5 Superstars who have defined SmackDown

This week marks a big week for WWE and in particular, SmackDown Live
This week marks a big week for WWE and in particular, SmackDown Live

This week marks a big week for WWE and in particular, SmackDown.

The brand debuts on the FOX Network in the USA this Friday just over a year after the company agreed a five year deal with the broadcaster worth $205 million year.

With FOX putting a greater emphasis on live sports programming, it presents a massive opportunity for Smackdown to push its content to a larger audience - something long overdue.

Having been a featured part of WWE television for 20 years, SmackDown has been a platform for many current and future Hall of Famers to define their legacy without being lost in the shuffle of RAW.

Superstars such as Eddie Guerrero, JBL, Rey Mysterio and John Cena were given a prominent role in the brand which helped to define and shape their respective legacies.

However, I believe there was a select group of wrestlers who truly represent what Smackdown has been all about these past two decades.


#5 Brock Lesnar

Lesnar has one of the best debut years in WWE history
Lesnar has one of the best debut years in WWE history

At the time where WWE first established its brand split in 2002, the WWE's primary championship, The Undisputed Title, was shared across both RAW and Smackdown.

Around this same point, Brock Lesnar was forging the best debut year in wrestling history, coming champion just four months after his first appearing on WWE TV.

His first act as champion was to announce his intention to only defend the belt on the Blue Brand. This particular move always stood out to me as something which helped show how serious the company took the brand.

And as much as they could have instantly taken the belt from The Beast Incarnate if they wanted to, they chose not to. Instead he would go on to forge a path through the roster over the following year and a half.

Three title wins and high profile victories over the likes of Kurt Angle, The Big Show and The Undertaker came the way of Lesnar.

His subsequent departure from the company in 2004 meant that his recent appearance on Smackdown was his first in 15 years. Had he not left for new ventures, who knows how successful a career he could have had on the Blue Brand.

#4 Batista

Upon moving to Smackdown, The Animal would instantly be positioned as the brand's top star
Upon moving to Smackdown, The Animal would instantly be positioned as the brand's top star

Having spent a year building him up to be champion, you can only speculate how big a blow it would have been to those that run Smackdown when they were told that John Cena was moving to RAW.

Luckily for them, they had a ready-made replacement on Monday nights who would play a pivotal role for them for the next four or so years.

Batista had won gold of his own at the same event as Cena in 2005, winning the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 21.

Upon moving to Smackdown, The Animal would instantly be positioned as the brand's top star. A familiar and fond memory of my childhood would be the constant reassurance of Batista's signature pyro filled entrance every Friday night.

One of the reasons that I've gone for Batista on this list ahead of some of the names I mentioned earlier was simply his ability to come back from whatever knocked him down - mostly injuries - to feel like the main man on Smackdown.

Be it a torn right bicep or a disappointing WrestleMania defeat to The Undertaker, you could always rely on Batista to defend and work hard to ensure Smackdown wasn't seen as the B-show.

#3 The Undertaker

Mr. SmackDown
Mr. SmackDown

Speaking of The Deadman, to me, he was always Mr Smackdown.

Having initially been picked first for RAW in the inaugural draft, The Undertaker would soon find his way to Smackdown just a few months later.

He would go on to stay there until his part-time schedule kicked in early 2011. That's around eight and a half years of his distinguished career spent on the Blue Brand.

Now, despite its status to many as the roster which had the best wrestling quality, many a fan would still class SmackDown as the B brand. As a result of that, you would expect a Superstar of The Undertaker's stature to simply request a move if he wanted a better spotlight.

But no, he remained on SmackDown throughout, unlike the others on the list who have flipflopped between both shows.

On top of never moving to RAW though, he spent a lot of these years putting new, up-and-coming talent over. So not only was he defining his legacy, but he was shaping that of others.

He made Great Khali look great on his initial debut. He helped Edge look like a credible threat in his early championship days, solidifying the Ultimate Opportunist gimmick.

#2 Edge

The Rated-R Superstar was a mainstay during his time on SmackDown
The Rated-R Superstar was a mainstay during his time on SmackDown

Once more, a perfect segway into our next inclusion, and a man who makes the cut due to more than one notable run on SmackDown.

Edge was a part of the original SmackDown roster. Still relatively early into his Hall of Fame career, we were a couple of years off the main event run that lead him to multiple world titles.

In this spell in 2002, The Canadian served as a tag team specialist, something he was well accustomed to teaming with Christian for all those years.

Here, along with Rey Mysterio, they made up one-third of the Smackdown Six, who would frequently trade the Smackdown Tag Titles in the fall of that year.

After injury cost him a year of his career in 2003, he wouldn't return to the brand until 2007. That night, he would cash in his second Money in The Bank briefcase to defeat The Undertaker to win the World Heavyweight Title.

This would begin a near two-year reign of terror over SmackDown for The Rated R Superstar, in what many would regard as one of the finest heel runs in wrestling history.

He would use Vicki Guerrero and his La Familia stable to ensure he remained champion at all costs. Even when he lost it, he'd do everything and anything to win it back.

#1 AJ Styles

SmackDown was truly the house that AJ Styles built
SmackDown was truly the house that AJ Styles built

They didn't call The Champ That Runs The Camp for nothing.

After finally making a long-awaited move to the WWE in 2016, some fans were worried just how the company would book AJ Styles.

But feuds with Roman Reigns and John Cena helped to dispel those fears, and he was soon on his way to SmackDown as part of the re-splitting of the roster that year.

In the two and a half years he was running Tuesday nights, he helped to rebuild a brand that had struggled over the previous years with the dissolution of the brand split.

He would defeat Dean Ambrose at the first Smackdown exclusive PPV Backlash to win his first WWE Championship. His second reign - which started in November the next year - would last for nearly an entire year.

Sandwiched between both of these, he was able to work top-quality matches with the likes of Tye Dillenger, Baron Corbin, Kevin Owens and even Shane McMahon! His match with the so-called Best in the World was one of the highlights of WrestleMania 33.

Despite criticisms that his latter reigns got stale in terms of bookings, there is no denying that The Phenomenal One was still able to deliver in bouts against Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe despite creative stifles.

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