WWE SmackDown

*WWE SmackDown*
WWE SmackDown
	File:Fridaynightsmackdown.jpg WWE Friday Night SmackDown! logo.
Created by	Vince McMahon
Starring	SmackDown! brand
Opening theme	"Rise Up 2006" by Drowning Pool
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	354 (As of June 9, 2006)
Production
Camera setup	Multicamera setup
Running time	1 hour 40 minutes per episode
Original release
Network	UPN (1999-2006); The CW (2006-)
Release	August 26, 1999 –; Present

WWE Friday Night SmackDown! is a professional wrestling TV show that airs in the United States on UPN, in Canada on The Score Network, in India on Ten Sports, in the UK, Republic of Ireland and mainland Europe on Sky Sports, in Portugal on SIC Radical, in Australia on FOX8 by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and is the flagship broadcast of the SmackDown! brand. The show was previously seen by wrestling fans as WWE's "B show" to its older counterpart, the live Monday night show RAW. Since the brand extension, the show has raised in both ratings and recognition and is treated on screen as the on-par competition to RAW. Between 2003 and 2004 the show suffered again with some believing there was increased attention put on RAW, but since the 2005 draft, and the move from Thursday nights to Friday nights, SmackDown! has risen to prominance once again.

The SmackDown! stars typically perform four shows in a week. WWE usually tapes its Tuesday evening show for UPN to air on Friday evening of the same week. However, the show is occasionally broadcast live. From its launch in 1999, SmackDown! was shown on Thursday nights, but as of September 9, 2005, the show moved to Friday nights [1]. To reflect this change, the show is now referred to as Friday Night SmackDown!

SmackDown! has been confirmed to move to the new CW Network when UPN and The WB merge in September 2006. [2] SmackDown! will also retain its Friday night slot after the move. [3]

SmackDown! was the parent show to WWE Velocity.

Show history

Attitude Era

WWF SmackDown! (as it was originally known) was set up to compete against WCW's Thursday night show, Thunder. In the spirit of the WWF's Attitude Era, the show was originally planned to be two hours of WWF Divas in primetime TV. However, this did not work out, and instead SmackDown! became a complementary show to RAW is WAR.

SmackDown! first appeared on April 29, 1999 using the RAW is WAR set as a single television special. On August 26, 1999, SmackDown! officially debuted on UPN. Like WCW Thunder, SmackDown! was recorded on Tuesdays and then broadcast on Thursdays. The new WWF show was so popular that WCW moved Thunder on Wednesdays in the hope of holding on to fans rather than losing them to the WWF. SmackDown!, like Thunder, made heavy use of the color blue, earning it the nickname "The Blue Show" amongst wrestling fans.

File:Wwfsmackdownlogo.gif

The classic WWF SmackDown! logo has been used from 1999 to 2001.

The original SmackDown! theme was not performed by a band like the RAW is WAR theme; instead, the WWF created a fast-paced theme that was a mixture of techno and rock. The first SmackDown! set was also unique as it featured an oval-shaped TitanTron (which was dubbed the "OvalTron"), entrance and stage which made it stand out from the RAW set and its rectangular TitanTrons. An added feature to the original set was the ability for the OvalTron to be moved to either the left or right of the stage. Throughout the show's early existence, top WWF superstar The Rock routinely called SmackDown! "his" show, in reference to the fact that the name was derived from one of his catchphrases "Layeth the smacketh down." In August 2001, as part of celebrating SmackDown!'s 2nd anniversary, the show received its current logo and set. SmackDown! also had new theme song, The Beautiful People, performed by Marilyn Manson and the song was used from mid-2001 to mid-2003. The last SmackDown! to use the previous television set saw Alliance member Rhyno deliver the Gore to WWF member Chris Jericho through the OvalTron destroying part of the set.

The September 11, 2001 event was cancelled due to the terrorist attacks. On September 13, 2001, SmackDown! was broadcast live from Houston (with Jim Ross and Paul Heyman filling in as hosts Michael Cole and Tazz were absent) as the first major and televised event since the attacks as thousands were in attendance. The ring ropes are usually blue for the SmackDown! shows but were red, white and blue for this night; these colors were commonly used during the 1980s and through the 1990s. They would remain that way, with an American Flag on the mini-tron, for two weeks.

File:SmackDown!.png

The second SmackDown! logo used from 2001 to 2005.

Brand Extension

The WWF underwent something they called the "Brand Extension". This meant that the two WWF TV shows (RAW and SmackDown!) would become competition for each other. This came about after the WWF purchased their biggest competitor, WCW, and they decided to bring in talent from the then out-of-business ECW. The brand extension was publically announced during a telecast of WWF RAW on March 25, 2002, and became official the next day.

