and eventually led to ECW appearing on the February 24, 1997, WWF program Raw. At the ECW premier pay-per-view event Barely Legal, Sandman wrestled a three-way dance with Terry Funk and Stevie Richards, for a shot at the ECW title later that night, but fell short of the title. In the summer of 1997, the Sandman began a long feud with Sabu. Although he was too injured to compete at Hardcore Heaven 1997, Sandman got involved in a skirmish with Rob Van Damn and Sabu who then brutalized him to the point of hospitalization, however, he returned later that evening to interference in the main event by assaulting Sabu, leading to Sabu's elimination, costing Sabu the ECW title. In September of that year at As Good as It Gets, Sabu badly burned the Sandman in a scheduled contest between the two. The damage to Sandman from the burn was considered so bad that the match was discontinued. As a result, Sandman was out of action until he once again attacked Van Dam and Sabu in the ring that November, earning a measure of revenge on Sabu. This led to their match at the November to Remember pay per view, which was promoted as a major cornerstone and culmination of all the events that year. In the match, Sandman dodged an attempt by Sabu to burn him, however Sabu went on to win the match. Over the next few months, they competed in high profile specialty matches such as ladder matches, table matches, and a dueling cane match. In one of the most notable examples, the Sandman fought Sabu in the 1st ever "stairway to hell" match involving tables ladders chairs and barbwire, which is especially noteworthy because no barb wire matches had been scheduled in ECW since after barb wire ripped open Sabu's bicep and required over 100 stitches in August 1997. The stairway to hell match proved to be one of the most violent in ECW history, coincidentally Sabu broke his jaw when missing a dive onto Sandman and inadvertently hit the guard rail, but continued to fight. After suffering heavy damage, Sandman earned the victory by finally pinning Sabu after hitting him with a cane. However, it wasn't until almost two months later that their feud effectively came to an end at Living Dangerously 1998. This match was heavily promoted and designated the penultimate which featured a dueling