10 Ways Paul Heyman's Smackdown Was The Best Ever

2. The 'Smackdown Six'

Heyman certainly made Smackdown the best wrestling show on television in 2002/03, but he wouldn't have been able to that were it not for the ultra-talented roster he had at his disposal. In particular, a group of wrestlers who would come to be known as the 'Smackdown Six' - Eddie and Chavo Guerrero, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. That's an incredible amount of talent, without even mentioning Lesnar, Undertaker and the cruiserweights. Heyman had specifically requested Benoit and Guerrero to join with the others, for which he was laughed out the room. They couldn't believe that, out of the entire roster, Heyman wanted these supposed 'vanilla midgets'. But Heyman had a plan. He masterminded a three team feud, pitting Rey/Edge against Los Guerreros against Angle/Benoit. It produced some incredible segments and the matches were out of this world. Seriously, if you think the current crop of indie/internet darlings are producing some great work, go back and watch some Smackdown shows from the Heyman era. Not only did he have a great tag team scene, but the possibilities for other matches were endless. You can have Rey Mysterio versus Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero versus Chris Benoit, Edge versus Eddie, Benoit versus Rey. Either way, you're guaranteed a great match. One particularly great episode (September 26th, 2002) had a blistering No DQ match between Eddie and Edge and a Rey/Benoit/Angle triple threat match. The Smackdown Six peaked at Survivor Series in Madison Square Garden with a three team elimination tag match. All six men would go on to become World Champions and/of Hall of Famers.