ShinobiMusashi
Getting Noticed By Management
Extreme Championship Wrestling
November To Remember IV
November 16th 1996
ECW Arena
November To Remember IV
November 16th 1996
ECW Arena
Here we are guys, finally after almost a full year we have made it to the 96 November to Remember. ECW had some big things popping for them during this time in 1996, with a close relationship with WWE materializing as their big date with their first pay per view approached. The 1995 November to Remember was a very solid show that gets positive reviews even from ECW's harshest critics. The company has evolved through the year and constantly improved in a lot of different areas. The production and overall look of the shows had gradually improved here just within the past couple of weeks worth of shows I've looked at as you can tell they are tweaking things and getting ready for the big pay per view.
A real quick recap of the angles coming into this one, with the main one being Taz vs Sabu & Paul Heyman. The last episode of Hardcore TV had Heyman cutting an awesome promo about how Taz and Sabu promised him to stay away from each other back a year ago when Sabu returned to ECW. Taz held a bitterness towards Sabu for backing out of the 3 Way Dance supercard in April 95(where he was supposed to team with Taz to take on Benoit & Malenko and Public Enemy in a 3 way dance that had been built up all year up to that point in 95), the show where Heyman publicly fired Sabu. Sabu was brought back seven months later at the 95 November to Remember, the same night that Taz delivered on of the all time great heel turns. Throughout the year 1996 Taz tore through ECW in a Shoot Fight Path of Rage as they subtly played up the friendship between Sabu and Paul Heyman. Taz has called Sabu & Paul Heyman out ever since the 95 November to Remember, constantly taunting them, and tipping several of Sabu's opponents off about his weaknesses throughout the year. One of those opponents was Rob Van Dam, who went after Sabu's previously injured neck to score the only pinfall over him since he came back at November to Remember 95. Heyman revealed that only he, Sabu, and Taz knew about the specifics of Sabu's neck injury, and that Taz had gone too far. Soon after this a UFC fighter(Paul Varelans) popped up in ECW and went after Taz's neck, only to get choked out. The last episode of Hardcore TV had one of Taz's best promos, saying that the only thing keeping Sabu from him was fear. Sabu fears Taz. Paul Heyman replied with a phenomenal promo on the same episode(video above in my last post, essential viewing) revealing that Sabu and Taz gave him their word as friends to stay away from each other because their heat was bad for business. Taz went back on his word, but for one full year, Sabu has kept his word to Heyman.
So basically, in a nutshell, Sabu and Taz had legit heat with each other over the way Sabu left Taz hanging at the April 1995 3 Way Dance show(and the way Sabu was fired publicly and bashed in front of all the fans), and this angle tied into that while still maintaining some level of kayfabe. From the books and interviews I've seen, Sabu and Taz never interacted backstage, and Sabu and Paul Heyman's relationship deteriorated through the year. This has been one hell of a storyline to examine. It's running on 19 months at this point and they still haven't even been in the same ring together, but the intensity is there. The crowd is dying to see them fight, and they chant Sabu at Taz every time he comes out. Heyman was a genius booker in my eyes. I know it gets under a lot of peoples skin to call him that, but I really think it was true. Sabu vs Taz was a genius angle, with a lot of elements that were so far ahead of their time it's almost scary.
The main event for this one was thrown together kind of haphazardly and I'm not sure it was the best way to go so I may throw together a little re-booking at the end of this review depending on how long it takes. Shane Douglas was the hottest heel in wrestling at this point so his push to the main event made sense, but the Brian Lee vs Tommy Dreamer feud had definitely run it's course at this point. Brian Lee was a hired gun for Shane Douglas to take out Pitbull 2 a few weeks back. They came out on the next show and took out Tommy Dreamer and Beulah during a match against Shane for the TV title. Tommy made the call to the Double Cross Ranch during pulp fiction promos and that was it. Dreamer and Funk vs Shane Douglas and Brian Lee. Raven goes after his ECW World Title in a match against The Sandman, and I'm starting to fade out on this angle really. It was interesting what they were doing with The Sandman's son going through the Summer, but they kind of lost interest in it and it hasn't really gotten any deeper like I figured it would. Raven was out of action for several weeks, and the rivalry with Dreamer has been completely put on the backburner now with Brian Lee shifting over to Shane Douglas.
