December to Dismember (2006)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
December to Dismember
Promotion
World Wrestling Entertainment
Brand(s)ECW
DateDecember 3, 2006
CityAugusta, Georgia
VenueJames Brown Arena
Attendance4,800
Buy rate90,000[1][2]
Tagline(s)You better watch out...
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous
Survivor Series 		Next →
Armageddon
December to Dismember
chronology
← Previous
1995 		Next →
Final

The 2006 December to Dismember was a

December to Dismember chronology, after the original 1995 event that was held by the former Extreme Championship Wrestling
(ECW) promotion; WWE acquired the assets of ECW in 2003 and launched their own ECW brand in May 2006.

The

MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro
), in which The Hardys were victorious.

The event had an attendance of 4,800 and received about 90,000 pay-per-view buys, with 55,000 of them domestic buys—the lowest buyrate in WWE history until the introduction of the WWE Network in 2014. Critical reception was also very poor, with many regarding it as one of the worst PPVs ever produced by the company. Although it was scheduled to be held again in 2007, the show was canceled after WWE discontinued brand-exclusive PPVs following WrestleMania 23 in April 2007.

As a consequence Paul Heyman left the WWE until mid 2012. There have been conflicting narratives over the years as to whether Heyman was fired or quit.

Production

Background

In 2001, the

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) acquired the assets in 2003.[3] In May 2006, WWE launched a third brand dubbed ECW in which former talent from the defunct promotion, as well as newer talent, would compete.[4] In 1995, ECW held an event titled December to Dismember.[5] WWE revived this event as a pay-per-view (PPV) for their ECW brand, and it was scheduled to be held on December 3, 2006, at the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia.[6]

Outside of the weekly

King Booker.[9] The buildup for December to Dismember began in the middle of October, six weeks before the event.[10]

Storylines

ECW World Champion

The

Finlay and Montel Vontavious Porter in a 5-on-5, elimination tag team match, at the Survivor Series pay-per-view.[17] On the final episode of ECW before December to Dismember, Van Dam defeated Sabu. Later in the show, CM Punk faced Test, but both men were counted out in their bout. In the main event, Big Show was disqualified in his match against Lashley as Test and Heyman's Security Force (Doug and Danny Basham) assaulted Lashley.[18]

Johnny Nitro looking out to the crowd

The other main rivalry heading into December to Dismember was between the

promotion, issued a statement via the TNA website stating that they had accepted The Hardy Boyz' open challenge for December to Dismember.[24] However, Voodoo Kin Mafia did not appear at the event, and WWE never acknowledged their challenge. Only two matches were officially announced for the pay-per-view before it aired.[6][25]

Event

Other on-screen personnel[26]
Role: Name:
Commentator
 Joey Styles
Tazz
Interviewer
 Rebecca DiPietro
Ring announcer Justin Roberts
Referees Scott Armstrong
Mike Posey
Mickie Henson
John Cone

Before the event went live on pay-per-view,

dark match, a non-televised match used to generate excitement in the crowd.[27]

Preliminary matches

The first match that aired was the tag team encounter between

Swanton bombed Nitro and made the winning pin.[6][28][29]

Next was Matt Striker versus Balls Mahoney in a "Striker's Rules" match, a match with "no gouging of the eyes, no pulling of the hair, no maneuvers off the top rope and, most importantly, no foul language".[6][30] Mahoney won the match after he performed a spinebuster and pinned Striker for the victory.[6][29]

ECW World Championship
.

After the match between Mahoney and Striker, Sabu was depicted as being injured backstage and unable to compete in the Extreme Elimination Chamber match.[6][31][32] In reality, however, it was rumored that Sabu had animosity surrounding him backstage and was said to be uninterested at television tapings. Rumors evolved stating that WWE viewed Sabu as being "useless" in normal matches and that he could only perform in matches that included "stunts and tables and they don't respect him because of that". This was reportedly part of the reason he had been scripted to be easily defeated by Umaga on an episode of Raw a few weeks earlier.[8][33] WWE chairman Vince McMahon wanted to put Hardcore Holly in Sabu's place, so Bobby Lashley would have more villains to overcome. Paul Heyman was legitimately unhappy with the decision, saying that Sabu's high-flying wrestling would be "the ideal showcase" inside the Extreme Elimination Chamber.[25] The fans inside the James Brown Arena chanted "bullshit" during the segment.[6]

