WWE SmackDown, commonly known as Friday Night SmackDown or just SmackDown, is an American professional wrestling television show produced by WWE that airs live on Fox every Friday at 8 p.m. ET. The show has been on the air since December 1996, making it the longest running weekly prime-time series in NBC history.
It is the flagship program of WWE's Friday night lineup, which also includes the revived Monday Night Raw and the recently launched Thursday Night WWE NXT.
The name "SmackDown" comes from the term "smack down", used by New York City boxers to indicate a strong punch. The show was originally titled WWF Superstars until January 1997 when it became exclusive to the promotion now known as WWE. In 2002, following the merger with World Wrestling Federation (WWF, not to be confused with the current WWF), SmackDown! became the only weekly prime-time television show dedicated exclusively to professional wrestling.
In addition to being broadcast on Fox, WWE Network also broadcasts all episodes of SmackDown Live each weeknight at 10:00 pm ET.
There are two main reasons why someone might want to watch WWE SmackDown tonight. The first is if you're a fan of the show itself and want to see what storylines are developing on it each week.
"WWE Friday Night Smackdown" airs live on FOX on Fridays at 8 p.m. Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, Cox, DIRECTV, and Dish Network are some of the providers available. The show is also streamed live on WWE's website.
SmackDown is part of the "Friday Night Spotlight" series which features new episodes every week on FOX. Other shows in this series include: NXT (Saturday night), Super Bowl Sunday (Sunday night), and the 2018 Grammy Awards (Monday).
This weekly television program was first broadcast on October 1, 1995. It premiered as a special episode called "Bret Hart: Sports Illustrated Cover Story". The main event was a match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship but it wasn't announced as a title match until several weeks after the special. During the match, Hart's brother Owen attacked him from behind and put him through a table with a tombstone piledriver for his injury. After the match, Hart retained his championship due to being allowed to continue fighting back up to the point where he received medical attention. He would go on to lose the title to Michaels at WrestleMania 20.
SmackDown has been aired regularly ever since then except for two periods: from December 1996 to March 1999 and from November 2005 to February 2006.
WWE SmackDown is a professional wrestling television show that presently airs on Syfy in the United States on Friday nights. It is the flagship show of the WWE Network, which was launched on February 29, 2014.
It is known for its aggressive style and high-profile matches. The show features wrestlers from the Raw brand who are signed to contracts with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). SmackDown is viewed as the more competitive of the two shows, with matches often decided by referee stoppages or after controversial finishes.
SmackDown first aired on September 8, 2001, at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. The event featured Kurt Angle defending his WWF Championship against Shawn Michaels in what would become one of the greatest matches in history. Angle won the match via submission to retain the title.
After one season on UPN, the show moved to the new network that was being formed by the WWE called The Showcase Channel. The first episode of SmackDown to air on The Showcase Channel was on January 4, 2003, and featured Stone Cold Steve Austin taking on The Rock for the WWF Championship. The match was declared a No Contest after The Rock attacked Stone Cold with a guitar during his entrance.
SmackDown is the WWE brand featured on the show (WWE brand). See WWE SmackDown for additional applications (disambiguation). SmackDown is a professional wrestling television program that began on April 29, 1999. It is also known as Friday Night SmackDown or just SmackDown.
The initial Raw lasted sixty minutes and set a new standard for broadcast professional wrestling. Wrestling programs were traditionally filmed on sound stages with small crowds or at enormous arena spectacles.
Furthermore, the broadcast table was relocated to the entry ramp, as it had been from 2002 to 2005. [Citation required] On January 22, 2018, WWE commemorated the 25th anniversary of Raw with a simulcast show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the Manhattan Center, which hosted the original Monday Night Raw.
WWE Raw is a professional wrestling television show that presently airs live on Monday evenings in the United States on the USA Network.
Friday Night SmackDown! is a professional wrestling television program for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and is presently the exclusive television broadcast for the SmackDown! brand. SmackDown! stars usually do four shows every week. WWE normally films its Tuesday evening program for The CW to air the following Friday evening.
WWE Raw is typically regarded as WWE's flagship show over its sibling programs, SmackDown! and ECW, because to its longer history and the way it is promoted. The show now airs live on USA Network, on tape delay on mun2, and on Sundays on Telemundo in the United States (in Spanish).
WWE Raw is a professional wrestling television show that presently airs live on Monday evenings in the United States on the USA Network.
SmackDown! debuted on Thursday evenings in 1999, but on September 9, 2005, the show was relocated to Friday nights. The show is currently titled as Friday Night SmackDown! to reflect this shift. It is broadcast from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
Friday night television schedules are often dominated by football games, which is why most people probably don't remember much about the original version of SmackDown! But that all changed when World Wrestling Federation (WWF) decided to compete with the American culture by moving their top show to a traditional Friday night slot complete with commercials. This decision proved to be very successful as live attendance at WWF events more than doubled after the switch to Fridays.
In addition to being a huge success on its own terms, this move allowed the company to take advantage of the lucrative Monday night television schedule later on. In fact, SmackDown! became so popular on Fridays that when the WWF moved it to Mondays, they needed another show to fill the spot on Fridays. Thus, Velocity was born. Velocity aired for one season before being canceled due to low ratings. However, this didn't stop the WWF from continuing to use Friday nights as a home base for their shows until they were shut down in April 2011.
Copyright © 2020 - 2023 Sportsmanist Inc.