Other than that we have a tag team showdown with the best 3 teams in the game during this time, and a few other interesting matchups. I used to want this tape really bad back in the day, but it cost $40(2 tapes, $34.95 plus $4.95 shipping) so I never could afford it. It just looked like the perfect ECW show when you read the listing for it in the ECW merchandise catalog. Now that I'm an old man with disposable income I always get a strange satisfaction from collecting things that I always wanted but never could have as a kid, and this tape is definitely one of those things. Is that weird? Who cares. (h)
The show opens up with Taz walking to the ring with Bill Alphonso and the crowd immediately lynches him with chants of "FUCK YOU TAZ" before he gets the mic:
Classic promo from one of my all time favorite characters in the history of fiction. Love the way he got his heat back once the crowd started getting behind him. So intense. There was some real heat there with the way Sabu left Taz in April of 1995, and you could feel it here. Sabu being brought back in November 1995 probably didn't go over too well with Taz, who was in the middle of a push/repackaging after having his neck broken later on in the Summer. Sabu was brought back and thrust right into the top spot as Taz was working his way back up with a new character, but Heyman found a way to make it work quite beautifully with this angle I might say. I can't say enough good things about it. ECW 1996 was really before my time, but I always knew that Sabu vs Taz was a great angle with a really long term build up to the first match. After taking a closer look at the angle here in this thread over the past year I have to say that it is without a doubt one of my favorite ever pulled off by a wrestling promotion. The contrast in the characters. The emotion. The reality behind it. The down to earth "adult" nature of it. And they HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN IN THE SAME RING YET! HOLY SHIT!
Taz makes his exit and we cut away to our first match.
Stevie Richards vs Davey Morton Tyler Jericho(Kid Kash)
Joey Styles pokes fun at Kid Kash's name as he stands in the ring when all of a sudden a parade of guys comes through the crowd holding up big signs saying "BWO". It's Stevie Richards, The Blue Meanie, and Nova dressed up like the NWO, with a crew of guys with them carrying the posterboard signs with them. One of the guys looks like Carrot Top and I've seen him on a few other ECW shows prior to this, most notably as the planted fan that Brian Pillman beat up at one of the shows he appeared at.
The BWO is instantly over, with the entire Arena chanting "BWO" within a matter of seconds after their entrance.
Meanie and Stevie have been imitating other wrestlers all year, from Baron Von Rashke, to The Faboulous Ones, to Public Enemy, and now the NWO. The Blue Meanie is Scot Hall with a chicken bone instead of a toothpick. Nova as Hogan cracks me up every time dude. Stevie is Kevin Nash, we're taking over!
Stevie works like Kevin Nash during the match and Joey says puts Stevie at a handicap because he's limited to only 3 moves and he doesn't leave his feet.
Classic burn.Kash stops the match to tell Stevie that he's the gayest looking son of a bitch he's ever seen in his life. Alrighty then.
This match starts off slow and weird, but it picks up nicely. Kash was a quick guy and Stevie was definitely one of the more underrated "workers" on the ECW roster in 95 & 96. Stevie drops Kash with a powerbomb at one point that Kash kicks out of. Stevie finishes it with his Superkick. Solid match with a crisp pace.
7/10
Vintage ECW segment here at the peak of the NWO popularity making fun of them with an angle that would finally break Stevie away from Raven and into a main event push that he really did deserve. The guy was very entertaining on the mic and one of the most consistent in the ring for the past couple of years worth of reviews I've done. Definitely one of the more underrated guys in ECW history I think.
Axl Rotten vs Hack Myers
Hack F'N Myers gets it going with the crowd like it's 1995 all over again. It starts off as an interesting little stiff brawl between two rather dark and gritty looking characters in a dark and gritty atmosphere. They blast each other with a few homerun chairshots and things get sloppy with a few botches. Axl wins it with a Pedigree on a steel chair after about 5 minutes.
4/10
Quick filler match started off alright, and degenerated quickly. Some sloppy stuff.
Buh Buh Ray Dudley vs D-Von Dudley
These two guys just get right into a slugfest, brawling up into the crowd and getting them worked up into a frenzy. Both guys take some really hard chair shots to the face. This looks like a real fight at times when they push each other through the crowd.
They take it back to the ring with more slop brawling and... HOLY SHIT! :stalker:
Buh Buh backdrops D-Von up into the air like a cruiserweight and drops him down into a Diamond Cutter that looked fucking NICE!