In the second tag-team match of the night,

Forward Russian legsweep on him and gaining the pinfall.[34] After the match, Terkay performed a Muscle Buster on Maritato.[29] During this match, the fans inside the James Brown Arena chanted "TNA, TNA" (a reference to WWE's rival professional wrestling promotion, as well as two of their performers utilizing moves used by TNA wrestlers, Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe, respectively).[6]

A standard match between

chokebomb. EMTs came out to help Dreamer get up, but he ended up getting up on his own and headed backstage.[6][29][35]

The next match of the night was an

legsweep, a variation of a takedown, on Kelly Kelly before covering her for the win.[29] Following the match, Ariel and Thorn attempted to attack Kelly Kelly, before The Sandman interrupted and hit Thorn repeatedly with a kendo stick.[6][36]

Main event match

The Elimination Chamber structure

The main event was the Extreme Elimination Chamber for the ECW World Championship. After a segment earlier in the event showed an injured Sabu was unable to compete in the match, it was decided that Hardcore Holly would take his spot in the match. Before the match began, Paul Heyman announced the rules of the match and explained that each superstar had a weapon with them in each of their pods.

spear to Test to eliminate him. Big Show, was the final man to exit his pod and had a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire in tow. Lashley was able to block Big Show's swing of the barbed wire bat with a folding chair and then threw him into the pod, causing him to bleed. Lashley managed to reverse a chokeslam into a DDT and then delivered a spear to win the match and become the new ECW World Champion.[37][29]

Reception

Critics had a negative reaction to the pay-per-view, with the only match that received praise being the Hardy Boyz versus MNM tag team match.

Slam! Sports rated the pay-per-view 4 out of 10 stars, stating, "the two matches that were promoted saved this thing from being a debacle".[6] In the 2007 Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards, the event was voted the "worst major wrestling show of the year", despite being a 2006 event, with 2006's award going to UFC 61.[40] December to Dismember is also considered to be one of the worst PPVs WWE ever produced. PWInsider's Mike Johnson called it one of the worst PPVs ever.[41]

Less than 24 hours after the

booked to win the ECW World Championship, and instead wanted to have CM Punk win it, a decision McMahon disliked.[25][43] This situation was cited by Punk in his controversial worked-shoot promo in 2011, in which he referred to the idea as one in which "Heyman saw something in Punk that nobody else wanted to admit."[44] Upset at how the event turned out, Tommy Dreamer and Stevie Richards both asked after the event to be released from their contracts. Both requests were refused by McMahon and WWE's Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis.[7]

Aftermath

Not long after December to Dismember, Big Show was offered a long-term contract extension by WWE, reported to be around $1 million a year. He declined the offer, however, reasoning he was burned out and hurting physically.[6][25][45] On the first episode of ECW to air after December to Dismember, Big Show and Bobby Lashley would compete in a rematch for the ECW World Championship. Big Show lost, thus ending their storyline feud,[46] and he announced his retirement from wrestling,[47] although he made his return in 2008 at No Way Out.[48]

After the storyline feud with Big Show ended, Lashley entered a short program with Rob Van Dam, which led to Van Dam earning a title match on the January 2, 2007 episode of ECW. The match between the two ended in a No Contest after Test interfered during the bout.[49] Test's interference led to a storyline with Lashley, leading to a title match at the Royal Rumble, which Lashley won by countout.[50]

This was the only ECW branded pay-per-view WWE produced before the decision was made to discontinue brand-exclusive PPVs following WrestleMania 23 in April 2007, which resulted in WWE reducing the amount of yearly PPVs produced.[51] Before the change, an event for 2007 had been planned.[52]

Results

No.Results
dark match

Elimination Chamber entrances and eliminations

Eliminated Wrestler Entered Eliminated by Weapon Method Time
1 CM Punk 3 Rob Van Dam
Steel chair
Pinfall
 12:35
2 Hardcore Holly 2 Test None
Pinfall
 12:45
3 Rob Van Dam 1 Test None
Pinfall
 14:15
4 Test 4 Bobby Lashley
Crowbar
Pinfall
 19:42
5 Big Show 6 Bobby Lashley Barbed wire baseball bat
Pinfall
 24:42
Winner Bobby Lashley 5 N/A Table

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to December to Dismember (2006).

