10 Greatest Rivalries in The History of WWE SmackDown

In honor of the 1000 episode of WWE SmackDown, I think it is time we take a look at the greatest rivalries in the history of the blue brand.

Quite often, SmackDown has shown it's critical dominance over RAW with the quality of their matches and feuds. While at one time you tuned into Monday Night RAW, you would have seen Triple H simulate a sexual encounter with a dummy, that same week you could have turned on SmackDown and seen the like of Kurt Angle, Edge, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, among more, have some of the best matches and angles of the entire year.

Unlike RAW, SmackDown has always been consistent with highly entertaining storylines over it's near 20 years on television, and these are what I feel are the top 10 best of them.

#10 Booker T vs. Chris Benoit

Booker T and Chris Benoit always worked well together and had an incredible series of matches in WCW, that would eventually lead to a Best of 7 Series between them in 1998.

That series between them was so good and the matches they were having on SmackDown in 2005 were so good that WWE decided to revive the best of 7 series concept for them to have on SmackDown, to crown the rightful WWE United States Champion. As Booker T had turned heel as the feud started, he was able to carry the promos between to an entertaining and often comical degree.

The matches themselves between them, were every bit as good, if not better than series from WCW. Booker took an early 3–0 lead in the feud, starting at Survivor Series while picking up two more victories over the next few weeks on Smackdown. Benoit finally came out on top in a must-win situation in the best match of their series, at Armageddon. Unfortunately was cut short when Booker suffered an injury at a live event, keeping him out of action for over a month.

The series itself wouldn't end however, with SmackDown General manager Teddy Long allowing Booker to choose a substitute to replace him, which would be Randy Orton. Benoit beat Orton in 2 consecutive matches but lost the final, thanks to Booker T. Benoit and Booker T continued to feud into 2006, with Benoit defeating Booker T for the U.S Championship in a great match at No Way Out.

#9 Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens

The rivalry between SmackDown Commissionaire Shane McMahon and Kevin Owens was a pretty long one, lasting just around 7 months. It even actually started while Owens was feuding with someone else, AJ Styles. KO was convinced that special referee Shane had screwed him out of his match with AJ at SummerSlam.

Owens demanded another shot at the United States Championship, but when Shane refused, Owens insulted Shane's children, which caused him to attack Owens. As a result, Shane was suspended and Mr. McMahon returned the following week to confront Owens and was met with a headbutt by the prizefighter, leading to a Hell in A Cell match between Owens and Shane at the same pay-per-view.

Owens defeated Shane in a sold Cell match following help from Sami Zayn. This lead to Sami and Daniel Bryan being inserted into the feud which carried on for several more months of serious tension and attacks that would eventually lead to a tag team match at WrestleMania between both teams where KO and Sami would be 'fired' if they lost. Shane and Bryan would come out on top, ending the feud.

#8 The Undertaker vs. Edge

Edge and The Undertaker began feuding in 2007 when Edge screwed The Undertaker out of the World Heavyweight Championship at the Survivor Series. Edge had done so in order to make an impact upon his return after a near 4-month injury layoff.

The phenom would eventually earn the right to face Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 24 in 2008. Edge gave Undertaker arguably the best match Taker's Mania streak had seen up until that point, and the great matches didn't stop there. Taker and Edge would collide on 4 more pay-per-views, Backlash, Judgement Day and in a TLC match at the One Night Stand event in World Championship rematches, all of which were excellent, and later a Hell in A Cell at SummerSlam, which was phenomenal.

When you throw in the fantastic promo work from Edge and his 'fiance' Vickie Guerrero, it made for a truly excellent feud.

#7 CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy

CM Punk was a tremendous heel in Ring of Honor, but having been a face in WWE, and a really popular one at that for the past 3 years, many fans and those within the company who were unfamiliar with Punk's heel work in ROH, were not convinced that Punk had what it took to be a great heel. Thanks to this feud with Jeff Hardy in 2009, he proved everyone wrong.

Jeff Hardy was WWE's most popular star at the time and fans were dying for him to have a proper main event run as a Heavyweight Champion, as his WWE Champion reign earlier in the year was cut short at just a month. Jeff finally won the World Heavyweight Championship, defeating Edge in a grueling Ladder match at Extreme Rules. CM Punk, who was Mr. Money in The Bank, decided to rain on Jeff Hardy's parade by cashing in a claiming the World title.

Punk was instantly heavily booed for the next few weeks, despite never actually turning heel. The two met at The Bash event for the Championship, which ended in a seemingly accidental DQ. They next fought at Night of Champions where Jeff pulled the surprise win and became Champion. Punk confronted Jeff the following week, appearing to congratulate him before viciously attacking him, officially turning heel.

