1. ECW December To Dismember - 90k worldwide, 52k domestic
Top Matches: Show vs. Test vs. Sabu vs. Van Dam vs. Lashley vs. Holly (chamber)Good match: John Morrison & The Miz vs Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy
Okay match: Elimination Chamber Title
Lame Match: Matt Striker vs. Balls Mahoney, Elijah Burke/Sylvester Terkay vs. Little Guido/Tony Mamaluke, Daivari vs. Tommy Dreamer, Mike Knox/Kelly Kelly vs. Kevin Thorn/Ariel What to say about such a reviled event? In so many ways, this event set the failure bar for a WWE produced PPV. It won the Wrestling Observer Award for "Worst Major Wrestling Show". It came just
one week after a WWE PPV (Survivor Series 2006, 234k domestic buys, 383k worldwide buys). There was another WWE PPV two weeks later (Armageddon 2006, 139k domestic buys, 239k worldwide buys). It killed any hopes of launching ECW as a standalone PPV brand. (ECW as a separate brand had already bombed out in Q3 2006 with 27 events that drew quite poorly.) It was so poorly received that Paul Heyman was demoted off WWE television. It destroyed the sterling reputation of the Elimination Chamber as being a drawing stipulation. It was bad. The Elimination Chamber had been a strong gimmick: Survivor Series 2002 (340k worldwide buys), SummerSlam 2003 (465k worldwide buys), New Year's Revolution 2005 (262k worldwide buys), New Year's Revolution (345k worldwide buys). It meant something, but clearly not in these circumstances. There was only two matches announced ahead of time Of those two matches only one actually had ECW Talent (the Extreme Elimination Chamber with Lashley/Punk/RVD/Holly/Show/Test) while the other was composed of Raw (Jeff Hardy, Johnny Nitro) and Smackdown (Matt Hardy, Joey Mercury) talent. In a baffling development, there was one other place where the full card was advertised - the T-Shirt at the PPV. Only a few thousand people showed up and the 8,000 seat James Brown arena was far from sold-out. The event ran short (2 hours 17 minutes) and cost nearly $40 (there had been a $5 price increase in June 2006). Immediately after the show, McMahon knew it was a dud. His disagreements with Paul Heyman reached their boiling point and Paul was removed from the ECW Creative Team and "sent home" . Going into the show, ECW Heavyweight Champion Big Show was hurting and mentally burnt out. He had one final match (a rematch with Bobby Lashley on ECW TV) and then left the WWE for over a year. ECW D2D was also the one of the last in-ring performances from several other performers including Ariel (who joined Kevin Thorn in the New Breed and was released in May 2007), Sylvester Terkay & Tony Mamaluke (both released by WWE in January 2007) and Rene Dupree (who left the WWE in July 2007 following his March 2007 wellness violations).
ECW DECEMBER TO DISMEMBER 2006 FINAL VERDICT: It must be seen to be believed.