Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling House Show
Date: 11/21/1997
From: Poughkeepsie, NY
Opening Contest: Paul Diamond & Roadkill vs. Tommy Rogers & Jerry Lynn: Roadkill had just started with the company and Lynn hadn’t done anything substantial. Early on, Lynn leapfrogs Diamond and apparently botches it badly and lands on his midsection. Diamond continues his offense with a back breaker. Lynn head scissors Diamond and sends him to the floor. Lynn comes off the apron with a somersault dive but is attacked by Roadkill quickly. Diamond accidentally decks Roadkill and Rogers dives onto Roadkill and sends him into the railing. Back in the ring, Rogers is working over Diamond after avoiding a splash in the corner. Rogers plants Roadkill with a DDT and knocks Diamond off the apron. Roadkill sends Rogers into the railing but is soon sent into the first row by Rogers! Rogers whacks Diamond and Roadkill with a chair several times and the fans eat it up. Lynn tags in to hit a side slam/leg drop from the middle rope for a near fall.
Roadkill splashes Lynn in the corner. Diamond is involved and sends Lynn to the floor but misses a dive from the apron. Diamond crotches Lynn on the railing and hits Jerry with a chair before he returned to the ring. Paul hits a front suplex for a near fall. Diamond continues with a spinning heel kick in the corner and a rolling fireman’s carry but Lynn kicks out. Lynn is placed on the top rope but he fights back to hit a tornado DDT! Rogers gets the hot tag and he hammers away on Roadkill until a leaping back elbow stops him. Diamond stops Lynn on the top and Roadkill goes over but Rogers has him on his shoulder so Lynn can hit an elevated bulldog! Rogers hits the Un-Prettier on Lance Russell! Diamond with a float over DDT on Rogers but doesn’t go for the cover. Lynn kicks Chasisty from the top rope but is tripped by Roadkill. Lynn rolls Diamond up for the win after countering the DDT attempt. (**1/2. Some good action by these four to kick off the show. Lynn had some bright moments after the botch early on and the fans were popping for some of the action on Russell.) After the match, Roadkill and Diamond argue and Diamond clearly motions for Chasisty to come over. Roadkill stops her and they makeup.
Second Contest: Mikey Whipwreck vs. Justin Credible: Whipwreck gets the early advantage with a series of arm drags. Whipwreck hits a head scissors and clotheslines Credible to the floor where Mikey hits a slingshot cross body! Credible sends Whipwreck into the railing but Mikey drops Justin across the railing and hits a face buster on the concrete! Back in the ring, Credible hits a twisting DDT. Credible dropkicks Whipwreck in the corner and hits a sit down power bomb. Credible hits a top rope hurricanrana for a near fall. Credible stops Mikey with a jaw breaker and a kick to the head. Mikey avoids Credible in the corner and kicks him onto the top rope. Whipwreck with a bulldog out of the corner and gets a near fall. Whipwreck hits the Whippersnapper but Credible kicks out. Mikey misses a top rope senton splash and Credible finishes him off with the That’s Incredible. (**1/2. Similar to the first match as this had a good pace and solid action throughout. I’ve never been big on Whipwreck but he did well here and Credible got a good win early in his ECW career.)
Third Contest: Chris Chetti vs. Shane Douglas: I had forgotten to pause the event and six minutes later Douglas was still ripping on the fans before the match got started. Shane works over Chetti in the corner with several strikes and they botch an exchange. Chetti follows up with a trio of dropkicks to send Douglas to the floor and Chetti hits a cross body over the top onto the Franchise! Back in the ring, Chetti continues to work over Douglas focusing on the left arm. Douglas drops Chetti throat first across the top rope to put a stop to Chetti’s offense. Douglas follows up with a neck snap to deliver punishment to the neck and lower back area. Chetti kicks Douglas while in the corner and goes to the floor to stalk Francine. Douglas tries to attack from behind but fails and is sent into the railing. Chetti hits a top rope clothesline back in the ring for a near fall. Franchise low blows Chetti in the corner to regain control of the match. Douglas scoop slams Chetti and heads to the top. Chetti stops him with a kick to crotch him up top and takes Franchise over with a superplex! Douglas comes off the ropes and is met with a side kick. Chetti has a flurry of offense going as he hits a missile dropkick for a near fall.
