The start of the SmackDown brand led to the television show getting the name based on a promo line from The Rock. WWE starting to thrive at new heights during the Attitude Era showed that fans had interest in the product more than ever before. The record-breaking ratings for Raw led to SmackDown becoming the second show after a successful pilot.
SmackDown has witnessed many changes throughout the two decades with the most noteworthy coming from the brand splits. WWE tried to make SmackDown its own and its now in the limelight since moving to FOX. Find out more about things that went down behind the scenes for the show. The following backstage stories will share more information about SmackDown.
10 Was Almost An All-Women Show
The WWE project of debuting a second show to compliment Monday Night Raw created SmackDown, but it could have had a different identity. Bruce Prichard confirmed old online rumors on his podcast that WWE considered a few unique concepts.
One reported scenario was the potential of a show just for the women of WWE only running one hour instead of two. The women’s division was unfortunately not nearly deep enough in 1999 with names like Debra, Terri Runnels and The Kat struggling to have matches.
9 Kurt Angle Moved Due To Lack Of Trust For Randy Orton
Batista suffering an injury in early 2006 forced WWE to make a drastic change for the vacated World Championship. WWE pulled off a shocking move of sending Kurt Angle to SmackDown after his prior months working on Raw.
The plan for WrestleMania 22 was to have Rey Mysterio win the World Championship in honor of Eddie Guerrero. WWE could have easily had Randy Orton win the title to drop it to Mysterio since he was involved in the program anyway. Angle was viewed as more reliable than Orton’s backstage issues and it led to him having a strong run on SmackDown.
8 Paul Heyman Got In Trouble For Eavesdropping On Raw Calls
The brand split inspired Vince McMahon to try his best at creating competition between the wrestlers on the roster with WCW no longer in business. Raw and SmackDown developed their own rivalry with the talent and backstage personnel working on different shows.
Paul Heyman was the lead writer on SmackDown leading to the show reaching greater success by creating new stars. Later years would see Heyman admitting to getting in hot water for eavesdropping on a conference call of Raw writers to find out their ideas for a better grasp of getting ahead.
7 Hardcore Holly Attacked Rene Dupree Over Rental Car
The backstage fights in WWE have been few and far between since Vince McMahon tried to create a more professional environment. Hardcore Holly had a reputation for pushing the buttons of young talents with some calling him a bully.
Young rising star Rene Dupree struggled when getting on the bad side of Holly. Dupree borrowed Holly’s rental car for a SmackDown taping day and got speeding tickets without paying them. Holly confronted him at a SmackDown house show leading to the one-sided fight.
6 AJ Styles Switched Brands Due To Paul Heyman Heat
WWE has done a better job at keeping controversy away from the backstage element of the show these days. However, AJ Styles developed a strong disdain for Paul Heyman after the two worked together on the Raw brand when Heyman was running the show.
The firings of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows by WWE were blamed on Heyman by Styles. WWE granted AJ’s request to switch brands on SmackDown away from Heyman. The funny kicker would see Heyman removed from his Raw spot and moving to SmackDown to manage Roman Reigns. Styles moved to Raw shortly after with the draft coming up.
5 Triple H Turned Down Idea To Move In 2004
The infamous shoot promo line from Paul Heyman at One Night Stand 2005 featured him saying JBL only won the WWE Championship because Triple H didn’t want to work Tuesdays. There was some truth behind the quote that made it sting more.
Triple H moving to SmackDown in 2004 Draft took place, but it didn’t work out the way originally planned. WWE traded Triple H back to Raw the following episode with JBL’s heel push coming afterwards. The agreement between Vince McMahon and Triple H was that keeping him on Raw with Evolution still having appeal was the best move.
4 Kurt Angle & Eddie Guerrero's Bizarre Backstage Fight
The friendship between Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero turned into hostility one night. Guerrero was known for having a temper and often challenging his friends to fights when someone rubbed him the wrong way.
Angle’s reputation for being a shoot fighter made other wrestlers try to challenge him at times. A small disagreement turned into Eddie challenging Kurt to a fight. Other wrestlers broke them up and Guerrero hilariously said: “because I’m stupid!” when asked why he’d challenge someone he couldn’t beat due to Angle’s background.
3 Was Planned To Become Main WWE Show After WCW Purchase
The Invasion storyline ended up being an all-time bust for WWE, but there was an exciting idea at the start. Vince McMahon was considering continuing the WCW brand as its own entity with a weekly television show.
WCW would have received Monday nights turn Raw into Nitro with WWE holding down SmackDown as their weekly series. The test match between Booker T vs Buff Bagwell flopped to end any chance of Vince going through with it.
2 Shawn Michaels Was Never Drafted Due To Church Commitments
The brand split era of WWE saw Shawn Michaels always being part of the Raw brand. There were the occasional SmackDown appearances of Michaels appearing for his inter-brand WrestleMania feuds against Kurt Angle and The Undertaker or defending the tag titles with Triple H.
However, Michaels would never become an official part of SmackDown when WWE loved to switch the talents from show to show annually. The church commitments from Michaels after finding religion would see him busy on Tuesdays when WWE taped SmackDown most years.
1 Batista Was Moved There Due To Mocking It As Secondary Show
The mid-2000s saw John Cena and Batista becoming the new faces of the company. Both men won their respective world titles at WrestleMania 21 in a huge changing of the guard. WWE shocked everyone when Cena and Batista switched brands in the draft with the belts trading shows with them.
The unofficial trade came for two reasons at the time. Cena getting the chance to lead Raw as the bigger prospect was part of the equation, but Batista was humbled on the other side. Public interviews would see Batista trashing SmackDown as the lower brand when he was on Raw. WWE moving him to the secondary show would see him falling in love with the change thriving for years.