WWE SmackDown
Television series | |
---|---|
German title | WWE SmackDown |
Original title | WWE SmackDown |
Country of production | United States |
original language | English (AE) |
Year (s) | since 1999 |
Production company |
WWE |
length | 120 minutes |
Episodes | 1,079 (as of April 24, 2020) in 20 seasons |
genre | Wrestling |
Theme music | AC / DC - "Are You Ready" |
idea | Vince McMahon |
production | Vince McMahon ( Chairman , CEO ) Bruce Prichard (Executive Producer) |
Moderation |
Michael Cole (Play-by-Play Commentator) Corey Graves (Color Commentator) |
First broadcast | April 29, 1999 (USA) on UPN |
WWE SmackDown (full title: WWE Friday Night SmackDown ) is an American wrestling show run by the WWE . The show ran live every Tuesday evening in the USA on USA Network , where Raw can also be seen live every Monday evening. Since October 4th, Smackdown has been broadcast live on Friday evening on the US broadcaster Fox Broadcasting Company . In Germany, ProSieben Maxx broadcasts a current episode for the German-speaking market every Saturday evening, optionally also in HDTV . It was previously broadcast two days after the USA Network live broadcast, from April 6, 2017 to September 26, 2019, on Thursday evenings in Germany. According to TV ratings, Smackdown has been the most successful wrestling show in the world since October 2019.
history
SmackDown was originally created in 1999 by the then World Wrestling Federation as a Thursday show and counterweight to the show of the competition, WCW Thunder . Because of the Thursday slot, the show was also known as Thursday Night SmackDown and quickly became a success. Since October 2019, according to TV ratings, Smackdown has been the most successful wrestling show in the world, it is increasingly becoming the flagship of the WWE wrestling league and even beats its big brother WWE Monday Night Raw and the rival leagues TNA Impact and AEW.
In order to get better ratings, the US broadcaster UPN , which was broadcasting at the time, postponed SmackDown to Friday evening from September 9, 2005, making the show Friday Night SmackDown . As this postponement was successful, SmackDown retained the slot on Friday night even when the show switched channels in the US.
WWE Velocity , which was the counterpart of WWE Heat on RAW, was introduced as the B-Show of SmackDown on May 25, 2002 . In this broadcast, the events of the previous SmackDown! Episode were initially summarized, from 2003 onwards, the less active wrestlers from SmackDown appeared there. On June 11, 2006, the final episode of Velocity aired on the WWE home page and the show was subsequently discontinued.
Since July 19, 2016, SmackDown has been broadcast live on Tuesday evening in the USA and is now called SmackDown Live . With the renaming, the roster split , which had been abolished in 2011, was reintroduced, which assigns the WWE wrestlers to the individual shows RAW and SmackDown . As a result, the SmackDown superstars are now performing exclusively for their show again. Previously it was possible for all wrestlers to appear in all WWE shows and to hold all titles independently of their roster. The WWE Championship , previously known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship , has also belonged exclusively to SmackDown since the renewed split, as the then champion Dean Ambrose was drafted along with the title.
With the roster split , the two rosters will get their own large pay-per-view events back. WWE implemented this principle until March 2007, before the major events were opened to all roster. The first pure SmackDown PPV in 2016 was the re-launched show Backlash . The WWE Draft began on October 11th at Smackdown Live. From then on, the rooster split was implemented more consistently.
