ECW November to Remember (November 5, 1994)

 

Original Airdate: November 5, 1994

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Joey Styles. We get a guitarist playing the National Anthem to start, but 911 comes out to chokeslam him

Opening Match: JT Smith v Hack Meyers: They brawl right away, and end up in the crowd, swinging chairs. Inside, and Smith uses a bridging northern lights suplex for the pin at 3:59. I guess you could call that a dick. DUD

The Pitbulls v Ian Rotten and Axl Rotten: Big brawl right away, with the Rotten’s dominating. but the Pitbulls fight back, and hit the combo powerbomb at 3:13. DUD

2 Cold Scorpio v Mr. Hughes: Joey is still going on about how Hughes dominated Undertaker that one time back in 1993. He didn’t even win the feud! They feel each other out, and it turns into a slugfest, won by Hughes. Hughes adds a hiptoss, and he puts the boots to Scorpio from there. Hughes with a headvice and a pop-up flapjack, followed by an elbowdrop for two. Another pop-up, but Scorpio counters with a dropkick this time, and another dropkick knocks Hughes out of the ring. He goes out with a plancha, but Hughes catches him with a backdrop for two on the way back in. A charge in the corner gets blocked, however, and Scorpio dives with a flying 450 splash at 7:22. ½*

Tommy Cairo v Tommy Dreamer: We now have the ‘classic’ Dreamer look, with the black pants, and the ECW t-shirt - suspenders be damned. Although, he may be wearing them under the shirt, we can’t know. They slug it out right away, and it spills to the outside, where Dreamer uses a chair. Dreamer with a suplex on the floor, and he takes it back inside for a piledriver - nicely delivered. Back to the outside, where Dreamer smacks him with a frying pan a few times, then finds a kayak oar, but Cairo blocks, and they spill into the crowd to brawl. Dreamer lands a DDT on the floor out there, and he delivers another one back in the ring. Dreamer takes his t-shirt off to choke Cairo with, and what do you know: suspenders! Dreamer with a neckbreaker, but Cairo fights back with a (sloppy) flapjack. That looked like the kind of ‘move’ you’d do to your friend as a kid, when you’re trying to slam them, and then just collapse in a heap. Cairo grabs the kendo stick, but Dreamer takes it away, and unloads. Cairo bleeds as Dreamer delivers shots to the head with the stick, and Dreamer swings a nasty shot to the balls for good measure. Luckily, Jerry Lawler wasn’t in the house this night. Dreamer keeps beating him, until the referee finally just stops the match at 8:28. This was basically a squash. Afterwards, Cairo teases a stretcher job, but walks out on his own power. ¾*

ECW World Title Match: Shane Douglas v Ron Simmons: Ron kickstarts things, but Shane outmoves him during a criss cross, and delivers a dropkick for two. Ron kicks out with such authority that Douglas bails to break the momentum, and he stalls for a bit. Back in, Simmons keeps the hurt coming in the corner, but Shane blocks a powerslam, and hooks a rollup for two. Douglas bails again to stall things out, but Ron muscles him back in from the apron for another criss cross - won by Douglas with a bodypress for two. Despite that, Douglas bails again, continuing to frustrate his challenger. Ron chases after him this time, so Shane hides behind a photographer, but Simmons manages to deck him. Simmons feeds him the guardrail, and a clothesline on the floor follows. Inside, Ron tries a backdrop, but Douglas counters to a facebuster. That allows Shane to go to the top for a flying bodypress, but Ron catches him in a powerslam on the way down. Ron with a gutbuster, and a slam follows. Simmons delivers a headbutt drop to the ribs, and a backdrop driver follows. Simmons with mounted punches, and he goes to the top for a flying headbutt drop, but the champion dodges. Shane comes after him with chops, but Ron no sells, and chokeslams him. Douglas responds by hooking a crucifix, and Simmons is unable to block, giving Shane the pin at 6:37. Not surprisingly, this was the most complete and professional looking match on the show thus far. Afterwards, Simmons goes after him, so Shane hits him with the title belt, but that draws 2 Cold Scorpio out to back Ron up. They beat Douglas down, and leave together. *

Tod Gordon brings Sandman (in a suit!) out for a retirement ceremony, since he’s blind, and can no longer compete. He gives a farewell speech, and notes that Woman left him when he’s down, which makes him realize what he had in Peaches. That draws Peaches out, and Sandman makes his case to reconcile, but here comes Woman - and she’s wielding a kendo stick. Woman whacks Peaches over the head with it, and she targets Sandman next, but Tommy Dreamer cuts her off. As he’s dealing with her, Sandman pulls off his bandages (revealing that he was never blind to begin with), and he goes to town on Tommy with the kendo - and reunites with Woman along the way! They’ve been developing this angle for a while, and this was a great twist/segment

