The Year in PPV- 2006, Part IV

It's time to wrap up the year 2006, featuring arguably the worst PPV in WWE history...


13. Cyber Sunday

What you see is what you get with these fan participation events. Some of these matches are good, but there is some filler attached. Of the meaningful matches we have an Intercontinental Championship with Jeff Hardy defending against either Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, or Johnny Nitro. Fans were going to be guaranteed something fun here. We had a World Tag Team Championship match that saw the Spirit Squad defend against Ric Flair and either Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, or Sgt. Slaughter. Fans were guaranteed something nostalgic. The Women's Championship was on the line between Lita and Mickie James in either a lumberjill match, a no disqualification match, or a submission match. Either way, it didn't really matter. The main event saw a triple threat match to crown the Champion of Champions. The World Heavyweight Champion (King Booker), the WWE Champion (John Cena), and the ECW Champion (Big Show) fought in a match where the fans voted on which title was also on the line in the match. The triple match was ok, but this match is memorable for its HEAVILY dated ending involving celebrity interference.

The match that really impressed me was a tag team match that had D-Generation X take on the newly formed alliance of Edge and Randy Orton (also known as Rated-RKO). The fans got to choose who the special referee would be (Eric Bischoff, Mr. McMahon, or Jonathan Coachman). No matter who was chosen, it was going to be an uphill climb for DX, but Triple H and Shawn Michaels are the two superstars up for a challenge like that. This match had some great humor, but also spent a lot of the time taking things seriously to build an epic rivalry between two blockbuster tag teams.

Mild Recommendation


14. Survivor Series

I don't think there is a better example of how to tarnish a legendary PPV like Survivor Series 2006. Let's first talk about how they botched the traditional elimination tag team matches. Team Legends (Ric Flair, Ron Simmons, Dusty Rhodes, and Sgt. Slaughter) took on the Spirit Squad (Kenny, Nicky, Johnny, and Mikey), Team DX (D-Generation X, the Hardy Boyz, and CM Punk) looked to defeat Team Rated-RKO (Rated-RKO, Johnny Nitro, Gregory Helms, and Mike Knox), and Team Cena (John Cena, Kane, Rob Van Dam, Sabu, and Bobby Lashley) fought Team Big Show (Big Show, MVP, Finlay, Test, and Umaga). Each of these matches really underwhelmed in its pacing. Everything was rushed, which made each of these matches feel like unimportant filler. Even worse was that these matches should be the selling point of the PPV, but instead derailed any constant momentum for the show.

Then we have the other matches on the night. The United States Championship match saw Chris Benoit and Chavo Guerrero have a feud similar to Chavo's feud with Rey Mysterio. Yes, the match is fine, but the booking of the rivalry is uncomfortable. Speaking of bad booking, Lita had her last match in the WWE by defending the Women's Championship against Mickie James. However, she does not go out with the same magical moment that Trish Stratus had at Unforgiven. I'm all about booking and having a moment fit the character, but this was tasteless. Then Mr. Kennedy had a First Blood match against the Undertaker. This match was pretty solid, and is the only match I don't have complaints about. But then, we have the main event with King Booker defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista. This was Batista's last chance to win the title, and if Booker got disqualified or counted out, he would lose the title. You can only guess how this match went. The crowd wasn't really feeling this match or feud, and neither was I. I couldn't wait for this match and this show to be over.

Skip It


15. December to Dismember

This show is a complete disaster, and is usually referred to as the WORST PPV in WWE history, and quite possibly of all-time. Which is a really big shame, since it opened with a really good tag team match with MNM and the Hardy Boyz. After that though, it's two hours of absolute garbage. The fans made the show entertaining, but only because of how pissed off they were. There were actual chants for TNA. Yeah...the show was THAT BAD!

Most of the pointed fingers of how bad the WWE's re-birth of ECW are in the booking decisions, and the main event for this show PERFECTLY demonstrated it. Big Show defended the ECW Championship in an Extreme Elimination Chamber match against Rob Van Dam, Bobby Lashley, Test, CM Punk, and Hardcore Holly (who was filling in for the injured Sabu). The first mark against it was having Sabu injured in a storyline and replacing him with Hardcore Holly (who the fans had NO interest in). Then, having Big Show, Test, and Holly teaming up to take out fan favorites in Van Dam and Punk (Punk was on FIRE with the ECW crowd, they really screwed the pooch on this one). Finally, having Lashley, ECW's version of John Cena and Batista (cause you know how much the ECW fans loved those guys), represent the underdog by defying authority to try and win the ECW Championship. This really tarnished any idea of the ECW Championship and felt very much like a WWE match. And when you're an ECW PPV, that's when you know you're doing it WRONG!!!! Avoid this show at all costs!

Skip It


16. Armageddon

Who knew the SmackDown December filler PPV had SO MUCH QUALITY!?!?! The show featured an Inferno match (Kane vs. MVP), a Naughty or Nice lingerie contest for the divas, a Last Ride match (Undertaker vs. Mr. Kennedy), a United States Championship match (Chris Benoit vs. Chavo Guerrero), a Cruiserweight Championship match (Gregory Helms vs. Jimmy Wang Yang), and even a squash match (The Miz vs. The Boogeyman) to provide some great entertainment for the crowd in Richmond, Virginia. The main event even saw a first for the WWE as the World Heavyweight Champion (Batista) and the WWE Champion (John Cena) teamed up to fight King Booker and Finlay.

The best match on the night however, was the WWE Tag Team Championship match. Originally a standard tag match with Brian Kendrick and Paul London defending against William Regal and Dave Taylor, the match was changed when General Manager Teddy Long came out to make it a ladder match. Then, he added two more teams to the fray: MNM and the Hardy Boyz. These 8 athletes busted their butts to put on a great ladder match. This match is famous for an absolutely gruesome spot that legitimately busted open Joey Mercury's face. From that though, we had some great stories told. We had the defending champions in London and Kendrick, Regal and Taylor being the dark horses and relying more on wrestling than the use of ladders, the Hardy Boyz being the decorated fan favorites who hadn't held tag team titles in 5 years, and Johnny Nitro fighting off three teams by himself. It's one of my absolute favorite modern ladder matches, and one of my favorite matches of the year.

Highly Recommended


Final Thoughts: I'm really glad Armageddon was a great show, but it had to follow 2 really CRAPPY shows. The momentum couldn't have been worse for the year 2006, which is really unfortunate. Had the WWE produced shows like Armageddon constantly throughout the years with the roster of talent it had, it could have been one of the best years ever. But thanks to bad booking decisions, it could easily go down as the lowest point of the Ruthless Aggression Era. On a bit of hindsight, it was shortly after this point that I became a fan of wrestling, with 2007 being not only my first year as a fan, but in my opinion, a pretty solid and momentous year for the company, so I'm glad the stars aligned the way they did. Had I become a fan in 2006, I don't think I'd be watching wrestling to this day or doing this blog. Food for thought.


All rights and images are copyrighted and owned by World Wrestling Entertainment