2003: Smackdown's greatest year...

[Wall_of_Jericho]

Does anyone remember when Smackdown was actually good? The year was 2003 and in my opinion was Smackdown's best year.

2003, a year when...

- Stephanie McMahon was a face General Manager and actually good at the character.

- Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit stole the show at the Royal Rumble when they battled for the WWE championship.

- John Cena was an up and coming heel.

- Matt Hardy's character was heel and actually had some direction.

- Brock Lesnar was at his best.

- Undertaker was the American Badass, his matches were more fast paced and he could actually do an interview/promo that wasn't just "rest in peace" or talking about "creatures of the night".

- Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had 3 amazing matches, Wrestlemania 19 when Brock did the insane shooting star press which nearly killed him, Summerslam 2003 when Kurt evened the score then a 60 minute Iron Man Match which gave the title back to Lesnar.

- People like JBL and King Booker did NOT get anywhere near the WWE title and instead the belt was on good wrestlers.

- The United States title was brought back and Eddie Guerrero became the first holder of it.

- Rey Mysterio was NOT fighting for the World HEAVYWEIGHT Title and was sticking to the correct weight division by competing for the Cruiserweight title.

- Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon settled a score that was "20 years in the making".

- Los Guerrero's and Worlds Greatest Tag Team were the centre piece's of a pretty decent Tag Team Division.

- Big Show had to job to Zach Gowen and was also soaked in shit by Eddie Guerrero lmao!

- Hardcore Holly was out injured for the entire year and therefore wasnt on TV stiffing noobs. Imagine what he would have done if he got in the ring with Cena or Orton?

- Vengeance 2003 was probably the Pay Per View of the year with Lesnar vs Big Show vs Angle for the WWE title, Cena vs Undertaker, Haas & Benjamin vs Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman for the WWE Tag Titles, Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit for the WWE United States Title.

 

[upskill000]

Hell yeah. that was the bloody best yr and was that b4 they did the brand thingy or not

 

[vlad]

definently...brock was the best and los guerreros lie cheat and steal should still live on but no chavos besing gay rite now. r.i.p eddie guerrero

 

[Wall_of_Jericho]

Hell yeah. that was the bloody best yr and was that b4 they did the brand thingy or not

After it, the brand extension happened in April 2002

 

[Eternal Dragon]

I agree with most of your points, but SD is still a good show with a lot of good matches. Besides, Booker T is a great wrestler- just a bad gimmick with King Booker.

Flames Out
Dragon

 

[Flippyskate21]

back in 03, i loved smackdown so much more than raw. the only good part of raw was austin was there. remember the iron match on smackdown with brock and angle, 2003 was a really good year

 

[jacobthejeweler08]

'03 was probably the greatest year smackdown has ever had, and maybe ever will, that remains to be seen. They need to get some more big name talent over there pronto before the whole brand dies. Get someone who can actually make Batista look good in a match at least. Cuz lets face it, he isnt that great of a wrestler, he just cuts good promos and hes a beast.

 

[Wall_of_Jericho]

Another couple of points from Smackdown in 2003, anyone remember these?

- Brock Lesnar Superplexed Big Show off the top rope into the middle of the ring, Show hit so hard the whole ring collapsed. Ok it was a work, but what a holy shit moment!!!

- Brock Lesnar defeating Big Show at Judgment Day in a Strecher Match, Lesnar drove a forklift into the arena and carried Big Show out lol, that was cool.

- Stephanie McMahon and Sable had a pretty decent female feud half way through the year.

- Rowdy Roddy Piper did a shocking and unexpected run in at Wrestlemania 19 in the Hogan vs McMahon match, this lead to his return to WWE and more specifically on Smackdown.

 

[World--Destroyer]

Definitly the best year of wrestling
sense the Monday Night Wars (WWE vs. WCW)

 

[World--Destroyer]

Definitly the best year of wrestling
sinse the Monday Night Wars (WWE vs. WCW)

 

[Jonny B]

You know the reason why Smackdown was so strong back then? Because Paul Heyman was booking it, it was more later 2002 to mid 2003 that Smackdown was so strong, I know Heyman was removed a Head Booker of Smackdown in February of 2003, however they came off the back of such a strong brand, it was hard not to book some very decent stuff.

 

[HBK_ROCKS01]

dragon ths might just be the first time i have evr disagreed with you i think smackdown is doin horrible right now

 

[figure4]

Let's not forget last year SmackDown had Batista at his peak, as the man. JBL was still around bitch-slapping everybody. Undertaker was beefin with Orton and his daddy. Rey and Eddie were doing big things in their rivalry. Kennedy was one of many newbies that was squashing people. People were excited about Lashley and how he was dominating. People were excited about Matt Hardy being on SD!. And Booker T and Chris Benoit engaged in another classic seven-match series for the U.S. Title that carried over to this year. So, 2005 wasn't exactly a bad year for SmackDown!

