10 Times WWE Dropped The Ball On CM Punk

3. December To Dismember

CM Punk Triple H
WWE.com

It may be remembered as one of the worst WWE pay-per-views in modern history, but was ECW December to Dismember that bad? MNM and The Hardyz had a pretty great opening tag team match, if memory serves. It all fell apart after that, right? Matt Striker vs. Balls Mahoney, a crowd chanting "TNA," Kelly Kelly and Ariel: December to Dismember was as bad as you remember it.

But all would have been forgiven if Paul Heyman’s original plan for the main event had been followed. The Elimination Chamber match for Big Show’s ECW World Championship was going to be CM Punk’s coming out party, where the Straight Edge Superstar tapped out a variety of superstars on his way to the title. It would have been the making of Punk, the salvation of WWECW, and who knows what else.

It didn’t happen. Punk was the first person eliminated from the match, pinned by Rob Van Dam before Lashley went on to win the whole thing. To show how out of tune WWE was with ECW, the last three in the match were Lashley, Big Show and Test.

December to Dismember was WWE’s chance to unleash CM Punk on the world, creating a new star and breathing new life into its fledgling brand in the process. It was a chance that went begging.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.