SmackDown (WWE brand)
| File:WWE SmackDown Live 2016 logo.png Logo for the brand and the SmackDown television program | |
| Product type | Professional wrestling Sports entertainment |
|---|---|
| Owner | WWE |
| Introduced | March 25, 2002 (first split) July 19, 2016 (second split) |
| Discontinued | August 29, 2011 (first split) |
| Related brands | Raw ECW NXT |
| Commissioner: Shane McMahon (July 19, 2016 – present) | |
| General Manager: Daniel Bryan (July 19, 2016 – present) | |
SmackDown is one of WWE's brands which was first established on March 25, 2002 with a draft on Raw and went into effect one week later on April 1. The brand was discontinued in August 2011, but was brought back in July 2016. Wrestlers assigned to the SmackDown brand wrestle predominantly on the SmackDown Live television program as well as SmackDown branded and co-branded pay-per-view events and WWE Network events. During the first brand split, they also competed on Velocity and ECW under a talent exchange.
Brand extension
First split (2002–2011)
In March 2002, then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) underwent the "brand extension",[1] a process in which WWE divided itself into two branches with separate rosters, storylines and authority figures.[1] The two divisions, hosted by and named after Raw and SmackDown!, would compete against each other. The split resulted from WWE purchasing its two biggest competitors, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW); and the subsequent doubling of its roster and championships. The brand extension was made public during a telecast of Raw on March 18, initiated with the first draft a week later on the March 25 episode of Raw and became official on the April 1 episode of Raw.
Wrestlers began to wrestle exclusively for their specific show. At the time, this excluded the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship as those WWE titles would be defended on both shows.[1] In August 2002, then WWE Undisputed Champion, Brock Lesnar, refused to defend the title on Raw, in effect causing his title to become exclusive to SmackDown.[1] The following week on Raw, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded a newly instated World Heavyweight Championship to Raw's designated number one contender Triple H. Accordingly, Lesnar's championship was no longer deemed "undisputed". Following this, the WWE Women's Championship soon became a Raw exclusive as well. As a result of the brand extension, an annual "draft lottery" was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.
SmackDown was the home brand for many top WWE stars including Big Show, Eddie Guerrero, John Bradshaw Layfield, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, Rey Mysterio and Divas Torrie Wilson. Guerrero would go on to become the WWE Champion as part of the show, thus becoming the main feature of SmackDown! throughout 2004 and the most popular wrestler of that year. The biggest star of the next decade, John Cena, started his WWE career on this brand and rose to stardom as "Doctor of Thuganomics" on the show, eventually winning his first WWE Championship during his tenure on the brand.
On June 6, then WWE Champion John Cena switched brands from SmackDown to Raw as part of the month-long 2005 draft lottery. This effectively left SmackDown without a world title. On the June 23 episode of SmackDown!, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long scheduled a six-man elimination match between Big Show, Booker T, Chris Benoit, Christian (replacing Big Show, who was picked by Raw in the lottery), John Bradshaw Layfield, Muhammad Hassan and The Undertaker to crown the first SmackDown Champion. On the June 30 episode of SmackDown!, Layfield won the match, but Long appeared afterward and stated that even though he had won the match SmackDown did not need a championship anymore, instead revealing that Layfield was the number one contender for the World Heavyweight championship, at which point Batista, then World Heavyweight Champion, entered the ring as SmackDown's final draft lottery pick.
At the SmackDown! taping on January 10, 2006 that aired January 13, Batista had to forfeit the World Heavyweight Championship because of a legitimate legit triceps injury suffered at the hands of Mark Henry the previous week. Long decreed a battle royal for the vacant title, which was won by Kurt Angle, who was on the Raw brand, but switched to the SmackDown brand for the duration of his reign as champion. On the April 7 episode of SmackDown! (which was taped on April 4), Long revived the King of the Ring tournament after a four-year hiatus as a SmackDown exclusive tournament. The tournament ended at Judgment Day with Booker T as the winner, defeating Bobby Lashley in the final.
On October 16, 2007, the SmackDown and ECW brands began a talent exchange, allowing their respective talent to appear and compete on either brand, as ECW was broadcast live from the same arena where SmackDown! was taped.[2][3]
During the 2008 WWE draft, WWE Champion Triple H was drafted to SmackDown, resulting in two world championships appearing on the brand – Edge was the World Heavyweight Champion at the time – and leaving Raw without a world title. However, Edge was attacked by Batista on the June 30 episode of Raw and immediately afterwards CM Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to become World Heavyweight Champion, bringing the World Heavyweight Championship back to Raw for the first time since 2005. Also that year, for the first time in the brand's history a women's exclusive championship was introduced, the Divas Championship, a counterpart to the Women's Championship that had been the only active championship competed for by Divas, but which was exclusive to Raw, meaning that the Divas on SmackDown had no championship to compete for. Michelle McCool became the inaugural champion by defeating Natalya on July 20 at The Great American Bash.
On February 15, 2009 at No Way Out, Edge won the World Heavyweight Championship in Raw's Elimination Chamber match, thus making it a SmackDown exclusive title and giving SmackDown two top tier championships.[4] As a result of the 2009 WWE draft in April, then WWE Champion Triple H was drafted to Raw while the World Heavyweight Championship also moved to the Raw brand after Edge lost the title to Cena at WrestleMania XXV, once again leaving SmackDown without a world title.[5] SmackDown regained the World Heavyweight Championship at Backlash when Edge invoked his WrestleMania rematch clause and defeated Cena to win the championship back.[6] In addition, Raw and SmackDown exchanged both women-exclusive championships with Raw gaining the Divas Championship and SmackDown gaining the Women's Championship. This marked the first time in history that the Women's Championship had ever been exclusive to SmackDown. Raw and SmackDown also exchanged the United States Championship (which became exclusive to Raw) and the Intercontinental Championship (subsequently exclusive to SmackDown) for the first time since August 25, 2002.[5]
On the August 29, 2011 episode of Raw, it was announced that performers from Raw and SmackDown were no longer exclusive to their respective brand.[7] Subsequentely, championships previously exclusive to one show or the other were available for wrestlers from any show to compete for—this would mark the end of the brand extension as all programming and live events featured the full WWE roster.[8] In a 2013 interview with Advertising Age, Stephanie McMahon explained that WWE's decision to end the brand extension was due to wanting their content to flow across television and online platforms.[9]
Second split (2016–present)
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On May 25, 2016, it was revealed that the brand split would return in July.[10] The 2016 WWE draft took place on the live premiere episode of SmackDown Live on July 19 to determine the rosters between both brands.[11] On the July 11 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon named Shane McMahon the commissioner of SmackDown Live.[12] Then next week on Raw, Daniel Bryan was revealed as the new SmackDown General Manager.[13] Due to Raw being a three-hour show and SmackDown Live being a two-hour show, Raw received three picks each round and SmackDown received two.[13] WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was SmackDown's first pick.[14]
It was later revealed that Backlash, Elimination Chamber and No Mercy would return as SmackDown-exclusive pay-per-views.
On the November 7, 2017 episode of SmackDown Live, AJ Styles defeat Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship, marking the first time that the WWE Championship changed handouts outside of North America.[15]
Champions
Initially, the Undisputed WWE Championship and the original WWE Women's Championship were available to both brands.[16][17][18] The other championships were exclusive to the brand the champion was a part of.[16][17][18] When the brand extension began, SmackDown became the exclusive home for the World Tag Team Championship and the original Cruiserweight Championship.[19]
In September 2002, the Undisputed Championship became the WWE Championship again and was moved to SmackDown, prompting Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff to create the World Heavyweight Championship for Raw.[20] SmackDown created the WWE Tag Team Championship and they revived the United States Championship.[21][22] Over the course of the first brand extension, these championships switched between brands, usually due to the result of the annual draft. However, the Cruiserweight title was the only championship to never switch brands, staying on SmackDown from 2002 until the championship's retirement on September 28, 2007.