List of special episodes
episode | First broadcast | place | Quota | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
SmackDown! pilot | April 29, 1999 | New Haven, Connecticut | 5.8 | Pilot episode. |
SmackDown! Debut | August 26, 1999 | Kansas City, Missouri | 5.2 | Show debut. |
SmackDown! live | August 16, 2001 | Salt Lake City, Utah | 4.3 | First live edition of SmackDown and the debut of the Fist stage . |
SmackDown! 5th anniversary special | September 23, 2004 | Phoenix, Arizona | 3.2 | The 5 year anniversary of the show. |
SmackDown! Night of Champions | December 30, 2004 | New Orleans, Louisiana | 3.9 | All championships were defended. |
Friday Night SmackDown | September 9, 2005 | Atlanta, Georgia | 1.9 | First edition on Friday. |
The SmackDown! Special | November 29, 2005 | Cincinnati, Ohio | 2.35 | A one-hour special broadcast on Tuesday. |
SmackDown! 400th episode | April 20, 2007 | Milan, Italy | 2.5 | The 400th episode of the show. |
SmackDown All-Star Kick-Off | October 3, 2008 | Green Bay, Wisconsin | 2.9 | Champion vs. Champion episode and debut on MyNetworkTV. |
SmackDown 500th episode | March 20, 2009 | Corpus Christi, Texas | 2.7 | The 500th episode of the show. |
Decade of SmackDown | October 2, 2009 | Boston, Massachusetts | 3.77 | The show's 10th anniversary. |
SmackDown Live Syfy Premiere | October 1, 2010 | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | 1.7 | The live premiere on Syfy . |
SmackDown Christmas on USA | December 21, 2010 | San Antonio, Texas | 2.5 | The show is broadcast live on USA Network on Tuesdays . |
SmackDown 600th episode | February 18, 2011 | San Diego, California | 2.1 | The 600th episode of the show. |
SmackDown Milestone | October 14, 2011 | Dallas, Texas | 2.2 | The show became the second-longest weekly episodic television broadcast. |
SuperSmackDown LIVE! Christmas Special | November 29, 2011 | Charlotte, North Carolina | 3.7 | A live version of the show hosted by Mick Foley . |
SuperSmackDown LIVE: Blast from the Past | April 10, 2012 | Hampton, Virginia | 1.5 | A live version of the show with an old school theme and performances by Hall of Famers and Legends. |
SuperSmackDown LIVE: The Great American Bash | 3rd July 2012 | Corpus Christi, Texas | 1.7 | A live version of the show to celebrate Independence Day . |
SuperSmackDown LIVE: Commercial-Free | December 18, 2012 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 6.17 | An ad-free live edition of the show. |
SmackDown 700th Episode LIVE! | January 18, 2013 | San Antonio, Texas | 2.88 | The 700th episode of the show. |
SmackDown 15 | October 10, 2014 | Boston, Massachusetts | 2.67 | The show's 15th anniversary. |
Super SmackDown Live: SmackDown's 800th Episode | December 16, 2014 | Grand Rapids, Michigan | 2.03 | The 800th episode of the show. |
Thursday Night SmackDown | January 15, 2015 | Baton Rouge, Louisiana | 2.68 | Weekly broadcast every Thursday. |
SuperSmackDown LIVE! Christmas Special | December 22, 2015 | Des Moines, Iowa | 1.53 | A live copy of the show aired on USA Network. |
SmackDown USA Network Debut | January 7, 2016 | Laredo, Texas | 2.75 | A live copy of the show aired on USA Network. |
SmackDown Live | 19th July 2016 | Worcester, Massachusetts | 3.17 | The return of the Brand Extension and with this the show will be broadcast live every Tuesday. This is also the first draft that took place at SmackDown. |
SmackDown Live's 900th episode | 15th November 2016 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 2.75 | The 900th episode of the show. |
SmackDown Live's Wild Card Finals | December 27, 2016 | Rosemont, Illinois | 2.89 | Last episode of the show in 2016. |
2017 superstar shake-up | April 11, 2017 | Boston, Massachusetts | 3.10 | Ten wrestlers, including nine from Raw , joined SmackDown . |
2018 superstar shake-up | 17th April 2018 | Providence, Rhode Island | 2.7 | Ten wrestlers, including eight from Raw and two from NXT , joined SmackDown . |
SmackDown 1000 | October 16, 2018 | Washington, DC | 2.5 | The 1,000th episode of the show. |
2019 superstar shake-up | April 16, 2019 | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | 2.22 | Twelve wrestlers, including ten from Raw and two from NXT , joined SmackDown . |
Return to Madison Square Garden | September 10, 2019 | New York, New York | 2.06 | The first Smackdown edition of Madison Square Garden for 10 years. |
SmackDown's 20th Anniversary | 4th October 2019 | Los Angeles, California | 3.89 | First episode on Fox and returning on Friday night. At the same time also the 20th anniversary of the show. |
2019 draft | October 11, 2019 | Las Vegas, Nevada | 2.89 | The first night of the draft. |
Charisma
country | Day | Channel |
---|---|---|
United States | Friday (Live) | Fox |
Germany Austria Switzerland |
Saturday (Live)
Saturday (two hours - with advertising) |
Sky sports |
Saturday (one hour) | ProSieben Maxx |
Web links
- WWE SmackDown Official Website
Individual evidence
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ sport1.de: WWE Draft at SmackDown Live: This is how the restart works | Wrestling , accessed July 27, 2016
- ↑ WWE website on "WWE Backlash"