Over the next few weeks, Punk would make mention of Jeff's past drug use and talked himself up as being better than everyone for being straight edge. The two collided in a fantastic TLC at SummerSlam, where Punk regained the Championship. The feud came to a close the following week on SmackDown when Punk defeated Hardy in a Title vs. Career Steel Cage match.

#6 Vince McMahon vs. Hulk Hogan

Vince McMahon created Hulkamania, while Hulk Hogan helped bring popularity to WWE and wrestling as a whole that hadn't been seen at those heights ever before. Hogan left WWE in 1993 on seemingly fair terms but testified against his former boss and friend in the steroid trial that same year. Hogan then brought WCW to new heights before returning to WWE in 2002.

There were no initial problems between Hogan and Vince when he returned as Hogan returned apart of Vince's poison, the NWO. When Hogan turned face, tensions began to arise between the two over the summer, with McMahon telling Hogan it was time he retired. While it seemed like this was to build to a match, possibly at SummerSlam, the angle was cut short when Hogan took a hiatus from WWE TV just before the big event.

Hogan returned in January 2003, immediately beginning an angle with McMahon. This would lead to a match between Hogan and The Rock at No Way Out, where McMahon aided The Rock in his victory. An infuriated Hogan challenged Vince to a match a WrestleMania XIX, which Vince made into a Street Fight where Hogan would retire if he lost. In the weeks leading to it, the two cut a series of worked shoot promos on their previous real-life issues, such as the testifying in the steroid allegations. The feud also saw the best contract signing for a match in WWE history when Vince attacked Hogan from behind and made a Hogan sign the contract for their match with his own bloody finger.

Hogan beat McMahon at WrestleMania in a, considering their ages, pretty damn exciting match. The feud continued in the following weeks as McMahon fired Hogan and Hogan returned as the masked Mr. America. While it was silly, it did provide some entertaining moments between them.

#5 Randy Orton vs. Christian

Christian proved he was a main event player — Christian proved he was

In 2011, following his best friend Edge's retirement, Christian defeated Alberto Del Rio in an emotional and excellent TLC match at the Extreme Rules event. Despite Christian being the most deserving Champion in WWE in quite some time, the reign was cut short at less than a week when Randy Orton defeated Christian for the Championship on the post-PPV SmackDown.

The two had a 'friendly feud' over the next few weeks where both were babyfaces, which would lead to a critically acclaimed Championship match at Over The Limit. A couple weeks later after Orton successfully defended his Championship with Sheamus, special referee Christian turned heel on Orton after the match, hitting him with the Championship.

Christian received another rematch at Capital Punishment, once again stealing the show. Orton won, although Christian's foot was under the bottom rope, leading the Christian to campaign for another rematch at Money in The Bank. In the weeks leading to the event, Christian gave some of his best promo work in his career, and was able to use Randy's temper to ass a stipulation of if Randy was disqualified, he would lose the title. Christian spat in Orton's face, causing him to lose control of his temper, kick Christian in the groin and get disqualified, resulting in Orton losing the match and title.

Christian spent the next month showing more of his great heel charm, this time as Champion, before ultimately losing the title back to Orton in a No Holds Barred match at SummerSlam. The feud ended 2 weeks later when Orton retained his title once again over Christian in a Cage match.

#4 The Undertaker vs. Batista

This feud had a pretty simple beginning. Batista was the World Heavyweight Champion, and The Undertaker was the winner of the 2007 Royal Rumble. WWE spent a couple weeks building up to which brands Champion would Taker challenge, ultimately choosing to remain on SmackDown to challenge Batista.

The build-up in this feud was pretty solid, as similar to the RAW WrestleMania main event of John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels, both men were babyfaces. A RAW vs. SmackDown match was set up for No Way Out, pitting Batista and The Undertaker vs. John Cena and Shawn Michaels. They spent weeks teasing that Shawn could tun on Cena, but stead, Batista planed Taker with a spinebuster during the closing moments of the match. The two had several great segments during the build-up to each match they had.

While both were babyfaces throughout the year, they would collide five times in one-on-one matches for the World Championship. The match between them at WrestleMania 23 is considered by many to be the best match of 2007. They battled to a draw in a Last Man Standing match the following month at Backlash which was almost as great. The would then collide in a Steel Cage match a few weeks later which was pretty good but also ended in a draw.

