Worst in the World: Sabu vs The Sandman-November To Remember 1997

EC-DUB! EC-DUB! EC-DUB! Yes, for the first time in this series, I'm taking a look at ECW. Now, I love ECW. I think it was such a cool and exciting company that had a lot of awesome hardcore wrestling, and some legit good matches, like Rob Van Dam vs Jerry Lynn at Living Dangerously 1999. However, there were a lot of main event stars in that company that weren't that good. And probably the two best examples are Sabu and The Sandman. While great hardcore wrestlers, Sabu and Sandman were terrible professional wrestlers, with both becoming well known for botching moves and not being able to succeed outside of ECW. And sometimes, those skills (or lack of) were showcased in ECW, and nowhere more than their Tables & Ladders match at November to Remember 1997.

Sandman goes up a ladder to open his beer, but Sabu takes him out with a suicide dive while he does it to start the match. Sabu rolls Sandman into the ring and hits his Triple Jump Moonsault, but looks to injure his knee. Outside of using weapons, the two do almost nothing but throw punches, including the strangest elbow strike I've ever seen. Sandman does his goofy "jump over the rope while throwing a ladder, and the two fight at ringside. So far this has been just a sloppy brawl with no psychology whatsoever.

Sabu throws a table at Sandman, but Sandman fights back and body slams Sabu onto the ground before suplexing the table onto Sandman. Sandman tries to set up Sabu on a table, but it breaks after he slams Sabu's head into it. Sandman walks over to another table and repeats the spot before going up to the top rope for a leg drop that completely misses Sabu. Sandman sets up a piece of the broken table, but Sabu reverses an Irish whip and sends Sandman into it. Sabu puts Sandman on another table and hits springboard leg drop that actually connects with Sandman.

Back in the ring, Sandman loses his grip on an Irish whip and falls over, followed by a beautiful springboard kick by Sabu. Sabu throws a ladder at Sandman, and Sandman misses a clothesline and tries to fall over the top rope, failing on the first try and having to try a second time. Sabu sets up Sandman on a table and grabs a ladder to fall with, but falls off the ladder, so the ladder hits Sandman and makes him fall off the table without it breaking. This would have been such a good spot if it had worked.

Sandman fights back with more elbows and sets up Sabu on another table, but Sabu moves when Sandman goes for an awful Swanton Bomb. Sabu does his Triple Jump Moonsault again back in the ring. Sandman stops a top rope attack from Sabu and superplexes him onto a ladder. Sandman calls for a bigger ladder as he stumbles around a lot. He is either completely knackered or sh*t-faced drunk. I'm going with the second one.

Sabu hits Sandman with the smaller latter. Sabu goes to the top rope, which proceeds the most awkward spot in the history of wrestling. Sabu is on the top rope, and Sandman stumbles into the ropes. This makes Sabu fall off the top rope, with Sandman stumbling onto the bigger ladder. OK, I change my mind. Sandman is DEFINITELY drunk. Sabu throws the ladder onto Sandman and hits another springboard legrop. You might have noticed that these two do the same moves over and over again. I'm assuming that's because that's all they can really do. Oh, and I haven't mentioned this yet, but Sabu's manager Bill Alfonso blows a whistle the entire match. It's annoying.

Sabu starts stabbing Sandman with a fork (dear God) before Sandman throws Sabu from the ring and throws a ladder at him. Sandman sets up a ladder in the crowd against the guard rail and goes back into the ring, jumping over the top rope to throw the ladder into Sabi. He hits the ground before he touches the ladder, and it barely hits Sabu. Sandman gets them back in the ring, puts a ladder on Sabu, and hits a Swanton Bomb, followed by a springboard Swanton Bomb. The two surprisingly pull of a nice spot, with Sabu going for a springboard kick again, but Sandman catching him for an electric chair drop. Impressive, especially for these two.

Sandman sets a ladder in the ring and Sabu on a table outside the ring, and hits an awful Swanton Bomb, almost catching his neck on the top rope. Sandman gets him and Sabu back in the ring, which prompts Alfonso to get on the ring apron with a cane. Sabu throws a fire ball in Sandman's face, which he COMPLETELY NO SELLS, going right back to punching Sabu and Irish whipping him into a ladder. Sandman blocks Alfonso's cane shot, but Sabu hits a missile dropkick, landing face first on a ladder in the process.

Sabu sets Sandman on a table outside the ring and dives off the top rope with a ladder, putting Sandman through the table. Sabu mercifully ends the match with an Atomic Arabian Facebuster with a ladder for the win.

The Verdict

Jesus Christ, what was that? That might have been the worst match I've ever seen, purely based on the wrestling and not the gimmicks or story. Neither man is a very good worker, especially Sandman, who botched every other move. On top of that, they just kept repeating moves over and over again. Sandman must have done four or five Swanton's in this match, and the countless amount of table and ladder spots got very boring after a while. And lastly, nobody sold, at all. One of them would get put through a table off a leg drop, and they'd be back up in under 10 seconds like nothing happened. This is the bad side of ECW that everyone should want to forget

Rankings (Best to Worst)

1.  Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
2. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
3. T&A vs Head Cheese-WrestleMania 2000
4. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
5. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
6. Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
7. Shelton Benjamin vs Viscera-New Year's Revolution 2006
8. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
9. The Natural Disasters vs Money Inc.-WrestleMania VIII
10. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
11. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
12. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
13. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
14. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
15. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Souled Out 1997
16. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
17. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
18. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
19. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
20. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
21. Team WCW vs nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood-Fall Brawl 1998
22. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
23. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
24. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
25. Jim Steele vs The Equalizer-SuperBrawl IV
26. Edge vs Triple H vs Vladimir Kozlov-Survivor Series 2008
27. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
28. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
29. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
30. Batista vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2007
31.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
32. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
33. The 8-Divas Tag Match-Survivor Series 1999
34. Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono-Halloween Havoc 1992
35. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
36. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
37. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
38. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
39. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
40. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
41. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996 
42. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
43. Sabu vs The Sandman-November to Remember 1997
44. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
45. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012

 And up next is...

Oh boy...it's the match with one good moment.

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