10 Most Important Episodes In WWE SmackDown History

On April 29, 1999, WWE aired a one-off TV special on UPN to counter-programme WCW Thunder. The network liked it so much that, later that same year, it was made a permanent fixture of the company’s schedule.

With a name borrowed from The Rock and a colour scheme borrowed from Eiffel 55, SmackDown would become the Federation’s second weekly show and their second most important series behind Raw.

Whilst at times it was treated like an afterthought, it has seen some historical moments in its time. But what are the 10 biggest and best episodes?

These are the 10 Most Important Episodes of WWE SmackDown in History.

10. August 26, 1999

Four months after that one-off special, the first regular episode of SmackDown premiered on August 26, 1999, with a tantalising match as its main event.

WWE Champion Triple H was defending his gold against his great rival The Rock, but that wasn’t all. Shawn Michaels, who was retired at this point, would serve as the match’s special referee.

It looked as if The Brahma Bull was about to unseat The Game when HBK and his budgie smugglers stopped him with a Sweet Chin Music, the closest fans would ever get to seeing these two icons go one-on-one.

Triple H retained and SmackDown had just presented its first major angle.

Elsewhere on the card, there was a triple threat for the tag team titles, Al Snow defeated Big Boss Man for the Hardcore Title, and a young lad from Winnipeg in Chris Jericho had his first ever televised WWE match.

There was also an Evening Gown Match between Tori and Ivory, but I don’t think we need to spend any time on that.

9. November 11, 1999

Some of WWE’s biggest successes have come from incorporating celebrities into their shows, so it was only a matter of time before SmackDown got its first brush with stardom.

On the November 11, 1999 episode, the show was graced by the presence of actor, bodybuilder, and all-around great guy Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was there to promote a new movie.

Which cinematic classic was it, we hear you ask? True Lies? The Last Action Hero? Batman & Robin? It was End of Days, one of his worst-ever films. Oh dear.

What he was shilling didn’t matter though - the fact was that the blue show had secured an A-List name to give it some much-needed pop culture credibility. Arnie even got physical, smacking Triple H around like he was standing in front of the last Turbo-Man toy.

The Governator snagged a WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2015 for his work - make of that what you will - and SmackDown felt like a big deal just 13 episodes in.

This was also the show where the Big Boss Man stole Big Show’s dad’s coffin, which we wouldn’t classify as important.

8. August 9, 2001

The original SmackDown set wasn’t much to look at. The big rings were cool and all, but if you weren’t looking directly at it, you’d probably forget it existed.

All of this changed on the August 9, 2001 edition, when the show got a much-needed makeover from a very unlikely architect.

Chris Jericho and Rhyno were deep into a bitter rivalry that would lead to a match at SummerSlam, but not before The Man Beast got one over on Y2J.

After the latter won a quick match against Hugh Morrus, the former ECW Champion appeared and started beating him down, eventually leading to an awesome spot where he Gored the wannabe rock star through the stage at the top of the ramp.

Not only was this great to look at and try and recreate with action figures at home, but it paved the way for a new addition to SmackDown’s aesthetic - the giant fist, which debuted shortly after.

As if heralding the arrival of such an iconic piece of wrestling decorating, this episode featured two tag team championship changes. DDP and Kanyon won the WWE belts, whilst The Brothers of Destruction picked up the WCW straps.

7. August 8, 2002

There has never been a bigger or more successful push of a new star in WWE than Brock Lesnar’s first run in 2002. Need proof? He beat one of the biggest stars of all time within five months of debuting.

The date was August 8. Lesnar was on one side of the ring, whilst his opponent was none other than Hulk Hogan. Lesnar didn’t just beat Hogan, he obliterated him.

The Next Big Thing took the Immortal One to the cleaners, knocking him around so badly it’s a miracle his moustache didn’t come clean off. After 10 minutes of domination, Brock locked in a Bear Hug to win via technical submission, a dominating end to an impressive performance.

Hogan had played politics to get out of doing jobs for some of the industry’s biggest stars, and yet here was some 25-year-old kid who walked all over him like a red and yellow doormat.

A surreal moment to say the least.

6. November 7, 2017

Despite the first W in “WWE” standing for “World”, the company’s top prize had never changed hands outside of North America until SmackDown took a trip to England in 2017.

The November 7 edition of the show from that year had some very interesting matches on it, including Becky Lynch taking on James Ellsworth in a rare intergender clash. The bout everyone was interested in was the main event - a WWE Championship clash between AJ Styles and Jinder Mahal!

The experiment to see if a jobber could become a world champion just to pop one international market had gone on for way too long and had inflicted a lot of pain on the wrestling fandom.

