10 Great SmackDown Matches From WWE's Original Brand Split

Last month, WWE brought back the brand split. The company's roster was divided into two separate groups - one to compete exclusively on Raw, and one to compete solely on SmackDown - with the hopes of creating a sense of competition and making SmackDown's weak ratings grow.

It's too early to tell if the experiment is a success, but coming out of the initial draft, most fans felt that SmackDown was shafted. True, the blue brand did get John Cena, AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and WWE Champion Dean Ambrose, but Raw got the likes of Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Finn Bálor, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, The New Day, Chris Jericho, and many more. It felt like WWE was still devoted to making sure Raw was the company's flagship.

That's nothing new, really. During the original brand split - which lasted from 2002 to 2011 - Raw was routinely positioned as the top show, especially in the later years. While Raw got the lion's share of the focus and the stars, SmackDown had to make do with champions like JBL and The Great Khali. Nevertheless, the blue brand got a reputation for delivering great in-ring action, even without the company's biggest names.

This list focuses on television bouts from SmackDown during the original brand split. While the big draws spent most of their time on Raw, team blue got some of the best workers in the world, and the result was magic.

Here are 10 great bouts from that era.

About five months into the initial brand split, the rosters for Raw and SmackDown started to calm down. With a rule that trades between brands were being halted, SmackDown's stars were SmackDown's stars - and before long, six wrestlers emerged as the star men on the roster. The so-called SmackDown Six - Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Edge, and Rey Mysterio - spent the fall of 2002 having amazing bouts against each other.

One of the earliest outstanding TV matches involving members of the SmackDown Six came in September of 2002. Eddie Guerrero and Edge had been feuding for weeks, with Edge beating Guerrero at SummerSlam, but Guerrero returning the favor at Unforgiven. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, the tie-breaking blowoff match came on television in a brutal no disqualification bout.

Guerrero, who had been delivering greatness consistently since his return to WWE in the spring, was firing on all cylinders, and Edge - who really broke out as a singles star in 2002 - was game to match him. The two men made liberal use of ladders in the match, breaking their bodies en route to Edge picking up the win. Following the bout, Guerrero - who was a heel - got a standing ovation.