But this year has sucked. When they put Angle in ECW, let Khali squash Taker and shipped Orton to RAW, not to mention JBL quitting and Creative still using Eddie's name to make people care anything about Rey Mysterio... it's just dispicable. Oh yea and Batista making his highly-anticipated return and not even being able to powerbomb anybody. SD had a good thing going last year but they've just slowly become less and less significant.

 

[HBK_ROCKS01]

that is true but i think towards the end smackdown was getting bad

 

[showtyme27]

Does anyone remember when Smackdown was actually good? The year was 2003 and in my opinion was Smackdown's best year.

2003, a year when...

- Stephanie McMahon was a face General Manager and actually good at the character.

- Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit stole the show at the Royal Rumble when they battled for the WWE championship.

- John Cena was an up and coming heel.

- Matt Hardy's character was heel and actually had some direction.

- Brock Lesnar was at his best.

- Undertaker was the American Badass, his matches were more fast paced and he could actually do an interview/promo that wasn't just "rest in peace" or talking about "creatures of the night".

- Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had 3 amazing matches, Wrestlemania 19 when Brock did the insane shooting star press which nearly killed him, Summerslam 2003 when Kurt evened the score then a 60 minute Iron Man Match which gave the title back to Lesnar.

- People like JBL and King Booker did NOT get anywhere near the WWE title and instead the belt was on good wrestlers.

- The United States title was brought back and Eddie Guerrero became the first holder of it.

- Rey Mysterio was NOT fighting for the World HEAVYWEIGHT Title and was sticking to the correct weight division by competing for the Cruiserweight title.

- Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon settled a score that was "20 years in the making".

- Los Guerrero's and Worlds Greatest Tag Team were the centre piece's of a pretty decent Tag Team Division.

- Big Show had to job to Zach Gowen and was also soaked in shit by Eddie Guerrero lmao!

- Hardcore Holly was out injured for the entire year and therefore wasnt on TV stiffing noobs. Imagine what he would have done if he got in the ring with Cena or Orton?

- Vengeance 2003 was probably the Pay Per View of the year with Lesnar vs Big Show vs Angle for the WWE title, Cena vs Undertaker, Haas & Benjamin vs Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman for the WWE Tag Titles, Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit for the WWE United States Title.

ah yeah, someone finally remembers when smackdown was the best wrestling show on tv 2002 thu 2003 was the best year in smackdown history,but wwe wanted it's "flagship show" raw to be the best so they did another fu**ing draft and sucked the life out of smackdown every star on raw came from smackdown first hhh,cena,orton,benjamin,carlito,nitro,edge,and so many more raw stole these superstars from smackdown and fu**ed us fans when they did it they fu**ed them selfs also they had one great wrestling show(smackdown) and one goog wrestling show(raw) oh yes both wrestling shows was good at that time now you got two half a** at best shows coming on every week don't get me wrong i still love wrestling but things looked a lot better back then but at least wwe got it's wish raw is the better show now

 

[gza/genuis]

yeah 03 was definetely awesome for smackdown! I liked it so much better than Raw, and they had some awesome rivalries, but 04 was almost just as good with eddie and kurt fueding for the title, then angle being the general manager, with eddie fueding against JBL. Then you had Cena and Booker T. in a nice rivalry, Carlito debuting and winning the US title. Big Show and Angle had a nice fued too, when Angle shot him with the tranquilizer and shaved his head. Smackdown! was better than Raw for that whole timeframe, but now well you know.

 

[LeninandTrotsky]

The golden period of Smackdown was August 2002-March 2003 IMO. Every single week in this period Smackdown was awesome and put on excellent and exciting angles and matches constantly. Paul Heyman was obviously a huge factor is that being the case, and after he was removed, the show soon declined even though it produced the occasional great show even after Heyman's departure.

Ironically, while Smackdown was having its best period ever, Raw was going through it's worse period ever and was absolute dross, reaching it's lowest ebb in October 2002 with the Katie Vick angle. Smackdown single handedly safed WWE from collapsing as a product in 2002-2003.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

2003 was a good year for Smackdown, it was certainly better then the Triple H show. the best year for Smackdown in my oppinion was the last 6 months of 2002. Smackdown was a wrestling show back then, it was a time when the main eventers in the company were spread evenly over the two shows.