This gets a reaction from the fans that reminds me of a UFC knockout. Just truly awesome move right there.
Buh Buh gets the pinfall, but Joel Gertenr comes out and announces D-Von as the winner. Gertner is hilarious as he taunts Buh Buh, calling him fat boy. Buh Buh goes to powerbomb him, and Axle comes out with brutal chair shots. Spike comes out and clears D-Von and Axl like a madman. Spike was an elementary school teacher that was like 145 pounds and tough as they come. He comes in and really busts his ass here trying to make a name for himself, dropping D-Von with the Acid Drop before Axle drops him with a lariat.
Big Dick walks out to a huge pop. Axl and D-Von run, but Joel Gertner doesn't see him. Gertner gets slammed and moonsaulted by Big Dick.
6.5/10
Mediocre brawl that relied too heavily on ridiculously stiff chairshots the head. The finish was awesome though. Gertner getting fucked up was pretty hilarious too.
#1 Contenders Match: The Eliminators vs Sabu & Rob Van Dam
Man, this is an absolutely classic matchup between two of my personal all time favorite teams. Both Saturn and Kronus are shredded up in great shape and definitely just look strait up awesome. Joey talks about how Kronus has lost probably 30 pounds.
Van Dam has a singlet on that says "Respect" across the back. Love it, and I'm just now catching the tie in to his eventual theme song "Walk" by Pantera. (h)
Nothing special early on as they go through a decent little feeling out process. We get some nice dueling chants here early on, with one pocket of the crowd chanting "Fuck Sabu", and the other chanting "No, Fuck You!". :rofl: Interesting how some fans are starting to turn on Sabu over the way he's avoided Taz at this point(for a solid year).
This match is all over the place early on with all 4 guys looking pretty sloppy. They each have their shining moments with a nice moonsault or plancha here or there, but the action is just nowhere near where I'd imagine it for this match. All of a sudden Saturn goes crazy on Sabu for interfering, knocking him into the crowd and hitting him with a nice plancha. The action picks up nicely just out of nowhere with a mad scramble that includes Sabu landing a good looking Air Sabu chairvault Leg Lariat into the corner. Kronus sells it beautifully with a face flop over the chair.
Just 2 on 2 meyham here, with a lot of sloppy fighting with chairs. Kronus hits his handspring back elbow moonsault over the top rope out of the ring and it's awesome every time. It was sloppy the way they set it up though. Saturn draggd Sabu out and yelled "C'mon KRONUS!", but Kronus was too busy fighting with RVD and had to do some re-arranging to hit the move. :fpalm: Seems like they could have choreographed this match way better.
Van Dam and Sabu hit nice planchas out of the ring and the tables come out.
Saturn stops Sabu mid-air before he triple jumps to the chair. Sabu repays him later by hitting him with a DDT onto the table that is bridged from apron to rail for the E! C! DUB! chants. They really did a great job of building Sabu and Saturn up into this ultimate dream match with all of these insane daredevil stunt spots that Saturn has been doing in late 96(the dives from the cage at Natural Born Killaz, the dive off of the scaffold against Doc & Gordy).
Sloppy fighting for several minutes with no psychology, we get a 20 minute time limit and the crowd immediately chants 3 Way Dance. Todd Gordon comes out and sanctions 5 more minutes, and they pickup right where we left off, all over the place(as Joey says).
This is just not good and should be way better.
Saturn up to Van Dam's shoulders for botched rana from Sabu which turns into more of a Rocker Dropper. The Eliminators drop Sabu with their kick combo and it looks great. Kronus hits Sabu with a roundhouse to the back of the head into a thrust kick to the face from Saturn.
Sabu lands a Triple Jump Moonsault and LANDS ON THE CHAIR!!!!!!!:stalker: Holy shit!
The 5 minute overtime period expires and Gordon comes out to give them 5 more!
Sabu lands an AWESOME plancha onto Saturn through the ropes. Van Dam follows it up with a nice moonsault off of the railing onto Kronus. The action picks back up with Saturn taking Sabu back to the ring and dropping a really nice looking Knee Drop off the top rope. Saturn and Sabu try simultaneous springboards out of the corner and collide in mid air. Nice.
The bell rings again and the second 5 minute overtime is up.
The crowd chants "3 Way Dance". Todd Gordon comes back out and sets it up for later tonight! Eliminators vs Sabu & Van Dam vs The Gangstas for the straps!
