10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2008
SmackDown in 2008 belonged to Triple H, Jeff Hardy, PG certification and...Vladimir Kozlov?!
2008 was the year when PG fever gripped WWE. Sort of. An awful lot of articles about that era bring up the fact that Vince McMahon embraced a kid friendly sheen again by trimming off some of the harsher edges from his product, but that's not strictly true. Any number of TV episodes from '08 will reveal that there was still plenty of 'Ruthless Aggression' to go around - WWE just weren't calling it that.
They were, however, calling Jeff Hardy one of the most important stars on SmackDown. In a clever move, management decided to bolster the blue brand ranks with Raw's top champion during the summer Draft, and that took some of the pressure from Jeff's shoulders whilst he concentrated on rising up the card.
It's also easy to forget just how stacked these WWE weeklies were back then. Some of the matches they hurled out in front of fans for a basic episode of SmackDown could've headlined top pay-per-views, and that includes the likes of Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series.
Bold new squash artists burst to life (then quickly faded), a true legend hated being barked at on commentary, Batista looked out his pistol to get all shooty on somebody special, and WWE introduced a brand new title designed to give the women's division something to do when they weren't vying for the core belt over on Mondays.
One can learn a lot from checking out SmackDown in 2008. Here's the best of it. Yes, yes there is some extra added CM Punk for good measure. He was another rising star of the time.
10. The 25 April Episode Was Blockbuster
Right, so disclaimer time: The 25 April 2008 edition of SmackDown featured such top tier bouts as Shannon Moore vs. The Miz and Vladimir Kozlov vs. Marty Garner (yes, that Marty Garner). In other words, not everything was bang on the money, but 2 matches sprinkled throughout the card helped the overall quality skyrocket.
This go home show for Backlash boasted a first ever meeting between Edge and CM Punk as well as a ‘No DQ’ World Title showdown pitting champ The Undertaker vs. Batista. Honestly, the PPV quality was rife during this era on free TV. That's something most of us fans watching at the time took for granted!
Shamefully, but loads of us did. This writer was one of them, so he's not throwing stones without taking a few pelters himself.
Punk had just won his first Money In The Bank briefcase at WrestleMania XXIV when he tangled with the 'Rated-R Superstar', and WWE fans were ready for it. They'd yearned to see Punk prove himself on the main roster away from 'C' show ECW, and now it was happening live and in living colour (ahem).
What a blockbuster 2 hours, man. No, Moore vs. Miz and Kozlov vs. Garner wouldn't live long in the memory, but Edge vs. Punk and a 'Mania 23 rematch between 'Taker and big Dave - are you freakin' kidding?! That pair wouldn't be out of place on the biggest supershows of the era.
This was also a few months before Punk cashed in his case on Edge during a June Raw. Weirdly, Batista was involved in that too. Brand synergy, people.