10 WWE PPVs That Were Doomed From The Start

7. ECW December To Dismember

WWE Crown Jewel
WWE.com

The Extreme Elimination Chamber rightfully comes in for an awful lot of flack on this website, but spare a moan for the rest of this complete piece of sh*t show too.

Vince McMahon had made a bed Paul Heyman resolutely refused to lie in, with a card bookended by pre-planned matches and stuffed with all the filler the C-Brand could muster on their one and only night on pay-per-view. Barely watchable rather than Barely Legal, if the 'Architect Of Extreme' was on an unimaginable high after his actual maiden supercard, he was sunk lower than the butt-swallowed face on Matt Striker's tights after this.

Heyman had looked out of sorts with (and on) the show for weeks as micro-manager McMahon wrestled more and more control away, but a blow-up row following a Vince re-write was - for several years at least - his tipping point.

Escaping WWE to avoid the creative bankruptcy much in the same way as he'd arrived there in 2001 to avoid ECW's financial one, Paul E's tenure ended as controversially as it began. The final joke of all was probably on him too - fans scarpered during the listless main event and it's likely he got stuck in the rest of the heavy traffic trying to leave early.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett