Forget for one second that December to Dismember is the worst pay-per-view in WWE history that wasn't the 1995 King of the Ring, and that it marked the entombing of the ECW brand as anything worth getting remotely excited for. Instead, see it for what it was: the point where WWE realized that split-brand pay-per-views had gone too far. Beginning in 2003, Raw got four exclusive shows, as did Smackdown. A year later, the calendar stretched to fourteen total PPVs, with Raw and Smackdown now each with five, supplementing the time-tested 'big four'. After ECW One Night Stand helped spin off the ECW brand, they too got their own exclusive event, with a roster so thin that it was transparent. After it drew a paltry 90,000 buys, pay-per-views once more featured full squads.
Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.
