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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 [1] (http://www.insidebayarea.com/searchresults/ci_2532085). 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 [2] (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.
Current SmackDown! championships
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 Kurt Angle and The Big Show at 2005 Royal Rumble.
2: The Basham Brothers (Doug Basham and Danny Basham (Danny Holly)) defeated Rey Mysterio (Óscar Gutiérrez) and Rob Van Dam (Rob Szatkowski), Mark Jindrak and Luther Reigns (Matt Wiese), and Eddie Guerrero and Booker T (Booker Huffman) in a Fatal Four Way tag-team match on SmackDown! (January 11, 2005, aired January 13, 2005).
3: Funaki (Shoichi Funaki) defeated Spike Dudley (Matthew Hyson) at Armageddon 2004.
4: John Cena defeated Carlito Caribbean Cool on SmackDown! (November 16, 2004, aired November 18).
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 December 30, 2004)
External links
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