Category: WWE Smackdown
A branch of WWE, WWE SmackDown is a professional wrestling television program. Also called SmackDown Live or just SmackDown, it made its debut on April 29, 1999.
Currently, it is broadcast live on Tuesday nights. However, from October 4 next year, it will move back to Fridays. Previously, it was aired on Thursday nights but moved to Friday on September 9, 2005, before returning to Thursdays on January 15, 2015. Then again in July 2016, it was moved to live broadcast on Tuesday night.
SmackDown began its successful journey in the United States on April 29, 1999 through the UPN television network. But in 2006, it began being aired on The CW after the mergence of UPN and WB. A couple of years later, the company moved the show to MyNetworkTV. In 2010, SmackDown was moved to Syfy and to USA Network on January 7, 2016.
Along with RAW, SmackDown is one of WWE’s two main weekly programs.
So far, it has been broadcast from 163 arenas, in 148 cities and towns, in seven countries (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Iraq in 2003 and 2004 for Tribute to the Troops, Japan in 2005, Italy in 2007, and Mexico in 2011).
Initially, the show was not broadcast live The taped episodes premiered a few hours earlier in Ireland and the United Kingdom and a day earlier in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and Philippines than the United States, due to time differences. Earlier this year in October, SmackDown celebrated its 1000th episode.
History:
The early set for SmackDown was oval-shaped called the Ovaltron to distinguish it from the set of RAW which was rectangle-shaped.
In August 2001, the show celebrated its second anniversary and made it memorable by launching new logo and set. The new set consisted of a fist centered above the entrance, and many glass panes along the sides strongly resembling shattered glass. In the following year, the company underwent the ‘brand extension’. Consequently, the WWE was divided into two branches. The two divisions were RAW and the SmackDown. Both the branches were formed to compete against each other.
The brand extension was made public during a telecast of RAW on March 18, 2002, and became official on the April 1, 2002 episode of RAW. The wrestlers used to compete exclusively in the branches they were assigned through a draft lottery. However in 2011, the company announced that the wrestlers were no longer exclusive to their respective brand. The move all but ended the brand extension.
On October 14, 2011, SmackDown became the second-longest-running weekly episodic television series of American television history. The list is led by RAW which surpassed the mark way back in 2005.
On October 10, 2014, SmackDown celebrated its 15th Anniversary. The 15th season premiere opened with a new theme, “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy. To help celebrate the 15th anniversary, Stephanie McMahon came out first, then Laurinaitis and Long, respectively, the latter of which kept one-upping each other for the main event of the night until McMahon decided to keep the 15-man tag team match that Long suggested, on the condition Laurinaitis and Long be the captains of each team like at WrestleMania XXVIII.
In May 2016, the company decided to make SmackDown a live show on Tuesday nights. The company took the decision after the re-implementation of the brand extension which resulted in the split of RAW and SmackDown.
On the July 11, 2016 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon named Shane McMahon the commissioner of SmackDown. In the very following week, Daniel Bryan was announced as the new SmackDown General Manager. On July 22, 2016, General Manager Daniel Bryan revealed the new SmackDown logo on his official Twitter page. On April 10, 2018, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon announced that Daniel Bryan was back as a full-time WWE wrestler and named Paige the new General Manager.
Network changes:
SmackDown began its highly successful journey in 1999 through the UPN. From 2005, the network aired SmackDown on Friday death slot. UPN received better ratings on Fridays than it did before with its movie night. In January 2006, UPN renewed SmackDown’ for two more years.
On September 22, 2006, Friday Night SmackDown! debuted on The CW. A couple of years later, the show made its debut on MyNetworkTV in the United States. it also featured a new theme-song. The premiere episode on MyNetworkTV attracted 3.2 million viewers.
SmackDown moved to NBCUniversal in 2010 and made its live premiere on Syfy on October 1, 2010, retaining its Friday night slot. On January 7, 2016, SmackDown moved to Syfy’s sister channel, USA Network. With the move, all top three WWE programs – Raw, SmackDown and Tough Enough – started airing on the same network for the first time.
SmackDown remained on Thursday nights when the show moves from Syfy to USA Network on January 7. The first SmackDown episode on USA Network had 2.75 million viewers. The Thursday night slot was decided to attract more young audience. The move was also taken to have more premium advertising dollars from marketers, who tend to spend more to promote their products, especially film releases, on the night as consumers head into the weekend.
In July 2018, WWE announced that SmackDown would move to Fox beginning October 2019. It is a five-year deal worth a staggerin $205 million-per-year. The deal represents a major increase over USA Network’s previous contract for both Raw and SmackDown, which was valued at $150 million. The program will also return to Friday night, with its Fox premiere scheduled for October 4, 2019.
Here are the broadcasting details of SmackDown:
Canada:
From its inaugural season in 1999 till early 2015, SmackDown aired in Canada matching the United States airtime. Currently, it is broadcasted on Sportsnet 360. When SmackDown moved back Thursday nights, the show was broadcast on Wednesday nights (with the exception of live episodes) in Canada January 14, 2015 to July 13, 2016, due to national NHL coverage being aired on Sportsnet 360 on Thursday nights. But from July 19, 2016, SmackDown again started airing in Canada simultaneously with the United States, following SmackDown’s move to a live Tuesday night broadcast.
Asia-Pacific and Africa:
SmackDown airs live in Australia on Fox8 and Friday nights on 9Go! as a one-hour version.[58][59]
SmackDown airs in Fiji on Sky Pacific and Sky Fiji.
SmackDown airs live in India and exclusive in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan on Sony Ten[61][62][63] and Kenya on Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.
SmackDown airs in Malaysia on TV3 and Astro Supersport3,[65] and Malta on Melita Sports 1.
