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10 Best WWE ECW Matches

Extremely slim pickings...

Today is December 3, 2021 which means it has been exactly fifteen years since WWE presented the disastrous ECW December to Dismember pay-per-view. 

One of the worst pay-per-views in WWE history, December to Dismember was a critical and commercial flop (90,000 buys). 

With only two matches advertised beforehand, it was no wonder that nobody was interested in purchasing it. But still, even with a threadbare lineup and rotten promotion on television, the event still managed to massively underdeliver. 

So bad was the show that it sped up the exit of original ECW head honcho Paul Heyman and convinced Stevie Richards and Tommy Dreamer to request their releases (both denied). 

Still, as bad as the show was overall, it wasn't completely worthless and, in fact, the two advertised matches - the MNM versus Hardys tag match and ECW Title Extreme Elimination Chamber match - were fairly decent. 

Rather than lament what was the beginning of the end of the third brand, let's instead take this opportunity to celebrate some of the better in-ring offerings from WWECW. 

For clarity's sake, the time period discussed is from when ECW relaunched via it's own show on Sci-Fi, so the first two One Night Stand pay-per-views (nor the WWE versus ECW head-to-head special) aren't considered. 

10. Big Show Vs. Rob Van Dam - Ladder Match (October 24, 2006)

Rob van dam big show ecw 2006

WWE.com

The week before this match took place, Rob Van Dam beat Big Show in a non-title match to earn a shot at the ECW Title. 

To stack the deck against RVD further, Paul Heyman declared that in order to get the match he'd have to beat Big Show again, this time in a Ladder Match. 

This was the first one for the World's Largest Athlete, while The Whole F'N Show had made them one of his specialties, so he had the advantage. In theory, anyway. I mean, Big Show is seven feet tall, so he'd probably only have to get on the third rung to win. 

Ladder matches were well played-out at this point (WWE presented numerous televised ones in the last few months of '06), but Show and Van Dam did their best with the stipulations. 

It was more about the story being told, as opposed to just being a bunch of crazy spots and bumps. Big Show slowed RVD down to begin with and managed to avoid the ladders - and even tried to use one as a giant stick to known the contract down with - before Van Dam came back into it, which resulted in Show being busted open. 

RVD took more of a beating while trying and failing to get back into things, but eventually managed to send Show sailing over the top rope with a hurricanrana, allowing him to climb up and retrieve the contract. 

This is short at a shade under ten minutes, but it was an exciting and unpredictable TV main event. 

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Lewis Howse

Written by Lewis Howse

Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.