A few days ago, we ranked and reviewed the main event of every December WWE PPV during the glorious Attitude Era. In this article, we’ll be doing the same for the Ruthless Aggression Era, which lasted from 2002 to 2008. During that time, Armageddon became WWE’s signature PPV in December, and it was WWE’s final PPV in every calendar year during the Ruthless Aggression Era.
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While Armageddon featured Raw and SmackDown stars in 2002, it became a brand-exclusive event between 2003-06 (presented by the Raw brand in ’03 and by SmackDown in ’04-’06). Armageddon 2007 featured wrestlers from all brands again, as brand-exclusive pay-per-views were no longer a thing. But this list isn’t just about Armageddon, unfortunately.
There was another December WWE PPV that is best left forgotten…
7. Extreme Elimination Chamber Match (ECW December To Dismember 2006)
- Cagematch Rating: 4.52
- Dave Meltzer’s Rating: 2.5 Stars
- Participants: Big Show, Rob Van Dam, CM Punk, Hardcore Holly, Bobby Lashley & Test
And we’re taking it out of the way right now. After the amazing ECW reunion shows that were One Night Stand 2005 and 2006, WWE decided to make ‘The Land of Extreme’ its third brand in the summer of 2006. Unfortunately, the whole thing was a mess right from the beginning (The Zombie, anyone?), but ECW still got its own pay-per-view before the end of the year: December to Dismember.
The show was an absolute disaster on every level outside of a solid opening tag match between The Hardy Boyz and MNM. The main event saw Big Show defend the ECW World Title in arguably the worst Elimination Chamber Match of all time. Fan favorites CM Punk and Rob Van Dam were eliminated first and third, respectively. The crowd completely turned on the action once it came down to Big Show, Bobby Lashley, and the returning Test.
Lashley eliminated both men to win the ECW Championship, but nobody cared. The fans in attendance hated it, as did those who watched at home – not many, since the show had one of the lowest buyrates in WWE history. Paul Heyman even left WWE because of this horrible pay-per-view! There’s no other way to put it: December to Dismember 2006 was a massive flop.
Seriously, what was WWE management thinking with this?
