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"I Think I Know Why He May Be Mentioning 'Demons' In His Name. I Think He's Tanked."
-- RD Reynolds on yours truly from the 10/2 episode of "Wrestlecrap Radio".

Just recently a very special moment happened in pro wrestling & in WWE history. The Season Premiere of Smackdown aired yesterday making it 10 years it has been on network TV. In most TV shows these days making it 10 years at all is truly a feat. Even more so since Smackdown airs 52 episodes a year with no Season Finales and no re-runs like most Television Programming on the air today whether its Network or Cable/Satellite TV.

I'll go through some of the most notable moments of what I associate with this show in a moment. But first let me tell you a little bit on what I was doing 10 years ago that was somehow connected to Smackdown. 10 years ago I happened to be one of the first set of writers that did recaps for Smackdown and in fact I recapped the first ever Smackdown episode. I felt somewhat stressed out during that time because I was doing recaps for RAW on the website and the owner that I was doing recaps for wanted me to do Smackdown. During that time I have to admit that I didn't have my own voice or style so I was mimicking someone else’s style into my own and it did not work out that well. In the end not only the website shut down but I quit writing because the way I did recaps was insane due to the fact that I went over every little detail. I didn't start writing again until 2006 when I started writing for the Group's website creating the famous "Year in Review" columns that I now see all other websites putting up on their websites. This of course leads to right now.


10 Years that Smackdown that has been on the air. 10 Years that Pro Wrestling survived on Network TV. That alone in the age of Reality TV Shows and shows like "Lost" is something quite impressive in these days. During those 10 Years Smackdown has change with the times and looks. Also during those times Smackdown has given us some memorable moments, and some moments that are so bad that we're traumatized for life. Let's take a look at those moments from a non-WWE perspective.


1. 10 Years ago Smackdown was created to be the second WWE show. Smackdown did not have the Brand Split back then so people got a chance to see stars like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or The Rock on Network TV as well as on Cable TV for RAW. Now thanks to the Brand Split (which will be discussed later) it will either take a booking miracle (like John Cena appearing on both shows because of the Smackdown Anniversary show) or winning the Unified World Tag Team Titles (like the current champions Chris Jericho & The Big Show).

2. Smackdown's set has changed over the years. In the beginning the set kind of looked like something what I effectionally called "The Time Tunnel". Of coursed the set was changed when "officially" Rhino "Gored" some poor schmuck through "The Time Tunnel". The next set is the infamous "Fist" set, which is called that because there was a giant clenched fist posted way above the wrestler’s entrance. Now the recent set is the HD Set that is used by all three brands.

3. 10 Years ago the Brand Split did not happen. WWE had enough talent to fill both shows. It wasn't until 2001 when WWE bought out the bankrupt WCW that now they had a lot of stars. Of course this reflected by the horrible "WCW Invasion" storyline. With two shows a Brand Split was created. It was created officially when Ric Flair "bought" out Shane & Stephanie McMahon to "buy" RAW, yes like when Donald Trump "bought" RAW only Flair didn't bring Hollywood Celebrities to host RAW, while Vince McMahon "owned" Smackdown. In the end it created the first ever Draft Lottery which created two separate talent pools, which later became three separate talent pools when WWE restarted the ECW brand.

4. Personally speaking the way WWE has viewed Smackdown seemed to change throughout the years. In the beginning Smackdown was viewed as an equal to RAW. During the years WWE's opinion on Smackdown seems to change to become more of the "neglected child" of the family while WWE sees RAW as the flagship show. Smackdown then was changing into the place where not only the older stars of WWE performed but also where most of its young stars like John Cena or Randy Orton debuted. Now with ECW as the placed to debut stars, Smackdown is still seen as the "neglected child" and as a litmus test to see if the young stars can succeed on RAW.

5. Smackdown was the place WWE could experiment. WWE brought back the canceled MTV Reality TV Show "Tough Enough" on Smackdown but this time it was shown to be more like the WWE Raw Diva Searches. Unfortunately that flopped and "Tough Enough" hasn't been seen since. WWE also re-introduced the world to Midget Wrestling on Smackdown as the "Juniors Division". That didn't work too well as the "Juniors Division" was soon scrapped in several months. Smackdown was also the place where WWE Wrestlers were given their own Interview segment to show off their On-Screen speaking roles like Christian, MVP, & Carlito. Smackdown even brought back the classic "Piper's Pit" with WWE Hall Of Famer "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Now Smackdown has none of that. Only thing Smackdown has done experimental as of late is trying to raise new Main Event stars like John Morrison, Dolph Ziggler, & CM Punk.

6. WWE stars had come and go over the 10 Years that Smackdown is on the air. Some still on the air employed by WWE like the following: Randy Orton, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, & Batista to name names. Unfortunately there were some that formerly on Smackdown that made some sort of Impact that no longer work on Smackdown & WWE like the following: Mr. Kennedy, Umaga, Booker T, Rhino, Stacy Keibler, Bobby Lashley, Victoria, Brock Lesnar, and finally "My Pal & Yours" Christy Hemme.


There are probably plenty of other memories that you might have while reminiscing about Smackdown. Like the time Brock Lesnar Superplexed The Big Show and destroyed the wrestling ring, Paul Burchill doing his "Captain Jack Sparrow" impersonation, GM Vickie Guerrero nauseating us by kissing Edge, or the memory that you fondly reminisce when you think about Smackdown. Memories are quite literally like the corners of your mind. All you have to do fondly remember those times hoping that you had indeed the time of your life.



Until next time. (right click it).
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