References

  1. World Wrestling Entertainment. 2007-09-06. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2009-02-25. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  2. ^ Trembow, Ivan (2007-03-01). "UFC PPV revenue tops $200 million in 2006". MMAWeekly.com. MMA Weekly. Archived from the original on 2011-07-14. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
  3. ISBN 978-1-55022-726-0
    .
  4. World Wrestling Entertainment Corporate. 2006-05-25. Archived from the original
    on 2008-12-23. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
  5. ^ "December to Dismember". ProWrestlingHistory.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  6. ^
    Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved 2007-09-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  7. ^ a b Melok, Bobby (2012-12-18). "The true story of the ECW relaunch". WWE. Archived from the original on 2012-12-22. Retrieved 2012-12-29.
  8. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  9. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  10. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2007-11-21. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
  11. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  12. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2007-11-21. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  13. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  14. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  15. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  16. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  17. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2011-11-01. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  18. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  19. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  20. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  21. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  22. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  23. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  24. ^ Martin, Adam (2006-11-30). "TNA posts new footage of 'Voodoo Kin Mafia' at WWE Headquarters in CT". WrestleView.com. Archived from the original on 2008-02-21. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  25. ^
    ISBN 978-1-59670-225-7
    .
  26. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved 2008-08-12.
  27. ^ a b "December to Dismember 2006 results". Online World of Wrestling. Black Pants. Archived from the original on 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  28. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2016-10-10. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  29. ^ a b c d e f g h Martin, Adam (2006-12-04). "December to Dismember PPV Results – 12/3/06 (New ECW Champ...)". WrestleView.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  30. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  31. Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved 2007-10-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  32. ^ Meltzer, Dave (2006-12-03). "ECW December to Dismember match-by-match coverage". Wrestling Observer. Live Audio Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2006-12-08. Retrieved 2007-10-20.
  33. ^ Martin, Adam (2006-12-02). "More on Sabu being in 'hot water' with WWE and Big Show's WWE status". WrestleView.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  34. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. 2006-12-03. Archived
    from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  35. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2016-03-16. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  36. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  37. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2016-10-10. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  38. ^ Anderson, Ken (2006-12-05). "ECW December to Dismember – Reviewed". The Wrestling Blog. Archived from the original on 2006-12-13. Retrieved 2015-12-07. I would stop short of calling it the worst pay-per-view of all time, but it's certainly among the worst. ECW as a brand is dead, and the WWE should definitely take notice that a sizable portion of their ECW fanbase is chanting 'TNA' during a WWE PPV.
  39. ^ Ian (2006-12-30). "The dgnr8 #13 – Best and worst of 2006". TWNPNews.com. Archived from the original on 2007-06-04. Retrieved 2007-10-14. Worst PPV of the year:
    Two shows are on my list for this category, one from November and one from December. Can you guess? Cyber Sunday and the ill-fated December to Dismember.
  40. ISSN 1083-9593
    .
  41. ^ https://www.pwinsider.com/article/174564/what-is-a-texas-chainsaw-massacre-match-worth-worst-ppvs-to-force-on-someone-you-dont-like-omega-at-all-in-and-more.html?p=1 [bare URL]
  42. World Wrestling Entertainment. 2006-12-04. Archived
    from the original on 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  43. ^ Anderson, Anna Elizabeth (2007-10-17). "WWE Continues to Dismantle the ECW Brand". The National Ledger. Archived from the original on 2008-12-20. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  44. Heyman Hustle. 2011-06-28. Archived from the original
    on 2016-04-02. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  45. Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved 2007-10-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  46. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
  47. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2006-12-08. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  48. ^ Difino, Lennie (February 17, 2008). "Showtime in Vegas". WWE. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved February 18, 2008.
  49. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  50. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived
    from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  51. World Wrestling Entertainment Corporate. March 14, 2007. Archived from the original
    on March 19, 2007. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
  52. ^ WWE 2007 Annual Shareholders Meeting. Stamford, Connecticut: WWE Corporate. 2007-05-11. Archived from the original (WVX) on 2008-12-20. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  53. ^ "The History of Extreme Championship Wrestling". Pro Wrestling History. Archived from the original on 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2009-02-15.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=December_to_Dismember_(2006)&oldid=1218740040"