Dean Malenko v Tazmaniac: The ECW Television title is not on the line here. Interestingly, not only hadn’t the match where Malenko won the title aired on ECW TV yet, but even the match where the guy he won the title from won the title hadn’t aired yet. That’s some WCW level Inception. Tazmaniac with a takedown early, and he hammers on Malenko. Dean tries a butterfly suplex, but Tazmaniac backdrops him for two. Dean comes back with a butterfly powerbomb, and he puts Tazmaniac in a Boston crab from there. Tazmaniac powers out to send Dean to the outside, but Tazmaniac gives up the high ground, and gets nailed. Dean tries a full nelson, but Tazmaniac reverses, and goes low for good measure. Tazmaniac with a suplex, but a corner charge gets blocked, and Malenko uses a victory roll for two. Dean tries another, but Tazmaniac drops him into the ropes to block, then delivers a German suplex for two. Dean tries going up, but Tazmaniac crotches him, and tries for a superplex, but Dean blocks. To the outside, Tazmaniac uses a chair, so Jason comes after him, buying Dean some time. That allows Malenko to find some chemical soaked rag, and he smothers Tazmaniac down with it for the pin at 5:39. Just kind of a bunch of stuff, without any real story or psychology. Plus a finish that drew a massive ‘bullshit’ chant. ¾*

ECW World Tag Team Title Brawl Game Match: Cactus Jack and Mikey Whipwreck v The Public Enemy: The idea here is that you have to beat your opponent until they can’t answer the ten count, and then baseball bats are legal weapons for the team that does so. As opposed to in every other ECW match? Whipwreck and Rocco Rock start, and they take forever playing to the crowd, before Rock walks out, and the Enemy tease just leaving. No idea why, and the commentary doesn’t help clarify. We finally get going after two minutes of this, and Mikey tries to outmove him, but keeps getting clobbered. Tag to Johnny Grunge, and the challengers hit Mikey with a combo. Whipwreck beats the count, so Grunge kicks him in the balls, and delivers a gourdbuster. That draws Jack in to save things, and he whips Mikey into each of the challengers a few times. They beat the count, so Cactus clotheslines them each, then throws Mikey into bulldogging them. Mikey looks for a follow up, but fucks it up, and ends up down. Jack and Grunge brawl to the outside out of the deal, and Jack ends up crotched on the rail, leaving Mikey in with both challengers. They double team, and Rock dives with a flying somersault senton splash, but Mikey beats the count, just as Jack returns with a chair, swinging at both challengers. Jack DDTs Rock on the chair, but Grunge helps him beat the count, so Cactus DDTs them both. They beat it, and Grunge throws some powder into Jack’s eyes to neutralize him again. That allows them to double up on Whipwreck again, but he holds his own. Meanwhile, a blinded Jack staggers over, and catches Mikey with a DDT by accident, and that puts him down for the count. So now, the Enemy can legally use bats. The Enemy take Mikey over to the entrance area, and stack up a few tables, but before they can drive him through it, Sabu shows up. He shoves Rock off and through the tables, and everyone is left down. Mikey finds a chair, and goes to work on the downed Rock, but Grunge comes over and nails him with a bat to put a stop to that. Jack saves, and brawls with Rock, as Mikey and Grunge fight back to the ring. They trade sunset cradles for two, and Grunge gets the bat again. He comes off the top to pop Whipwreck with it, and that’s enough for the pin at 13:28. The ‘last man standing’ portion of this was actually surprisingly good (it’s a stipulation I generally dislike), though the rest was just a garbage brawl. *

Main Event: Sabu v Chris Benoit: Sabu shoots for the leg right away, but Benoit dodges, and unloads. Benoit with a knee, and he drops Sabu front-first across the top rope. Benoit with a backdrop from there, but Sabu takes the bump in a weird way, and lands right on his neck - legit breaking it. He rolls out of the ring as Benoit stalls for time, but he’s all fucked up, and the match is stopped at 1:39. 911 comes in to tease a fight with Benoit to stall for more time, and ends up chokeslamming him, before Public Enemy run out with bats to save him. That draws Cactus Jack back out, and the ring fills with various guys, as the whole thing becomes a clusterfuck. Finally, they decide to have a match with Benoit and Scorpio to give us something in place of the main event.

2 Cold Scorpio v Chris Benoit: Benoit with a powerbomb for two right away, and a snap suplex follows, but a clothesline misses. That allows Scorpio a dropkick, and Benoit bails. Public Enemy come in, so Scorpio hits them with a bunch of dropkicks until they leave. Benoit is back in, and hammers Scorpio down, then takes him up for a vertical superplex for two. Chris with a bodyslam, and he takes Scorpio up again, time time for a side superplex - only for Scorpio to topple him for two. Scorpio stays on him with a butterfly suplex for two, and he takes Chris to the top for a victory roll off for two. Scorpio with a superkick, but a charge ends in both guys going over the top, and we have a double countout at 5:04. This was fine, though obviously it was completely thrown together, so you couldn’t expect much out of it. *

BUExperience: This wasn’t good as a wrestling show, but the angles were good, and the general direction of the promotion was strong at this point.

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