Douglas avoids a double springboard moonsault. Douglas hits a belly to belly suplex and wins the match. (**1/2. Chetti held his own pretty well with a main event guy and they put together an entertaining match. Makes me wonder why Chetti didn’t get a stronger push in the company.)
Fourth Contest: ECW Television Champion Taz vs. Spike Dudley: Early on, Taz takes Spike down to the mat and Dudley quickly gets to the ropes to break the hold each time. Spike manages to hit the Acid Drop out of nowhere and a somersault dive off the apron on the floor. Taz stops Spike with a double leg slam out of the corner. Taz hits a German suplex that sees Dudley land dangerously. Spike low blows Taz and nearly wins with a rollup. Taz counters the Acid Drop with a T-Bone suplex. Taz locks in the Taz Mission to win the match. (**. A quick match but Spike still put a good fight and they didn’t make it a complete squash. Taz is way over with the ECW crowd.)
Taz gets on the microphone and rips on a fan for calling him a midget. He proceeds to inform us that he shoved his body up the guy’s mothers ass. He calls the fan into the ring but the fan isn’t about to get in the ring.
Fifth Contest: ECW World Tag Team Champions Tracy Smothers & Little Guido vs. Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney vs. The Dudley Boys vs. New Jack & John Kronus in an elimination match: Axl and D-Von kick off the match as the other teams will apparently come out after an elimination. Axl works over D-Von early on with strikes and a drop toe hold. Balls enters and drops a leg across the back of D-Von for a near fall. Bubba tags in and chokes Mahoney in the corner as the start of the match is rather uninspiring. Mahoney runs over both Dudley’s with a clothesline and Axl enters to clean house with strikes and clotheslines. Axl clotheslines D-Von to the floor while Bubba is sent out as well. Big Dick enters and choke slams but Balls and Axl.
The tag champs music hits and they come out even though there hasn’t been an elimination. Balls and Axl continue to be worked over and Smothers stomps Axl on the floor. Here comes New Jack and Kronus to join the party. Of course, they have a bunch of weapons. This is really the first match to feature a lot of weapons and the fans have been waiting for that. As you can probably expect, Jack and Kronus smash everyone with their weapons and blood is on everyone. Kronus is gushing blood at this point.
Dudley Death Drop on Jack by the Dudley Boys and Kronus hits a 450 splash. Kronus pins D-Von while Bubba pinned Jack so both teams are eliminated from the match. They brawl to the backstage area. We are left with the tag champs and the chair swinging freaks to determine who walks out with the gold. Balls piledrviers Smothers while Guido gets a power bomb. They are about to win until the referee Jeff Jones stops counting to check on the referee. A powder shot to Mahoney and the match is over. The referee celebrates with the heels. (*. That wasn’t done very well as it seemed thrown together. The interesting teams got eliminated before the finish and it took the fans out of it, really. Plus, that was a bad finish.)
Sixth Contest: ECW World Champion Bam-Bam Bigelow vs. Chris Candido: Bigelow runs over Candido a couple of times with a shoulder block to an otherwise slow start to the title match. Bigelow counters a leapfrog with a power bomb and Candido bails to the floor. Candido returns to the ring and hammers away on Bigelow after a kick but Bigelow hits an odd looking dropkick. Bigelow backdrops Candido over the top in the corner and Candido crashes through a table. Francine makes her way back out and so does Shane Douglas who has a piece of guard railing with him. On the floor, Bigelow sends Candido into the post and into the crowd. Candido low blows Bam-Bam in the ring but is sent into the railing. Douglas enters to save Chris from a press slam. Candido sends Bigelow onto the railing in the corner. Douglas works over Bigelow’s left knee while the referee was distracted.
Candido continues to focus on the left knee with a knee breaker. Bigelow tries to go after Douglas but is stopped by Candido on the floor. Candido hits an impressive top rope hurricanrana but only gets a near fall on the cover. Bigelow has both Douglas and Candido and flips Douglas over into the ring. Bigelow power bombs Candido a second time but is met with a low blow. Bigelow splashes Candido in the corner and hits a press slam. Douglas tries to interfere but is taken down with the Greetings From Asbury Park. Bigelow catches Candido off the top to hit the same move to retain the title. (**. Some decent action but it was evident that the fans were not buying into any kind of title change with the PPV a few days away. There didn’t seem to be much chemistry between these two, either. They did the best they could, though.)