The Brand Extension would bring about change like nothing the WWF had seen before. Wrestlers would become "show-exclusive", wrestling for their specific show only. At the time this excluded the Undisputed Champion and Women's Champion as originally, those titles were defended on both shows. However, later in 2002, Brock Lesnar, then the WWE Champion, refused to defend the title on RAW, causing the title to become SmackDown!-exclusive. Following that, both shows then got their own exclusive championships.

In January 2005, the Oakland Tribune reported that Leslie Moonves, co-President and co-Chief Operating Officer of UPN's parent company, Viacom, announced that SmackDown! will not be renewed on UPN after Viacom's contract with WWE expires in 2006. This article was later revealed to be in error; Moonves was in fact saying that SmackDown! may not be renewed, as opposed to will not be renewed [4].

The SmackDown! brand has a sister show, Velocity, that consists of lower-card matches and recaps of that week's SmackDown! On March 10, 2005, Viacom announced that they would not seek to extend their deal to air WWE programming on Spike TV when it expired in September 2005. [5] This included Velocity, which formerly aired on Spike TV but was converted into a webcast on WWE's website, when WWE programming moved to the USA Network. It was possible that WWE's "lame duck" status with Viacom on Spike TV is what prompted its moving SmackDown! to the Friday night death slot for the Fall 2005 season. Sources within WWE were reportedly unaware of the move.[6][7] However ironically, it worked out for the better for both parties involved, as the show is now getting better ratings than it had on Thursdays, while UPN is now getting much better ratings on Friday's than it did before with its movie night. In addition, UPN has been able to hold on to the ratings from Thursday nights, most notably with comedian Chris Rock's Wonder Years-like sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. In January 2006, prior to the announcement of the CW Network, it was announced that UPN had quietly renewed SmackDown! for an extra two more seasons. [8]

On June 6, 2005, WWE Champion John Cena switched brands from SmackDown! to RAW as part of the month-long Draft Lottery. This effectively left SmackDown! without a World Title. During this time, United States Champion Orlando Jordan was billed as the top champion on the show. On June 23, 2005, in Tucson, SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long announced a six-man elimination match between John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Booker T, Chris Benoit, The Undertaker, Christian (replacing The Big Show, who was picked by RAW in the lottery), and Muhammad Hassan to crown the first SmackDown! Champion. On the June 30 episode of SmackDown!, JBL won the match. Long appeared afterward and stated that even though JBL had won the match, SmackDown! didn't need a Championship anymore. Batista, the World Heavyweight Champion, entered the ring as SmackDown!'s final draft lottery pick. Long also revealed that JBL was the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Friday Night SmackDown!

Following the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise, SmackDown! was renamed Friday Night SmackDown! and moved into Enterprise's former timeslot in the United States. WWE promoted this move with the tagline "TV that's changing Friday nights." Friday Night SmackDown! made its series/season premiere on September 9, 2005. The program still airs on Thursdays in Canada on The Score. In the United Kingdom and Australia, their respective stations Sky Sports and FOX8 air SmackDown! on Fridays before the United States due to the time difference, and on Saturdays in Hawaii due to other programs. This is the first time a major weekly WWE show airs internationally before it hits screens in the US.

The events of Hurricane Katrina affected the first edition of Friday Night SmackDown! in the US. Due to a special fundrasing concert to help those affected airing on UPN along with other major US networks at the same time the first edition would have been broadcast, only the second hour of the show was shown on UPN. The first hour was instead streamed from WWE's website. Other countries, including Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and the Philippines received the full two-hour show. WWOR-TV (UPN 9, New York, New York) also aired both hours of the show on tape delay on Saturday, due to a previous commitment to broadcast the New York Yankees on Friday nights.

Friday Night SmackDown! stars had some exposure at WWE Homecoming, RAW's return to USA Network on October 3, 2005.

On October 15, 2005, it was announced that a new Juniors Division was formed and to be exclusive to Friday Night SmackDown! The Juniors division consisted of wrestlers that are at or below 5 feet (152 cm) tall. [9] The Juniors division had been mainly used for comedy matches. However, no Juniors matches had been seen since November 11, 2005, leading some to believe the WWE abandoned the division. Though the Juniors were seen periodically since then, the division was released from World Wrestling Entertainment on March 9, 2006.

The SmackDown! brand earned a major victory at Survivor Series 2005 after their 5 man tag team consisting of Rey Mysterio, Bobby Lashley, Batista, Randy Orton, and JBL defeated Team RAW consisting of Kane, Big Show, Shawn Michaels, Carlito, and Chris Masters. Also SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long defeated RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff with the help of The Boogeyman.