Crowd blows it up with the E! C! DUB! chants. Awesome. (h)
7.3/10
Cool little ECW matchup but not really all that good and could have been 10 times better. These guys could have put their moves together, their minds, and really planned out a really awesome match if they put some effort and thought into it and maybe even rehearsed the flow and some sequences a few times to get it down. If these two teams would have put that much effort into a match, they could have put on some truly all time classics I do believe. As it stands, this match was a scrambled mess of sorts that was a mixture of planned spots and maybe some called along the way. I hate to sound like I'm strait hating on the match because it really was some nice action between 4 really interesting, edgy wrestlers for the time. The match definitely had it's moments, but could have been so, so, so much better.
Chris Candido vs Mikey Whipreck
Mikey wearing an awesome Venom(Spider Man) t-shirt. Candido tells the crowd that Sunny isn't here tonight because "they" made her go to the hall of fame, so shut the hell up, I'm trying to fucking wrestle here.
REALLY nice chain of moves early on. Mikey is already out of breath, Candido in phenomenal shape.
Nice Northern Lights Suplex from Mikey with a beautiful bridge for 2. From there this really degenerates. Mikey gets little to no reaction with a plancha to the crowd from the ring, and who could blame them after seeing some of the planchas in that last match?
Back in the ring and bleh.
Their timing is really off and the crowd is dead. Mikey botches a sunset flip powerbomb counter, and Chris Candido takes a minute to recover and figure out what to do. Mikey lands a few offensive meneuvers for some nearfalls before Candido catches him with in a moonsault and drops him with a sloppy tombstone that looks like it could have broken his neck. Candido finishes it with his Superbomb for the win. He gets the mic after the match and says that he's been busted up and in the ring carrying pieces of shit for the last 2 years.
6.3/10
Man, they had something going early on, but they lost it. Not good, but not bad. Mediocre little cool down match.
End of Tape 1, Please insert Tape 2! (h)
ECW World Tag Team Championship 3 Way Dance:
The Gangstas(C) vs The Eliminators vs Sabu & Rob Van Dam
This disc opens up with The Eliminators already in the ring fighting with Rob Van Dam and Sabu for a moment before The Gangstas blitz the ring with their trashcan full of weapons. Crowd is white hot early on. Just non-stop weapons brawling. New Jack chokes Kronus with his chain as Mustapha fucks up Saturn with various paraphernalia. This starts off sloppy and gets even sloppier with a couple of pretty bad Sabu botches. Everybody bleeds allover the place and lots of aimless wandering going on as guys try to figure out what to do next.
Taz comes out to isle to go for Sabu late in the match, but RVD stops him. Taz chokes Van Dam out in the isle as Sabu fights with the Eliminators in the ring. Sabu notices what is going on and tries to help Van Dam, but The Eliminators catch him with the Total Elimination and pin him for the elimination. New Jack immediately flies into the ring with his 187 chairdive onto one of the Eliminators and scores the winning pinfall. The Gangstas escape with their titles. Taz leaves Van Dam laying knocked out in the isle.
5/10
Not good. Really ugly match. Saturn, Kronus, Van Dam, and Sabu were already exhausted from going 30 minutes earlier on in the card, and they were relying on The Gangstas to carry the action so that will give you an idea of just how bad this was. Really bloody mess without any sense of direction or intensity. The ending with Taz/RVD/Sabu was nice though, and it was a great looking scene with some nice camera work.
Loser Leaves Town: 2 Cold Scorpio vs Devon Storm
Joey talks about all of the guys that have come and gone trough the bingo hall, Malenko, Jericho, Mysterio, Eddie, Benoit, and now Scorpio. Scorpio comes out.
You Sold Out chants.
Joey puts Scorpio over and says it's been a pleasure to watch him perform in this ring.
Somebody in the crowd has a sign that says "Devon Storm: Believe The Hype".
Devon Storm was like the Zack Ryder of 1996 I guess? Scorpio says that he's not going anywhere, and he's going to wrestle in both ECW and WWE.
Scorpio cuts a pretty good promo saying that he wants to make a deal, the next man that comes out and beats him will put him out of ECW for 15 days. Devon Storm walks out.
Scorpio drops Storm with some nice looking punches and a stiff dropkick before hitting his Tumbleweed Legdrop on him and pinning him away within a matter of seconds. Goodbye Devon Storm.
