2002 was an exciting time to be a WWE fan. Not only did you have the return of legends like Hulk Hogan and the rise of future superstars such as Brock Lesnar, you also had the draft split. WWE became two separate brands on March 25th, 2002 and certain wrestlers became exclusive to either Raw or Smackdown. Over on Raw you had Katie Vick, HLA and the continued humiliation of Eric Bischoff. On Smackdown, however, you had an exciting group of wrestlers who routinely put on great matches and took pride in their performance. Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Edge, Eddie and Chavo Guerrero carried the blue brand during the second half of 2002. Engaging in a three way tag feud over the newly-created Smackdown Tag Team Championships, they made tag team wrestling important again. Any combination of the six would produce a great, exciting match. The Angle/Benoit versus Edge/Mysterio match from No Mercy 2002 was considered by many to be the best WWE match of the year. Many fans assumed that these great performances would be noticed and that Vince would push the guys in main events. They were having great matches and they were over. It had to happen, right? Well, not exactly. Angle, who was a main eventer before the 'Smackdown Six', entered a feud with Brock Lesnar over the WWE Championship. The rest weren't quite as successful. Eddie and Benoit continued fighting over the tag team and US Championship. Edge went down with a serious neck injury (keeping him out for over a year) and Mysterio was relegated to Cruiserweight Title duty. Edge, Rey, Benoit and Eddie would all get their hands on the big belt eventually but, by that point, a lot of fans had already lost hope that they would.