The series airs live in New Zealand on Sky 5 and Sunday nights on Maori Television as a one-hour version.
The series airs in the Philippines on TV5 as a one-hour version.
The series airs live in Singapore on Starhub’s HubSports 2, South Africa on SuperSport, and Samoa on SBC.
SmackDown airs in the Middle East and North Africa on OSN,[72] and Israel on Sport 5. It also airs on FM1 (Previously Iran FM-TV) in Iran.
Europe:
The series airs live in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Arena, with replay shows airing on Sky Sports Arena.
The series airs in France on AB1 and in Italy on Sky Sports 2.
SmackDown Live airs in Germany every Thursday at 10:00 pm on ProSieben MAXX.
In Portugal, the full two hours episode airs on SportTV 5 on Wednesdays at 7:00 pm and a one-hour version airs on SportTV+ on Saturday mornings at 11:00 am.
SmackDown Live airs on 2×2 in Russia.
Latin America:
SmackDown airs live on Fox Sports in Mexico and across Central and South America.
Online streaming:
The WWE is also available through live streaming. In 2009, Hulu and WWE signed a deal to air full episodes of SmackDown to be available for viewing the day following its original airing. Three years later, Hulu signed a multi-year deal with WWE to stream all of the company’s TV shows and some of its web series, which includes SmackDown.
Theme Songs:
| Song title | Written and/or performed by | Dates used |
| Smack | Jim Johnston | April 29, 1999 – August 9, 2001 |
| The Beautiful People | Marilyn Manson | August 16, 2001 – May 15, 2003 |
| I Want It All | Jim Johnston | May 22, 2003 – September 16, 2004 |
| Rise Up (Instrumental) | Jim Johnston | September 23, 2004 (only used for SmackDown’s 5th Anniversary show) |
| Rise Up | Drowning Pool | September 30, 2004 – March 17, 2006 |
| Rise Up 2006 | Ryan McCombs | March 24, 2006 – September 26, 2008 |
| If You Rock Like Me | Jim Johnston | October 3, 2008 – September 25, 2009 |
| Let It Roll | Divide the Day | October 2, 2009 – September 24, 2010 |
| Know Your Enemy | Green Day | October 1, 2010 – October 19, 2012 |
| Born 2 Run | 7Lions | October 26, 2012 – April 4, 2014 |
| This Life | CFO$ | April 4, 2014 – January 9, 2015; this song version featuring Dylan Owen was used as the bumper song. |
| Centuries | Fall Out Boy | October 10, 2014 (only used for SmackDown’s 15th Anniversary show) |
| Black and Blue | CFO$ | January 15, 2015 – July 19, 2016 |
| Take a Chance1 | CFO$ | July 26, 2016 – present |
| “Victorious” | Panic! At The Disco | October 16th, 2018 (Only used for Smackdown 1000 Episode) |
Championships:
SMACKDOWN:
| Championship | Current champion(s) | Reign | Date won | Days held |
| WWE Championship | Daniel Bryan | 4 | November 13, 2018 | 15 |
| WWE United States Championship | Shinsuke Nakamura | 1 | July 15, 2018 | 136 |
| WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship | Becky Lynch | 2 | September 16, 2018 | 73 |
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship | The Bar | 1 | October 16, 2018 | 43 |
RAW:
| Championship | Current champion(s) | Reign | Date won | Days held |
| WWE Universal Championship | Brock Lesnar | 2 | November 2, 2018 | 26 |
| WWE Intercontinental Championship | Seth Rollins | 2 | August 19, 2018 | 101 |
| WWE Raw Women’s Championship | Ronda Rousey | 1 | August 19, 2018 | 101 |
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship | AOP | 1 | November 5, 2018 | 23 |
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship | Buddy Murphy | 1 | October 6, 2018 | 53 |
NXT:
| Championship | Current champion(s) | Reign | Date won | Days held |
| NXT Championship | Tommaso Ciampa | 1 | July 19, 2018 | 132 |
| NXT North American Championship | Ricochet | 1 | August 18, 2018 | 102 |
| NXT Women’s Championship | Shayna Baszler | 2 | October 28, 2018 | 31 |
| NXT Tag Team Championship | The Undisputed Era | 2 | June 21, 2018 | 160 |
Other winners:
| Title | Current champion(s) | Opponent (s) |
| Money in the Bank (Men) | Braun Strowman | Defeated Kevin Owens, Bobby Roode, Finn Bálor, Samoa Joe, Rusev, The Miz and Kofi Kingston to win. |
| Money in the Bank (Women) | Alexa Bliss | Defeated Ember Moon, Sasha Banks, Natalya, Lana, Naomi, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair to win. |
| Mae Young Classic | Toni Storm | Defeated Io Shirai at Evolution in the tournament final to win. |
| Royal Rumble (Men) | Shinsuke Nakamura | Last eliminated Roman Reigns to win. |
| Royal Rumble (Women) | Asuka | Last eliminated Nikki Bella to win. |
| Mixed Match Challenge | The Miz and Asuka | Defeated Bobby Roode and Charlotte Flair in the tournament final to win. |
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic | The Undisputed Era |
Defeated The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) and Pete Dunne & Roderick Strong in a Winner Take All Triple Threat tournament final (with the NXT Tag Team Championship also at stake) to win.
|
| André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal | Matt Hardy | Last eliminated Baron Corbin to win. |
| WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal | Naomi | Last eliminated Bayley to win. |
| WWE Greatest Royal Rumble Championship | Braun Strowman | Braun Strowman won by last eliminating Big Cass in the 50-man Royal Rumble. |
| WWE World Cup | Shane McMahon | Defeated Dolph Ziggler in the tournament final to win. |