Following the Cage match, The Undertaker took the next five months off TV to heal from injuries. The month following his return, he challenged Batista to a World Championship match at Cyber Sunday, another solid match for their series, this time that Batista won clean. They had one final one-on-one match in 2007 at Survivor Series in a thrilling Hell in A Cell match which Batista won the following interference by Edge.

They briefly reopened their feud on SmackDown in late 2009, where Batista defeated The Undertaker in a Chairs match at the TLC event.

#3 Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero

Longtime friends Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, who's real-life friendship was brought into TV in 2004, formed a tag team at the end of the year which would see them become the WWE Tag team Champions at No Way Out 2005.

A seemingly jealous Chavo Guerrero encouraged the two to have a match at WrestleMania 21. Rey would defeat his tag team partner in the friendly match. Tensions grew between Eddie and Rey when Chavo and others said that Eddie couldn't defeat Rey, and things only got worse when Eddie and Rey lost the Tag titles to MNM. Eddie eventually turned on Rey, attacking him after a match and leaving in in a bloody state.

This set up a match at Judgement Day, which Guerrero lost to Mysterio by disqualification after hitting Rey with a chair. In the weeks following, Guerrero threatened to reveal a secret about Mysterio and his son Dominick. The storyline grew to involve the families of both men, with both sides pleading for Guerrero not to reveal the secret. A match was made for The Great American Bash, with a stipulation that if Guerrero lost, he would not tell the secret and despite Rey winning, Eddie reveled it anyway, that he was Dominick's actual father, who was had out of wedlock.

This led to an excellent Ladder match at SummerSlam, where the winner, Rey, would receive Dominick's custody papers. The feud ended a few weeks later when Eddie finally beat Rey in a thrilling Steel Cage match. The feud was very dark and uncomfortable at times, but the segments were very well done, the matches were excellent and drama was incredible.

#2 Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit had an excellent feud with some incredible matches in 2001, so when the feud was revisited on SmackDown in 2002, we all knew we were in for a treat, and that is exactly what we got.

Tensions grew between the two heels when Benoit found it very funny that his partner for the match, Kurt Angle, was on the receiving end of a stinkface from Rikishi. The following week, Kurt interrupted Benoit's match with Rikishi where he held down Chris so he would take the stinkface. Benoit would then attack Kurt later in the evening, resulting in a match between them at Unforgiven.

The match at Unforgiven, one of the best matches of 2002, was won by Benoit with some help from his feet on the ropes. An enraged Angle attacked Benoit, which would lead to not another match, but SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon forcing the two to form a team for the WWE Tag team Championship tournament or be suspended. The two reluctantly teamed together and were victorious, defeating Edge and Rey Mysterio for the titles in an amazing match at No Mercy. For a few weeks, things turned comical for some humorous segments between them.

The reign was short-lived at 2 weeks when the animosity between them was too much, and they lost the titles to Edge and Mysterio. Angle and Benoit had another match, which Benoit won, and their feud was put on a hiatus for just over a month. Benoit would then challenge Angle for the WWE Championship at the 2003 Royal Rumble, which would be one of the greatest WWE Championship matches in history.

The feud ended after a rematch a few weeks later. It was one incredible feud that never failed to deliver an excellent match.

#1 Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle

The Brock Lesnar/Kurt Angle rivalry started off shortly after Brock lost the WWE Championship to the Big Show at Survivor Series 2002. Kurt Angle would be next to challenge Show the title at the next pay-per-view, Armageddon. Kurt enlisted Lesnar to help him out, which he did.

Kurt then promised Brock a future WWE Championship match as a thank you. However, later on that same show where Kurt made this promise, he also announced Paul Heyman as his manager, and thus quickly turning heel again, with no Championship match for Brock. The Beast would win the 2003 Royal Rumble to get his title match at WrestleMania XIX. They would have a very good build-up to the match, which included Kurt generally avoiding attacks by Lesnar, and outsmarting him in their first singles match a few weeks prior to Mania, where Kurt used his brother Eric as a distraction to defeat Lesnar.

In an excellent WrestleMania main event, Brock would finally defeat Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship. Kurt would take 3 months off and return a babyface, forming a new friendship with WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. After a few weeks of friendly and often fun competition and team-ups, Kurt pinned Brock in an excellent Triple Threat at Vengeance. Brock's frustration over losing the WWE Championship would eventually lead to he turning heel on Angle and forming an alliance with Vince McMahon.

This lead to another cracking match, at SummerSlam, where Kurt retained the Championship over Brock. The following month, Brock defeated Kurt to win the WWE Championship back in probably SmackDown's greatest ever at, a 60 minute Iron Man on the September 18 edition of the show. The feud ended here, for the most part.

One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE