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December PPVs

Hey Scott,

I had an interesting take on something. I've been watching a lot of WWE PPVs lately from the month of December, and a lot of it is pretty darn good. I mean, December seems to have the reputation of a filler month PPV, and while there were some stinkers in there like 1998, 2003 and perhaps one of the worst PPVs of all time in 2004, I think it has delivered a handful of quality shows, moments and matches. For example:
95 - Bret/Bulldog
97 - Beginning of Rock/Stone Cold rivalry
99 - McMahon/Helmsley era begins, Jericho's first title win
00 - Six pack Hell in a Cell
01 - Undisputed title match series
02 - HBK/HHH 3 Stages of Hell, Benoit/Guerrero
05 - Taker/Orton Hell in a Cell
06 - Fatal 4 way tag team ladder match
07 - Edge/Batista/Taker, Jericho/Orton, HBK/Kennedy
08 - Edge/HHH/Hardy, Cena/Jericho, Orton/Batista, Mysterio/Punk
09-12 - I feel all 4 of the TLC PPVs have been very entertaining top to bottom cards and have provided a slew of great matches.

In my opinion, it seems like December is a highly underrated month in the pantheon of WWE PPVs. Would love to get your thoughts and some good discussion going on the blog, thanks.


My right hand shift key is working properly again!  Holy fuck that annoying.  Ever try to adjust your typing by only using one side of the keyboard?  What a pain.

Anyway, the December PPV has traditionally been the one I will skip and ignore 99% of the time, and given that it's drawn some of the lowest buyrates in the history of the company, many people agree with me.  In fact they should just scrap it and go right from Survivor Series to Royal Rumble.  This past one was the first December PPV I've actually ordered, not counting Starrcades.  All the other ones I've ranted on right away were either watched at friend's house or done on DVD when it was released soon after.  I think I still have the 2010 show on DVD sitting on my review pile, in fact.  It just tends to be SUCH a forgettable show I don't know why they even bother with it.  Yeah, the last couple have been great but does anyone really remember stuff like the Punk-Del Rio TLC match?  

So in conclusion, fuck my keyboard, it sucks.  

Comments

  1. Umm, wasn't it Punk-Miz-Del Rio?

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  2. You talk about HBK/HHH three stages of hell like it's a good thing.


    Let's be honest. Their Summerslam match and 2003 RAW match were excellent. The rest sucked. Absolutely sucked.

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  3. Punk and Del Rio had a TLC match?

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  4. So true. I felt like they kept trying to force classics that weren't there (outside of SS and RAW 2003 of course).

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  5. I had to look down to notice there was a shift key on the right side too. I only use the left one.

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  6. Miz was in it too.

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  7. I don't think their Royal Rumble 04 match was bad. Not near the level of SS02 or the Raw match. But not all out bad. Way better than that dreadful HIAC.

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  8. I really dont remember it. What was Cena doing?

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  9. That's the show he wasn't on. He won a match to be in the TLC match but he gave it up because(he could always just be given another one later) so Zack Ryder could challenge for the US title at the PPV.

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  10. 2002 was an awful show outside of Benoit/Guerrero (which the crowd was dead as a doornail for). The HHH/HBK 3 Stages of Hell was tremendously boring, and HBK looked woefully out of shape (I think it may be down, but Botchamania 101 covered that match pretty well).

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  11. I fell asleep during that HIAC match like it was an 18-page letter from Rachel Green.

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  12. Oh that I remember, and people wonder why Cena is so beloved...

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  13. The thing that bothered me most was that he helped Ryder beat Mark Henry by hitting Henry with the AA. NO ONE BEATS MARK HENRY!

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  14. Was that the "handcuff" match? The one where Punk had one cuff around his wrist and then held on to the other cuff for half the match? That always bugged me. Why not put the second cuff around the same wrist so it can't be used against you (which I think it was)? Or am I just not remembering it that well...?

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  15. I dunno, for some reason Im drawing a blank on that match. I can recall the Ryder one because of the angle surrounding it.

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  16. That 6 man Hell in the Cell is a forgotten classic.

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  17. I couldn't possibly agree more with this statement. I felt they were trying to hard or something in all there other matches. Summerslam and that Raw main event they just went out and did their thing and both matches kicked ass.

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  18. You're means "You are" YOUR MEANS YOUR!

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  19. Mae Young used to, but that was at his request.

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  20. They managed to have a solid match on Raw back in May of 1996. But otherwise, yeah, there have been some real clunkers.
    And I refer to it as Three Stages of Boredom.

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  21. It may be forgotten, but it was an awesome match.

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  22. The issue isn't match quality, it's just that there's almost never hype going into the events. December is traditionally a cultural lull in American anyway. Most TV shows wrap up their seasons/first half of seasons right around Thanksgiving because afterwards it's all shopping/holiday dominated and ratings are generally bad since people aren't home as often. People are often traveling around Thanksgiving and Christmas too which also helps drive down the ratings.


    I once remember Eric Bischoff commenting that he wasn't a fan of December pay-per-views because it was difficult to build momentum going into the show with the audience focused on so much other stuff. I agree with Scott that they'd be better off to just eliminate the December event and go straight from Survivor Series to the Royal Rumble. Hell, it'd probably help both events, and especially the Rumble, seem far more important.

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  23. That's not the one with Rikishi and the flatbed truck, is it? I remember that being pretty meh at the time.

