| WWE SmackDown! is a professional wrestling
show that airs in the USA on the UPN Network and in
Canada on The Score Network. It is produced by World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly known as the WWF. The SmackDown! Superstars will
typically perform four shows in a week. WWE generally tapes its Tuesday evening show for UPN to air on Thursday evening of the
same week.
Show history
Pre-brand extension
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.
Brand extension
In early to mid-2002, World Wrestling
Entertainment (then known as the World Wrestling Federation) underwent something they called the “Brand
Extension”. Basically, this meant that the two WWE television shows (RAW and
SmackDown!) would become competition for each other. This came about after WWE purchased their two biggest competitors, WCW and 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 a change like nothing the WWE had seen before. Wrestlers would become
“show-exclusive”, wrestling for their specific show only. At the time this excluded the champions as originally, the
WWE titles would be defended on both shows. However, later in 2002, Brock
Lesnar, then the WWE World 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 the 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 [1] (http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=7967&p=1).
The SmackDown! brand has a sister show, Velocity, broadcasting Saturday nights from 11:00 PM-12:00 AM Eastern Standard
Time on Spike TV. It consists of low-card matches and recaps of last Thursday's
SmackDown!. If SmackDown! is cancelled on UPN at the end of the 2005-2006 season, it is unknown if or how this would affect
Velocity; Spike TV is also owned by Viacom.
On March 10, 2005, Viacom announced that
they would not seek to extend their deal to air WWE programming on Spike TV, most notably RAW, when it expires in September, 2005. [2] (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050311/tv_nm/television_wwe_dc_1) This
presumably covers Velocity, which also airs on Spike TV, however SmackDown! will continue to air on UPN at least until the
contract to air that show expires in 2006.
Current SmackDown! championships
- Notice: Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on TV.
1: This is the original WWE World Championship. It became SmackDown! exclusive when the champion Brock Lesnar refused to defend it on RAW.
2: These are completely new tag-team championships. The original WWE Tag-Team championships became RAW exclusive and
renamed to the World Tag-Team Championship.
3: This championship originally was the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship. The WWE adopted it and dropped their own
World Light Heavyweight Championship in favor of it. It also became SmackDown! exclusive.
4: The original WCW United States Heavyweight Championship was once disbanded when it was unified with the WWE
Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship. However, the title was revived by Stephanie McMahon, along with Stone Cold Steve
Austin reintroducing the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship for RAW.
Recent happenings
1: John "Bradshaw" Layfield defeated The Big Show at No Way
Out in the first ever barbed-wire steel cage match.
2:Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio (Óscar Gutiérrez) defeated The Basham Brothers (Doug Basham and Danny Basham) at WWE No Way Out (February 20, 2005).
3:Chavo Guerrero (Chavo Guerrero, Jr) last
eliminated Paul London in a 6-Man Elimination Match at WWE No Way Out(February 20, 2005). Other participants in the match were
Funaki (Shoichi Funaki), Spike Dudley (Matthew Hyson), Shannon Moore, and
Akio.
4: Orlando Jordan defeated John Cena on SmackDown! (March 1, 2005, aired March 3).
Roster
"Owner(s)/general manager(s)"
Past "owners/general managers"
Current SmackDown! wrestlers
Inactive list
Current SmackDown! non-wrestlers/managers
Referees
Other on-air talent
Past SmackDown! wrestlers
(since brand extension)
(Note: All roster information is current as of February 2005)
External links
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