To be clear, I'm not hailing the Hardys' clash with MNM as a classic tag team match, nor am I even placing it above most of the bouts on this list in terms of sheer quality. It's a good match - definitely worthy of repeated viewing - but hardly stands as a Match of the Year contender, or anything along those lines. However, it acted as the disarmingly acceptable introduction to one of the most unacceptable WWE PPVs of all time - a show considered by many to be the worst in the company's history. There's no dancing around the fact that December To Dismember is a garbage PPV, from (almost) top to bottom. Jeff, Matt, Johnny and Joey gave us all a false sense of hope by having a great 20-minute match, one which kicked off the show in an upbeat, crowd-popping fashion, and even ended with a surprising victory for the veteran babyfaces. So far, so good. WWE's decision to follow this up with with Balls Mahoney vs. Matt Striker is almost understandable, giving the fans a chance to catch their breath with some harmless filler. They then sent out the tag team of Elijah Burke and Sylvester Terkay to face the Full Blooded Italians, one of those matches where it's hard to know who the crowd are expected to cheer for. Tommy Dreamer vs. Daivari stunk up the joint, and after a mixed tag match featuring Kevin Thorn, Ariel, Mike Knox and Kelly Kelly, the main event simply had to knock it out of the park. It did not. The 'Extreme Elimination Chamber' saw Bobby Lashley defeat Big Show, RVD, Hardcore Holly, CM Punk and Test to a wet fart of a reaction - perhaps the result of WWE's decision to have Van Dam and Punk (the only two superstars over with an audibly furious crowd) eliminated early on. The Hardy Boyz vs. MNM is living proof that even the darkest of clouds have a silver lining - although it wasn't quite good enough to save the show (or, indeed, the ECW brand, which was axed by Vince McMahon in the aftermath of the PPV).