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  24. Morrison and Sheamus had that really good ladder match for the #1 contendership that they wasted on Raw, which led me to believe that Morrison was winning the Rumble.

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  25. They certainly under promote it and don't properly build for it, although I think that's probably true for more than just their December PPV, although that does appear to be the dead zone.

    I think I've heard that Bischoff quote too, but its funny that when WCW was rolling they drew the or one of the highest buyrates all year in 1996 / 1997 / 1998 Starrcade, so I think it's really more or less a matter of effort than problems with demographics.

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  26. Should rewatch it. Just saw it a few weeks ago again on Attitude Era DVD. Non stop action for like half an hour, awesome match.

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  27. Yeah I haven't seen it since the live showing. The standards for the HITC match and those guys were pretty high for that time and I remember the PPV in general being pretty mediocre and that match certainly not saving it, but out of context I bet it'd be enjoyable.

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  28. I was so sure that Miz/Morrison was going to headline "WM" that year.

    Well, maybe not "headline" exactly, but be one of the title matches, while Cena fought for the opposite title.

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  29. Other than the inclusion of Rikishi, that might very well be the most star studded, legend having match ever. Austin/Rock/HHH/Angle/Undertaker.

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  30. Yeah, I thought Cena/Punk was going to be the other match, as Punk had joined the Nexus at that point. And of course, nobody had any idea that Rock was coming back.

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  31. Hilariously enough, Cole's heel commentary was actually really good that night. Bryan had a match with somebody and Cole was screaming about how Bryan got demolished by Henry in that steel cage match. Then when Ryder has that match against Henry, with Henry coming out with the boot on, Cole is screaming about what an advantage Ryder has because Henry was in the steel cage match with "that submission specialist Bryan".

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  32. At the time I was pissed Benoit wasn't included instead of Rikishi, if that would have been the case we would never see the match again.

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  33. Hindsight says that would have been much better than what we got

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  34. With the exception of Bret/Bulldog and the 6-man HIAC in 2000, none of those matches are classics.



    The only recent December PPV match that has stuck with me is Zach Ryder's big title win over Ziggler....and we know how that turned out.

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  35. I can't believe the emailer forgot to mention WWECW's lone PPV outing in December 2006, which has to be the worst PPV of all-time. And not just because it drew a TNA-level buyrate.

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  36. Clearly WWECW's December to Dismember only further supports the OP's claim.

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  37. I'd never actually seen that match for one reason or another, so it was one of the incentives to buy the Attitude dvd.
    I was highly disappointed, Some intense brawling in places but overall just too long and garbagey; and Rikishi's fall onto the truck just looked ridiculous..

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  38. I guess I'm in the minority, but I liked Armageddon 2003 when Evolution won all the titles. The pic at the end of the show with them holding up all the belts is still one of my favorite wrestling pics ever. http://www.dirtsheets.com/storage/evolution.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1342695772981

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  39. I wrote this for the blog two years ago:

    http://www.rspwfaq.com/2010/12/05/best-december-matches-ever/

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  40. Starrcade was 1st in 1996, 1st in 1997 and 2nd in 1998 (behind the Rodman/Malone Bash at the Beach).

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  41. Actually, I'd argue that this is one of those situations where hindsight suggests that WWE were right - all signs seemed to be pointing towards Cena/Punk at "WM" (which I definitely agreed with at the time), but if that had happened, Punk probably never would have had the chance to do the big "pipebomb" promo and go from upper-card JTTS to legit main-eventer.



    I mean, if he had been elevated before "WM" just so that he could job on the big show, he probably would have just continued to job in rematches at the next two PPVs and then get dropped back down the card. Keeping him from jobbing at "WM" allowed him to keep that "stink" off of him, whereas Miz was basically rocketed right back down the card. It was somewhat obvious as the time, but it's COMPLETELY obvious now that Cena's opponent that year was completely irrelevant, only meant to be a warm body that Rock could help and build heat for the following year's match.

    God I hated "WM27". Terrible PPV, worst "WM" ever, and merely existed as a means to get people to buy the following year's show.

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  42. Except Punk did job at 27...

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  43. Punk and ADR are both good wrestlers that do well in gimmick matches. And Miz only does well in gimmick matches. And TLC matches are almost always good. So yeah, good match.

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  44. In a forgettable mid-card match, though.

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  45. Good point about Miz excelling in gimmick matches. Never really thought about it before, but it makes sense - he obviously "gets" wrestling, in terms of how to draw heat and build a story, so gimmick matches definitely play to his strengths.

    His three-way Cage match at "Extreme Rules" six months earlier (with Cena and Morrison) was one of my favorite matches of the year.

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  46. Well yeah. But he still jobbed.


    WM27 was forgettable as fuck.


    Though I do remember Edge busting out the tope that he used in his first WWE match (which in retrospect is pretty fucking cool). Anybody else think that Edge knew about the injury before the match but wanted to go out there and have his last match be for the World Title anyway?

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  47. Miz can bump and knows when to do his comebacks and when to get heat. He's just...not that good at actually wrestling (in the trading holds and moves meaning of the word).

    I can honestly think of one bad Miz gimmick match (I Quit vs. Cena). That submission match with Bryan and Morrison was really awesome. His MiTB matches were awesome. Uh...his Tables match with Orton was pretty shit, but eh, 2010 face Orton was not setting the world on fire.

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  48. You've got me confused with another reviewer. I've never seen the match in question.

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