N/A
Squash, nice looking Tumbleweed Legdrop, always loved that move.
Scorpio issues an open challenge and ups the stakes with a 30 day vacation from ECW on the line. The FBI comes out and JT Smith takes him on.
Loser Leaves Town: 2 Cold Scorpio vs JT Smith
Scorpio weathers an attack from Smith before dropping him with a sideslam and hitting him with a moonsault for the pinfall after a matter of seconds.
Goodbye JT Smith....
N/A
Squash.
Hack Myers comes out to the isle and Scorpio tells him to bring it on. Loser leaves ECW for 60 days!
Loser Leaves Town: 2 Cold Scorpio vs Hack Myers
Myers actually gets some offense in on Scorpio. Scorpio overtakes him and lands the 450 Splash for the win after about 90 seconds.
Goodbye Hack Myers.
N/A
Scorpio gets the mic and taunts the crowd as Louie Spicolli comes out. Spicolli checks on Hack Myers. Scorpio ups the ante to 1 year and calls out Spicolli.
Loser Leaves Town: 2 Cold Scorpio vs Louie Spicolli
Scorpio works Louie over for about 3 minutes before being caught with the Death Valley Driver. Louie scores the fluke upset. Scorpio is banned from ECW for 1 year. Louie celebrates the victory over the 4 time ECW TV champions on the outside as the crowd sings the NA-NA-NA-NA, GOOD-BYE! song.
N/A
Not really a match as much as it is a segway for the next phase of this segment. Scorpio refuses to leave the ring. Taz comes out!
Taz gets the mic and tells Scorpio:
Scorpio replies saying that he's on to bigger arenas, bigger paydays, and bigger bosses before turning and walking away to the WWF to play Flash Funk. Taz tells him:
Ring announer Bob Artese comes out to tell Taz to get out of the ring for the next match to go on. Taz shoves him down into the corner and screams into his face:
Todd Gordon comes out with a crew of midcarders. He goes to check on Bob and gets choked out by Taz.
The ring is lined with students from Team Taz Dojo as Taz gets a Sabu chant going.
Out comes Paul Heyman. :stalker: Shit is getting real...
TAZ DUMPS HEYMAN WITH A T-BONE TAZPLEX AND CHOKES HIM OUT!
THE LIGHTS GO OUT!
They come back on with one of the loudest pops in ECW history....
Booming Sabu chants as they stand face to face finally after 19 months of buildup. Fucking absolutely epic scene here with Taz wearing a singlet that says "Tap Out". They charge each other and the lights go back out. Crowd chants bullshit. The lights come back on and they are both gone. Classic ECW moment. Great segment with one of my favorite promos from one of my favorite characters ever. I honestly don't know what else to say. This was already one of my single favorite ECW segments, but once I've seen the buildup and that promo from Heyman that led into this show, I'm amazed at how brilliant it all was. Taz's intensity in this segment is amazing. It's interesting to note how they are subtly positioning Taz and Sabu for a double switch heel/face turn. The crowd is dying to cheer for Taz since he's so badass, and at the same time they are starting to turn on Sabu because of the way he's avoided Taz.
ECW World Championship: The Sandman(C) vs Raven
Raven's got the BWO, as well as Sandman's wife and kid with him. He puts himself over as the best wrestler in ECW before the match.
Raven mat wrestles The Sandman pretty nicely early on as Stevie Richards calls the holds on commentary with a microphone. The crowd applauds him several times during the match as he calls the hold. Raven works some psychology with some decent arm targeting on Sandman's right arm. This is a surprisingly good match so far.
Raven relentlessly targets Sandman's arm as Sandman sells it very nicely. Sandman goes through a series of standing switches before taking it out of the ring to the floor(no pads). They keep showing Sandman's wife shouting encouragement to Raven. Sandman drops Raven with a low blow and tries to work his way back into the match, but Raven works his arm. The Blue Meanie distracts the referee long enough for Nova to fly into the ring with a knee drop to Sandman's arm.
Sandman tries to fight back and continues to sell the arm within logic and context of the... yeah... I don't know what I'm talking about.
Awesome match so far though. Surprisingly technical. Sandman is one of the most underrated wrestlers ever imo. He's showing some actual "working" skills here in this match. They finally start brawling with weapons around the ringside area and Raven is bleeding allover the place. Sandman continues to do a really good job of selling the arm as he kicks Raven's ass on the floor, landing a legdrop from the apron as Raven is draped over the railing.