Everyone was begging for Styles to end the 170 days of misery and, sure enough, that’s precisely what he did.

When AJ beat Jinder for the gold, fans of all generations, backgrounds, colours, and creeds come together to celebrate. The nightmare was finally over and WWE once again had a champion who could do more than five different moves.

5. August 21, 2018

At SummerSlam 2018, Charlotte Flair won the SmackDown Women’s Championship fair and square, only for Becky Lynch to attack her after the bell and end their friendship.

Instead of backing the Queen, though, fans took the side of the Lass Kicker, rejecting her supposed heel turn and WWE’s idea that she was now the baddie. To try and get things back on track, the company put Lynch out on the August 21 episode of SmackDown to cut a heel promo, but that just made everything worse.

As Lynch laid out her case, the fans cheered her even more, recognising that the redhead had gone unappreciated for far too long. This inadvertently set Becks on a course to superstardom, to becoming The Man, to main eventing WrestleMania, and to changing the state of women’s wrestling forever.

In terms of actual wrestling, the biggest story of the night came in the main event, where The New Day defeated The Bludgeon Brothers to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships in a No DQ match, ending what would be the final WWE title reign of Luke Harper, AKA Mr. Brodie Lee.

4. July 7, 2005

WWE does stupid things sometimes. One of the most boneheaded and badly-timed decisions the company has ever made went down on the SmackDown broadcast on July 7, 2005 and featured one of the most controversial characters in wrestling history - Muhammad Hassan.

The aggrieved Arab American - who was portrayed by a man of Italian descent, just to make things extra awkward - was in the middle of a feud with The Undertaker. This was the night he set a bunch of masked men on The Deadman, only these were no ordinary wrestling goons.

Hassan summoned the men in balaclavas by praying, the most overt terrorist reference from this character to that point. This just so happened to air on the day of the London 7/7 bombings, which understandably got WWE in a lot of hot water.

Hassan was written off TV in dramatic fashion when ‘Taker powerbombed him to his doom at The Great American Bash. Plans to have him win the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam were canned and the character was never seen or heard from ever again.

3. March 20, 2018

On February 8, 2016, a tearful Daniel Bryan announced that, due to various medical issues, he would be retiring from professional wrestling. However, because Bryan is from a different planet, this ‘retirement’ only lasted two years.

After serving as the blue show’s General Manager and saying whatever the hell he wanted on TV in an attempt to get fired, The American Dragon announced that he had finally been cleared to return to the ring on March 20, 2018 in an emotional moment for all involved.

D-Bry followed this up by getting into a fight with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, his first physical activity in a long time, as the crowd went wild. This led to him teaming up with Shane McMahon to take on the Canadian pair at WrestleMania 34.

Think of all the incredible stuff Bryan has done since this moment and you’ll understand why we had to put it on the list.

2. June 27, 2002

The June 24, 2002 episode of Raw saw Vince McMahon usher in a new era of WWE, one he wanted to see full of “Ruthless Aggression”.

Two days later, a young man in neon pants answered that call, and changed the wrestling landscape forever.

SmackDown on June 27, 2002, opened with Kurt Angle issuing an open challenge to anyone who wanted to test their mettle. Out came John Felix Anthony Cena, looking like a Create-A-Wrestler before you make any changes, to do just that. After being asked who in the green hell he was, Cena threw Vince’s words and a slap in Angle’s face and the fight was on.

Although Cena lost his debut bout against the Wrestling Machine, he had made quite the opening statement. It would take a few years and a couple of false starts for Cena to fully establish himself as a top star, but all of his success - both inside of wrestling and outside - can be traced back to this fateful moment.

It also gave WWE a clip they could play again and again on TV… again… and again… and again.

1. September 13, 2001

In the wake of 9/11, safety concerns in America were at an all-time high.

Nobody knew if another attack was just around the corner. Every aspect of normal life ground to a halt, which is why, when WWE announced that the September 13 episode of SmackDown was going ahead as scheduled, everyone thought they were mad.

In the first major gathering of its kind since the horrific attacks, SmackDown opened with the now legendary image of the roster standing in the rampway with their hands over their hearts, followed by a passionate speech from Vince McMahon and a rousing rendition of the US national anthem by Lillian Garcia.

The wrestling itself was completely irrelevant, which, considering we were in the middle of the Invasion storyline, was a blessing in disguise. This was a signal that the world was ready to get back to its old ways, to not live in fear, to not let the terrorists win.

Sure, Stephanie McMahon comparing the situation to her Dad’s steroid trial was clumsy as all hell, but this was a truly special night where emotions ran high and WWE did everything they could to raise a nation’s spirits.