At the SmackDown! taping on January 10, 2006, Batista had to forfeit the World Heavyweight Title because of a triceps injury. Theodore Long made a Battle Royal for the vacant Title. The winner was former RAW and now current ECW superstar Kurt Angle. In a break from their traditional role of acting as if SmackDown! isn't pre-recorded, WWE.com had a photograph of Angle holding his new title on the main page.

On the April 7, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, general manager Theodore Long announced that the King of the Ring tournament will return after a four year hiatus as a SmackDown!-exclusive tournament. The tournament ended at Judgment Day 2006 with Booker T as the winner.

Current champions

World Heavyweight Champion: Rey Mysterio
WWE United States Champion: Bobby Lashley
WWE Tag Team Champions: Paul London and Brian Kendrick
WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Gregory Helms
King of the Ring: Booker T/King Booker (2006)

Notes:

The World Heavyweight Championship was awarded to Triple H by Eric Bischoff when Brock Lesnar refused to defend the WWE Undisputed title on RAW; it is currently on the SmackDown! brand after Batista was drafted from the RAW brand while carrying the belt.

The original WCW United States Championship was once unified with the WWE Intercontinental Championship. The title was revived by Stephanie McMahon, along with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin reintroducing the Intercontinental Championship for RAW. This title shares lineage with World Championship Wrestling.

The WWE Tag Team Championship is a completely new tag team championship. The original WWE Tag Team championship became RAW exclusive and was renamed the World Tag Team Championship.

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship originally was the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. WWE adopted it and dropped their own Light Heavyweight Championship in favor of it. It also became SmackDown! exclusive.

Recurring segments

In addition to wrestling matches and backstage vignettes, SmackDown! has also had several recurring segments as part of its program. The first of these was a new incarnation Rowdy Roddy Piper's famous Piper's Pit interview series. After Piper's exit from WWE, René Duprée hosted a similar segment called Café de René. Since 2005, Piper's Pit now runs on special occasions on both the SmackDown! and RAW brands.

2004 saw the introduction of two segments to the show. "The Kurt Angle Invitational" featured Kurt Angle wrestling professional wrestlers who were allegedly from the town the show was taped in. The Kurt Angle Invitational became an exclusive to RAW when Angle was drafted to that show from SmackDown! $1,000,000 Tough Enough was the latest edition of the reality show hosted by former WWE performer Al Snow.

2005 saw the advent of Carlito's Cabana an interview segment that was Carlito's answer to RAW's Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel. After Carlito was drafted to RAW, he took his interview segment with him. The Peep Show hosted by one of SmackDown! 2005 draft lottery picks, Christian, replaced the segment for a few months until Christian left the company for TNA Wrestling.

2006's WWE Diva Search, which was previously exclusive to the RAW brand will be featured on the SmackDown! brand as well.

General managers and "owners"

Vince McMahon - (Owner, March 18, 2002 - July 18, 2002)
Stephanie McMahon - (General Manager, July 18, 2002 - October 19, 2003)
Paul Heyman - (General Manager, October 23, 2003 - March 22, 2004)
Kurt Angle - (General Manager, March 25, 2004 - July 22, 2004)
Theodore Long - (General Manager, July 29, 2004 - Present)

Commentators

Michael Cole (August 1999 - present)
Jerry Lawler (August 1999 - February 2001; November 2001 - March 2002; filled in for Tazz in March 2005)
Jim Ross (Occasional fill-in from 1999 to 2002)
Tazz (February 2001 - November 2001; March 2002 - June 2006)
John "Bradshaw" Layfield - (June 2006 - present)

Theme music

The original SmackDown! theme consisted of a fast-paced mixture of techno and rock composed by WWE music composer Jim Johnston. Following August 2001, the theme was replaced by "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson, also a former theme tune to RAW is WAR in 1997. From 2003 to 2004, SmackDown! used a Johnston composed rap song. On the fifth anniversary edition of SmackDown!, a new instrumental theme song by Johnston was used for that one episode.

SmackDown!'s most recent theme song was "Rise Up" by Drowning Pool, a remake of Johnston's fifth anniversary instrumental. SmackDown! has used three different recordings of the song. The first recording sung by then lead singer Jason 'Gong' Jones was featured in the WWE ThemeAddict: The Music, Vol. 6 album and had numerous different edits of the theme during its use. Within a few months a new recording, again sang by Jones, was used. The third and current recording, titled "Rise Up 2006" made its debut on March 24, 2006, now perfomed by new lead singer Ryan McCombs. "Rise Up 2006" was featured as a bonus downloadable track on the WWE Wreckless Intent album.

External links