With WWE’s newest PPV ‘Stomping Grounds’ taking place this Sunday, every wrestling fan was reminded once again that often times; wrestling promoters often call their shows really bad things.
Let’s have a look at five of the worst Pay-per-view names of all time. This list is in no particular order either
1. WWE Great Balls of Fire – 2017
When it was announced in 2017 that WWE would be hosting a show named ‘Great Balls of Fire’, the wrestling world lost their minds. Taken from the iconic song by Jerry Lee Lewis, everyone expected the show to be terrible. Now, in reality, the show actually delivered above pretty much everyone’s expectations but…Great Balls of Fire. It doesn’t sound cool. It doesn’t sound threatening. It was always hilarious whenever you heard someone like Samoa Joe scream to Brock Lesnar; ‘I’ll see you…AT GREAT BALLS OF FIRE’. Laughable…at least they got the rights to the song though.
2. WCW Hog Wild – 1996
Hog. Wild. This is the most WCW thing I have ever heard. About to hit a company peak- this show has been synonymous with everything wrong with WCW. First of all, anyone with a motorbike got into the show for free. Great start. This PPV however, is famous as, due to the events at Bash at the Beach the month prior, it was the first time Hulk Hogan wrestled on PPV as an NWO member. He defeated The Giant (Big Show) to win the World Heavyweight Championship and sprayed the belt with the New World Order symbol. It must be gutting to win the title for the first time in your cool new stable at a show that sounds more like a BBQ rather than a wrestling event.
3. WWE Capitol Punishment – 2011
This is just stupid. First of all, it’s never a good thing to market a PG product to children and name your wrestling event after the death penalty. Well done Vince. Secondly, this show’s name caused WWE to release a statement stating that Barack Obama had no link to the show due to the strange emphasis that was placed upon him in the run-up to the event. But then someone impersonating the 44th President appeared anyway. It was an event that was never mentioned again- especially when R-Truth vs John Cena for the WWE Championship was reviewed incredibly negatively; and the PPV has never really been mentioned since. Good thing as well.
4. WWE Fatal Four-Way – 2010
I, personally, don’t like it when shows are named after match types, with the exception of the Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank. But stuff like ‘Hell in a Cell’, ‘Extreme Rules’ and ‘Tables, Ladders and Chairs’ always annoys me as it means that, for the remainder of the year, we basically never get to see these types of matches. The worst offender of this however, is WWE’s 2010 attempt at introducing another new show. ‘Fatal Four-Way’ was just awful because, as you would assume, the stipulation was needlessly placed into matches that didn’t need it AND, perhaps even worse, less than half of the matches were actually competed in under fatal four-way rules. Just stupid and it’s no surprise this is another show that was never seen again.
5. ECW December to Dismember – 2006
Known as one of the worst PPV’s of all time, one of the leading factors that WWE’s version of ECW died and a show that consisted of, almost, the worst Elimination Chamber match (looking at you Intercontinental Championship Match in 2015); this didn’t even have a cool name to fall back on. Thankfully the show was actually IN December so they at least got that right but not much else. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. I get it, ECW is the alternative and more violent but why are you incorporating Christmas into that? In what world does that make it edgy or cool? A terrible name for an absolutely terrible show.
If you liked this article, please check out more of our stuff on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
You can find me on Twitter @McIverTheMark. Thanks for reading.