Raven puts Sandman through a table with a DDT like maneuver. Raven with a pretty gruesome crimson mask going here.
Raven takes it back to the ring with a chair and goes to charge Sandman, but Sandman kicks it into his face. Sandman fights with one arm and DDT's Raven for the pinfall, but he picks Raven up at 2. He starts wailing on Raven and pushes the referee away. The BWO come in and get taken out, but Raven hits him in the arm with the chair. Sandman gets dropped with a DDT as the BWO setup a table in the ring.
Raven holds Sandman for a Stevie Kick, but Sandman moves. Stevie hits Raven and knocks him onto the table with a kick that missed by several inches. Meanie moonsaults Raven on the table, but it doesn't break.
Sandman hooks the leg for the pinfall, but Raven kicks out. Stevie lands a kick on Sandman and Raven goes for the fall, but Sandman kicks out.
Raven puts Sandman through a table in the corner and begins taunting him about his family. Sandman gets fired up and these guys have a great exchange of punches. Sandman gets really emotional. Raven drops down in the corner and Sandman's son gets down in his lap to protect him. Sandman's wife takes three swings at Sandman's head and misses all three swings. Raven holds him and lets her hit him in the back before spiking him with a DDT. Sandman kicks out of another pinfall attempt.
Sandman kicks out of another DDT and the BWO starts pushing a section of the steel railing into the ring. Sandman drops Raven with a DDT on the railing and puts him away with a pinfall to get his revenge for a years worth of torment. Such a bloody, chaotic match. Easily the best of the show so far.
7.9/10
This was a really great brawl with some surprisingly good psychology early on. Sandman put in a great performance with the selling of the arm. The match developed from a technical storyteller into a really violent, bloody, stiff brawl. A lot of botched stuff, including some of Stevie's kicks, and Lori's cane shots. A few awkward moments, but definitely a solid brawler here. Some good backgroud leading into it made it interesting.
Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk vs Shane Douglas & Brian Lee
Shane changes Brian Lee's nickname to The Bulldozer during the intros. Terry Funk gets a hero's welcome from the fans. He's 53 years old here and in great shape.
This match starts off as a strait tag match with Tommy Dreamer going at it with Brian Lee. Shane Douglas runs into the ring and Terry Funk takes him out, and from there the shit hits the fan. This turns into a wild 2 on 2 tornado style match with Terry Funk concentrating on Shane Douglas and Tommy Dreamer on Brian Lee. Francine gets involved and pulls Funk's hair, causing him to chase her around the ring. Really sloppy brawl through the crowd and out to the foyer/entrance area of the ECW Arena for a bit before they take it back to the ring and fight with the steel guard railing. The highlight of the match is when Terry Funk lands a moonsault off of the top rope out onto Shane and Brian Lee on the floor, almost busting his face REALLY hard with the awkward way he lands. Joey Styles unleashes the ultimate "OH MY GAWD!" here.
classic. 
They take it back to the ring where Dreamer grabs the camera from the camera man and uses it to hit Brian Lee in the back. Terry Funk drops Brian Lee with a DDT and pins him. Funk and Dreamer win it.
Shane Douglas and Brain Lee attack Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer after the match until Pitbull 2 rushes the ring and takes them out as the ultimate hero badass. That's a wrap folks.
6/10
The Funker's mannerisms during the match cracked me up at times, but this was pretty much just a sloppy mess with no real significant action. They brawled all over the place without much intensity to it at all, and the Funker moonsault was really the only thing it had going for it. Nothing special here at all.
Overall: 7/10
The bottom line on this show is that it was nowhere near as good as it looked on paper. Eliminators vs Van Dam and Sabu should have been a classic and it wasn't. A lot of these matches ranged from disappointing to mediocre, with Sandman vs Raven being the best of the show. The highlight of the show without a doubt and the reason why it gets a 7 is because of the incredible stuff with Sabu and Taz here. Definitely the best angle in ECW history at it's peak here. I'm really glad I never paid $40 for this back in the day because I would have been pretty disappointed. An interesting show with some good moments and action, but nowhere near as good as I thought it would be, mostly because they were saving everything for Barely Legal at this point. I'm thinking most of the events from this show would have been better experience through the weekly Hardcore TV shows.
