10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2000

Kicking this one off with in-ring royalty, folks.

OK, all jokes aside, Stephanie McMahon meant a lot to the product back in 2000. She was Triple H's new love interest, and her family ties to the boss meant Steph was tasked with playing the "Billion Dollar Princess" who wanted for nothing by default. This just in: She was bloody ace at it.

This is a positive 'Steph as champ' entry, one that makes no apologies for it. McMahon won the Women's Title from Jacqueline on the 30 March SmackDown, and held it for approx five months before dropping the thing to Lita on the 21 August Raw. Fans hated this at the time, but it's so much fun looking back.

Women's wrestling was hardly an ongoing concern for the WWF in 2000, so Stephanie proudly flaunting her nepotistic title reign stood out. If nothing else, her heavy presence on programming meant the belt was on TV more often than not. Better than nothing during a flat era for the strap, no?

Vince McMahon reportedly thought he’d show those idiots down in WCW how to book a giant properly when he inked a monster contract with Paul Wight. Sadly for him, the WWF’s handling of their soon-to-be-rebranded Big Show was dirt poor. Struggles in 1999 increased tenfold by 2000.

It's kinda strange to look back on some of these SmackDown episodes to see Show being pushed around by the McMahon-Helmsley Regime. He was almost beholden to Triple H's tyranny at points, which didn't make sense for someone who could theoretically destroy everyone in his path if he woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

The mid-year feud vs. Shane McMahon, whilst well-remembered for some of the promos and bumps it spawned, didn't do much to help Show either. In fact, Shane treating this "Big Nasty Bastard" like a big nasty dummy by meme-ing phrases like, "Which way did he go?!" made Show look a bit crap.

WCW did Giant better early on.

There's this idea that Triple H buried Tazz on the 20 April 2000 edition of SmackDown and made the entire ECW promotion look weak. That's...not actually true. Anyone who says that blatantly hasn't watched the match in a while. It wasn't the complete squash you're probably envisioning.

Hunter sold a ton for Tazz in a fairly short match, and Michael Cole did a wonderful job of putting over the ex-ECW full-timer's toughness. Plus, Triple H had to cheat to win with a low blow after Tommy Dreamer had accidentally hit his fellow extremist with a steel chair. In short, the WWF bent over backwards to protect Tazz.

People never mention that today.

This 'Champion vs. Champion' bout (neither the WWF nor ECW straps were on the line) is remembered as a crippling blow to Tazz's credibility. Go back to revisit it, and you'll see 'The Game' sell Tazz's strikes and moves like he's running into a brick wall.

On 27 April, The Rock welcomed Steve Austin back into the fold days before working Triple H at Backlash. 'Stone Cold' was going to be the pay-per-view's guest enforcer that weekend, but he pre-empted his year-ending feud with Trips by smashing up the DX Express like only he could. It's an iconic moment.

An iconic moment that could've been even better had anyone bothered to sell it.

Vince, Shane and Stephanie McMahon couldn't have looked less annoyed had they tried. Shane's expressions, in particular, were ones of confusion more than outright shock. Triple H's sell job wasn't too energetic either, so this is defo one skit carried by Austin's mojo and Rocky's charisma on the mic.

Being honest, the stunt deserved way better. It's also odd that Triple H's gang were called the McMahon-Helmsley Regime, but they were rolling around in a bus for D-Generation X. Vince McMahon = the ultimate DX member, apparently.

Who needed who more? Eddie Guerrero or Chyna? Think carefully before you answer that, because the easy answer might not be the correct one. After binging SmackDown from 2000, it's clear to see that Chyna benefitted from the alliance more than Eddie. Why? Well, she badly needed it.

Chyna was in limbo following her Intercontinental Title stuff with Chris Jericho and the breakdown of her relationship with Triple H (both on screen and off). Eddie's charming 'Latino Heat' gimmick was the perfect tonic for her, if only because it further humanised someone who'd been an ice queen before.

Their skits together were a riot.

Originally, this fan thought Guerrero linking up with an established WWF star helped him bed in. Well, it did, but hindsight opens eyes to just how much Chyna got from the storyline herself. She'd have found it tough to keep going as she was without someone like Eddie to bounce off of on TV.

