certainly not a good show by conventional standards. **