Seventh Contest: The Sandman vs. Sabu in a Singapore Cane match: Sabu has a chair to combat the cane and blocks attempted shots from Sandman. Sabu tosses the chair and hits Sandman right in the head and hits a triple jump moonsault for a near fall. Sabu takes Sandman out with a slingshot dive to the floor. Sabu leaps off a chair to splash Sandman against the railing. Sandman hits a somersault splash against the railing. Sandman puts Sabu across the top rope and surprisingly hits a slingshot somersault leg drop! Sandman continues his offense with a top rope hurricanrana for a two count. Sabu hits a springboard heel kick and a hurricanrana for a near fall of his own. Sabu heads to the backstage area and returns with a table.
Sandman leaps over the top to take Sabu out while still having the table over his shoulder. The table is slammed onto Sabu as well. Back in the ring, Sandman hits a somersault leg drop for a near fall. Sandman plants Sabu with an electric chair slam and heads to the backstage area as well. Sandman returns with a ladder, which is kicked into his face. Sabu places Sandman on the table laid over the apron and railing. Sabu springboards and leg drops Sandman through the table! RVD is at ringside to help toss Sabu back into the ring. Sandman hits a swanton bomb off the top with a ladder across Sabu for a near fall. RVD comes off the top to kick a ladder into Sandamn. Sabu hits a triple jump moonsault with a ladder on top of Sandman for the win. (**. Pretty much what you’d expect from these two looking to just brutally beat each other up with hardcore spots. It’s not awful, just a little bit repetitive.) After the match, Sandman is attacked by Sabu and RVD. RVD holds up a WWF banner and lays it over Sandman. The Blue World Order drags Sandman out for safety. Or so they thought as Sabu takes everyone out with a springboard dive to the floor!
Main Event: Rob Van Dam vs. Tommy Dreamer: RVD wastes no time going after Tommy’s bad foot which has a walking boot on it. Dreamer attempts a DDT but Van Dam bails to the floor. Dreamer sends RVD face first into the guard railing and clotheslines RVD over into the crowd. RVD hits a springboard somersault dive to take Tommy off his feet. Dreamer crotches RVD on the railing and hits RVD with a plastic chair. Back in the ring, RVD is tied up in the ropes but is tripped by Alfonso and lands face first on a chair. RVD leaps off the top to hit a dropkick. RVD dropkicks a chair into Dreamer’s face while he is seated in the corner. Van Dam spin kicks Dreamer on the floor to maintain control of the bout. RVD kicks a chair into Tommy’s face while he was crotched on the railing.
RVD slingshots over the top to leg drop Dreamer back in the ring. RVD monkey flips Dreamer out of the corner and heads to the top and hits the Five Star Frog Splash! Dreamer recovers to clothesline Rob over the top to the floor. Dreamer attempts the DVD and hits it! Tommy heads to the top but Alfonso whacks Dreamer on the bad foot with the chair. RVD takes advantage with a rolling thunder big splash. RVD tries to get a chant for the WWF going but the fans are not interested in that. Beulah enters and low blows Alfonso as they held up a banner. Dreamer nearly gets a win with a rollup. Dreamer crotches RVD on the top and puts him in the tree of woe with a chair in front of his face before delivering a dropkick!
Van Dam avoids a DDT and hits a twisting leg drop. RVD slams Tommy down and puts a chair over him. RVD hits a split legged moonsault but is hurt more than Dreamer who quickly hits a DDT on the chair for the win! (*1/2. A rather boring main event that seemed to lack effort from both men. Dreamer working hurt might play a part in it, but it’s a disappointing way to end the show.) After the match, Sabu attacks Dreamer. Sandman makes the save and they celebrate to close the show with Beulah.
Final Thoughts:
Honestly, it’s not a bad show. There isn’t one great match but there are several decent matches that have good action and really nothing is truly awful aside from the tag team segment. I’d give it a mild thumbs up.
Thanks for reading.