Tune into Raw or SmackDown now and you're guaranteed to see some lengthy matches. Some of them will even span two segments either side of a commercial break, and the quality will be sky high. In 2000, longer matches weren't really the main priority on TV - telling stories and presenting a soap opera-style show was the focus.

It's jarring to go back and see matches starring some of your favourites last anywhere between 2-5 minutes. For example, Kurt Angle vs. The Rock on the 6 January episode of SmackDown ended via DQ in less than four mins. The longest match of nine on that broadcast? Rikishi vs. Triple H at seven minutes.

This wasn't uncommon.

So many bouts were only just getting started when someone hit a quick finish or another wrestler sprinted in for the DQ/distraction. The industry's fascination with ref bumps was insane 24 years ago too. It was a wee bit shocking when refs didn't take a dive.

Keep in mind SmackDown's writing team was largely the same crew that penned Raw on Mondays, so they must’ve been knackered tying everything in and following up every few days. There was zero brand separation or individual rosters back then, meaning creative had to find new wrinkles for the same faces constantly.

That had to be exhausting, especially knowing Vince McMahon's relentless work ethic.

This writer would be lying if he said he was impressed by this at the time. It was just the way things were, and the WWF had to meet the paying public's demand more for Rock, more Undertaker, more Triple H etc. It's no wonder the brand split happened in 2002. That grind from the same core squad wasn't really sustainable for longer than a few years.

It's astonishing they didn't completely run out of ideas by halfway through 2000. McMahon had doubled their output in late-1999, so things were spread thinly across the entire week rather than unleashed on Raw and that was it.

Take a bow, writers.

The humble (ahem) 7 December episode featured a ridiculous wealth of talent in one match.

Get this: The Rock vs. The Undertaker vs. Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle for the WWF Title headlined SmackDown on free television mere days before that Sunday’s six-man Hell In A Cell bout at Armageddon added the cage, Triple H and Rikishi to the mix. That, dear readers, is epic.

The fact star-laden matches like this one were commonplace on TV back then is the real meat of this entry. Fans and announcers alike didn't treat the aforementioned four-way as anything out of the ordinary. It was just another week of bombastic WWF action. Roll up, roll up! Come see the stars.

WCW had to be crapping their pants seeing this sort of star power on the other channel. No wonder they decided to move Thunder to Wednesdays so it wouldn't get mauled in the weekly ratings. That was a fight the other company couldn't win.

Snagging four nifty workers from your main competition in one fell swoop was a lay up for the WWF. They brought in Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko as a collective, and slapped The Radicalz name on them. Mick Foley was also their best bud and rolled out the welcome mats.

On 3 February, Triple H agreed to give these Radicalz WWF contracts (they already had them?) if they could win two of their three matches that night. The group lost all three; X-Pac beat Malenko, New Age Outlaws beat Guerrero and Saturn, and Hunter beat Benoit. It was an inauspicious start to life in the WWF, let's be real about it.

Benoit and Guerrero would settle down eventually, but this should’ve been a warning sign for Malenko and Saturn that the grass wasn't necessarily greener. Unlike Tazz, the federation did make this group of WCW rebels look like they weren't good enough to cut it in the big leagues.

Triple H even said as much during his scathing promo.

This is the single biggest takeaway from consuming all 52 episodes.

It was tough not to double or triple up on episodes when binging. Not only that, but it was hard not to check out Raw in between SmackDown shows to fill in the story gaps. This fan has watched those before for other articles, but the WWF really knew how to get you hooked during this time period.

The classic two hour format, which is naturally shorter without USA Network's ad breaks on the WWE Network/Peacock, was perfect and left you craving more. The company was amazing at TV cliffhangers back then too. They closed episodes by dangling carrots aplenty, and that meant "one more episode" before bed.

Can anyone say the same for WWE TV now? That's not meant to be as brutally harsh as it probs comes across, but the landscape has changed. Raw's accepted three-hour duration is a marathon not a sprint, and cliffhangers aren't as common as they were in 2000.

Maybe they should be.

What caught your eye from SmackDown's first full year as a TV show? For more WWE, check out 10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 1999 and Flawed Wrestlers Who Became GREAT Human Beings!