In October 2007, SmackDown and ECW began a talent exchange agreement, which meant that SmackDown talent could appear on ECW and vice versa. This allowed the United States Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship to be shared between the two brands.[23] In July 2008, the Divas Championship was created for SmackDown, allowing the SmackDown Divas to compete for a title.[24]
With the brand extension ending in 2011, all Raw and SmackDown titles were merged. After five years, a new brand extension was introduced on July 19, 2016. SmackDown drafted the WWE Champion and the Intercontinental Champion. As SmackDown was lacking a tag team championship and a women's championships, Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan introduced the SmackDown Tag Team Championship and SmackDown Women's Championship.[25] In the 2017 Superstar Shake-Up, the Intercontinental Championship was moved to Raw and in exchange, the United States Championship moved back to SmackDown.
Current championships
| SmackDown | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Championship | Current champion(s) | Reign | Date won | Days held | Location | Notes |
| WWE Championship | AJ Styles | 2 | November 7, 2017 | 2366 | Manchester, England | Defeated Jinder Mahal on SmackDown |
| WWE United States Championship | Vacant | — | — | — | — | Previous champion Dolph Ziggler vacated the title on SmackDown Next champion will be determined in a tournament final match at the Royal Rumble |
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship | Charlotte Flair | 1 | November 14, 2017 | 2359 | Charlotte, North Carolina | Defeated Natalya on SmackDown |
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship | The Usos | 3 | October 8, 2017 | 2396 | Detroit, Michigan | Defeated The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) in a Hell in a Cell match at Hell in a Cell |
Previous championships
| Championship | Start on brand | First champion(s) on brand | Final champion(s) on brand | End on brand | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Heavyweight Championship | June 30, 2005 February 15, 2009 April 26, 2009 |
Batista Edge Edge |
Edge Edge Randy Orton |
June 30, 2008 April 5, 2009 August 29, 2011 |
|
| ECW Championship | January 22, 2008 | Chavo Guerrero | Chavo Guerrero | March 30, 2008 | The title returned to the ECW brand when ECW roster member Kane won the title at WrestleMania XXIV. |
| WWE Divas Championship | July 20, 2008 | Michelle McCool | Maryse | April 13, 2009 | The title moved to the Raw brand when then-champion Maryse was drafted to Raw. |
| WWE Women's Championship | April 13, 2009 | Melina | Layla | September 19, 2010 | The title was unified with the WWE Divas Championship, creating the "Unified WWE Divas Championship" which was defended on both the Raw and SmackDown brands. |
| WWE Intercontinental Championship | July 30, 2002 April 13, 2009 July 19, 2016 |
Chris Benoit Rey Mysterio The Miz |
Chris Benoit Cody Rhodes Dean Ambrose |
August 25, 2002 August 29, 2011 April 10, 2017 |
|
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship | March 25, 2002 | Tajiri | Hornswoggle | September 28, 2007 | General Manager Vickie Guerrero, citing that Hornswoggle's status as Mr. McMahon's son and his diminutive stature would eventually jeopardize his well-being. The title was then retired without an official announcement. |
| WWE Tag Team Championship | October 20, 2002 | Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit | The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) |
April 5, 2009 | The title was unified by The Colóns at WrestleMania XXV with the World Tag Team Championship to create the "Unified WWE Tag Team Championship" which would be defended on all brands. |
Personnel
Pay-per-view events
First brand split events
| Date | Event | Venue | Location | Main event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 26, 2002 | Rebellion | Manchester Arena | Manchester, England | Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman vs. Edge |
| July 27, 2003 | Vengeance | Pepsi Center | Denver, Colorado | Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show vs. Kurt Angle |
| October 19, 2003 | No Mercy | 1st Mariner Arena | Baltimore, Maryland | Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker |
| February 15, 2004 | No Way Out | Cow Palace | Daly City, California | Brock Lesnar vs. Eddie Guerrero |
| May 16, 2004 | Judgment Day | Staples Center | Los Angeles, California | Eddie Guerrero vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield |
| June 27, 2004 | The Great American Bash | Norfolk Scope | Norfolk, Virginia | The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) vs. The Undertaker |
