December to Dismember (2006)
The 2006 December to Dismember was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held primarily for wrestlers from the promotion's ECW brand division and was WWE's only non-One Night Stand PPV to be ECW-exclusive. The event took place on December 3, 2006, at the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia. Despite it being an ECW-branded pay-per-view, some wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brands also worked the show. It was the second and final event in the December to Dismember chronology, after the original 1995 event that was held by the former Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion; WWE acquired the assets of ECW in 2003 and launched their own ECW brand in May 2006.
| December to Dismember | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Promotional poster featuring The Sandman, parodying the movie Silent Night, Deadly Night | |||
| Promotion | World Wrestling Entertainment | ||
| Brand(s) | ECW | ||
| Date | December 3, 2006 | ||
| City | Augusta, Georgia | ||
| Venue | James Brown Arena | ||
| Attendance | 4,800 | ||
| Buy rate | 90,000 | ||
| Tagline(s) | You better watch out... | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| December to Dismember chronology | |||
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The main attraction on the event card was an Extreme Elimination Chamber match for the ECW World Championship. It featured wrestlers fighting in a ring surrounded by a steel structure of chain and girders. The six participants were defending champion Big Show, Bobby Lashley, Rob Van Dam, Hardcore Holly, CM Punk, and Test. Lashley won the match and the ECW World Championship after pinning Big Show following a spear. With his win, Lashley became the first African-American to hold the ECW World Championship. The featured bout on the undercard was a tag team bout between The Hardys (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy) and MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro), in which The Hardys were victorious.
The event had an attendance of 4,800 and received about 90,000 pay-per-view buys, with 55,000 of them domestic buys—the lowest buyrate in WWE history until the introduction of the WWE Network in 2014. Critical reception was also very poor, with many regarding it as one of the worst PPVs ever produced by the company. Although it was scheduled to be held again in 2007, the show was canceled after WWE discontinued brand-exclusive PPVs following WrestleMania 23 in April 2007.
As a consequence Paul Heyman left the WWE until mid 2012. There have been conflicting narratives over the years as to whether Heyman was fired or quit.