What Could Have Been: WWE ECW December To Dismember & The Extreme Elimination Chamber

The history of professional wrestling is full of moments that went one way and not the other, altering the course of individual careers, promotional runs, or even the entire industry. But what would have happened if some of those moments had gone the other way? This is What Could Have Been.

For the inaugural edition of this column, with WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 officially upon us, the Wrestling Inc. staff looked back almost 20 years to another Elimination Chamber match — this one even more extreme than the others. On December 3, 2006, WWE put on a pay-per-view presented by the newly-established WWE ECW brand called December to Dismember. With major creative disagreements cleaving the locker room, only two matches actually built up or advertised with anything resembling competency, and a main event that saw the brand's popular rising young star eliminated at the very beginning, December to Dismember is remembered today as one of the worst PPVs in WWE history, and for good reason.

The show was such a disaster that Heyman departed the company in its aftermath, leaving the fledgling ECW brand to the unfortunate mercies of Vince McMahon; it limped along for three more years before being put out of its misery in 2010, a fate that could potentially have been avoided with a show that didn't feature matches like Ariel and Kevin Thorn vs. Kelly Kelly and Mike Knox, or Balls Mahoney vs. Matt Striker. Meanwhile, the popular rising young star had suffered the first of many career setbacks in WWE — but it's possible December to Dismember, and everything that came after it, only gave him the fuel he needed to become the version of CM Punk we know in 2025 (and who will also, as it happens, be competing in the Elimination Chamber once again on Saturday night).

What if things had gone differently? Let's find out!

WWECW will forever be a shining example of "What Could Have Been" in professional wrestling history, and December to Dismember is the starting point of where WWE's iteration of ECW went wrong. The ECW reboot was still in its infancy when it produced this notorious pay-per-view, and that didn't bode well for Heyman, who fans already knew and loved as the head of the extreme brand. Behind the scenes, Heyman disagreed with Vince McMahon on almost every aspect of the show, but McMahon blamed the man once known. as Paul E. Dangerously for abysmal attendance and international buy rates of the show. In the end, it was December to Dismember that broken the camel's back, as Heyman was fired, or sent home, or walked out, depending on which version of the story you believe.

If Heyman had stayed on, December to Dismember likely wouldn't have been ECW's one and only chance at a brand-exclusive pay-per-view. More likely, it would be remembered as a minor growing pain during the transition to a WWE-owned ECW. While the "extreme" product may never have returned to its extra-violent heyday of the 1990s, it certainly would have a better shot of surviving (at least more than the four years it did) under Heyman's careful eye. More ECW originals, who fans wanted to see on the revamped brand, would likely have had much more air time compared to the home-grown stars of WWE, like Bobby Lashley, who McMahon wanted to push.

Though it certainly can't be said that WWECW would have survived to 2025, it's interesting to think about what its legacy could have been today had it gotten even a few more years under Heyman. It seems probable that it would have been remembered more fondly by WWE fans, rather than the joke and cautionary tale it is today.

Written by Daisy Ruth

CM Punk has become a household name to professional wrestling fans across the globe with the trajectory that his career has taken — but would that still be the case if he had won the Extreme Elimination Chamber match? Would he have still gone on to cut his infamous 2011 "pipebomb" promo, left WWE in 2014 after a myriad of frustrations and the professional wrestling business altogether shortly after, rejoined it as a member of the AEW roster, had a plethora of controversies in the company, been fired, and return to WWE a bigger star than ever before?

All it took was one listen to the reaction that the fans gave to Punk at December to Dismember, and it instantly became clear that he was incredibly over, especially given that he was new to the main roster and just a little over a year into his WWE career. Fans wanted to see a fresh face like Punk win the ECW title, and then-ECW booker Paul Heyman wanted him to win the Extreme Elimination Chamber. However, Heyman was overruled by the McMahons, and Bobby Lashley emerged victorious and become the new ECW Champion. It was a truly baffling decision — as was the spiteful add-on of Punk being the first one eliminated from the match instead — but one that may have been crucial to shaping the wrestler Punk later became. Would the chip on his shoulder have grown so big, the bad blood gotten so thick, that Punk was willing to walk out of WWE for a decade? If not for the disrespect shown to Punk by WWE at December to Dismember, would he have been so motivated to rub his success in Vince McMahon's face?

Granted, there could have been positive ripple effects from Punk winning the Extreme Elimination Chamber Match, including the event itself not being viewed as a historic catastrophe. The reboot of ECW would surely have played out differently with Punk at the helm, drawing in new viewers and demographics under Heyman's continued stewardship. There's a chance that if things had not played out as they did, the reboot of ECW may have lasted more than a few short years. But would anyone risk losing the edge that made "The Voice of the Voiceless" truly special in exchange for a few more years of WWECW — even one led by Punk and Heyman?

Written by Olivia Quinlan