| October 3, 2004 | No Mercy | Continental Airlines Arena | East Rutherford, New Jersey | John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. The Undertaker |
| December 12, 2004 | Armageddon | Gwinnett Arena | Duluth, Georgia | John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. Booker T vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. The Undertaker |
| February 20, 2005 | No Way Out | Mellon Arena | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. Big Show |
| May 22, 2005 | Judgment Day | Target Center | Minneapolis, Minnesota | John Cena vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield |
| July 24, 2005 | The Great American Bash | HSBC Arena | Buffalo, New York | Batista vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield |
| October 9, 2005 | No Mercy | Toyota Center | Houston, Texas | Batista vs. Eddie Guerrero |
| December 18, 2005 | Armageddon | Dunkin' Donuts Center | Providence, Rhode Island | Randy Orton vs. The Undertaker |
| February 19, 2006 | No Way Out | 1st Mariner Arena | Baltimore, Maryland | Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker |
| May 21, 2006 | Judgment Day | US Airways Center | Phoenix, Arizona | Rey Mysterio vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield |
| July 23, 2006 | The Great American Bash | Conseco Fieldhouse | Indianapolis, Indiana | Rey Mysterio vs. King Booker |
| October 8, 2006 | No Mercy | RBC Center | Raleigh, North Carolina | King Booker vs. Batista vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Finlay |
| December 17, 2006 | Armageddon | Richmond Coliseum | Richmond, Virginia | Batista and John Cena vs. King Booker and Finlay |
| February 18, 2007 | No Way Out | Staples Center | Los Angeles, California | Batista and The Undertaker vs. John Cena and Shawn Michaels |
Second brand split events
References
- ^ a b c d Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE: History of WrestleMania. p. 57.
- ^ "Partnership Forming?". World Wrestling Entertainment. October 16, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
- ^ "Setting the night on fire". ECW results. World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
- ^ Tello, Craig. "Elimination chamber result at no way out". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved February 17, 2009.
- ^ a b Sitterson, Aubrey (April 13, 2009). "Rough Draft (Televised draft results)". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
- ^ "Results:Fueled by hatred and desperation". World Wrestling Entertainment. April 26, 2009. Retrieved April 26, 2009.
- ^ Nemer, Paul (August 30, 2011). "Raw Results – 8/29/11". Wrestleview. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ^ Tom Herrera (January 11, 2014). "The 10 most important moments in Raw history". WWE.com. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
- ^ "WWE NEWS: Stephanie McMahon says why brand split is gone". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
- ^ Steinberg, Brian (May 25, 2016). "WWE's 'Smackdown' Will Move To Live Broadcast On USA (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
- ^ "WWE's destiny to be determined during SmackDown's Live premiere". WWE. June 20, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
- ^ Caldwell, James. "7/11 WWE Raw Results – CALDWELL'S Complete Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
- ^ a b Caldwell, James (July 18, 2016). "7/18 WWE Raw Results – CALDWELL'S Complete Live TV Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
- ^ "2016 WWE Draft results: WWE officially ushers in New Era". WWE. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- ^ "Breaking News: Aj Styles is now WWE Heavyweight Champion!". TSJSports.com | Breaking Sports News and Analysis | @TSJ_Sports. November 9, 2017. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
- ^ a b Zimmerman, Christopher Robin (March 26, 2002). "WWE Draft 2002 Recap". Retrieved February 23, 2008.
- ^ a b "WWE Raw (March 25, 2002) Results". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
- ^ a b "WWE Raw (March 25, 2002) Results". PWWEW.net. Retrieved February 23, 2008.[dead link]
- ^ "WWE Cruiserweight Championship History". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
- ^ "Triple H's first World Heavyweight Championship reign". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on February 21, 2008. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "WWE Tag Team Championship History". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
- ^ "WWE United States' Championship History". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
- ^ Dee, Louie (October 18, 2007). "Even Exchange?". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
- ^ "Divas Championship". WWE.
- ^ Parks, Greg. "8/23 WWE Smackdown LIVE – Parks's Complete, Real-Time Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved August 23, 2016.