10 Worst WWE Smackdown Main Events Ever

Remember the Smackdown 6? You are wrong. These misses are the real legacy of the blue brand.

John Cena Jinder Mahal
WWE.com

As much as we all like to remember the 'Smackdown Six', the truth is that the blue show has spent much of its history as home for the giants of the wrestling world, meaning lumbering matches and main event feuds that have all the life and energy of Blackadder's asthmatic ant. It hasn't all been Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio; it has often been The Great Khali and Big Show.

There have been some seriously bad main events in the 21 year history of Smackdown, but some are so bad that they stick in the memory like a bad smell, shudderingly awful matches that still keep older fans awake at night. That might be a tad strong, but then many readers may not be old enough to have lived through a Great Khali world title reign or the very existence of Heidenreich.

Some were miserable in the ring, others saw bad matches accentuated by disastrous post-show angles. Some were lofty ambitions gone wrong, while others just had too much dog food involved for this writer's liking. Smackdown has been consistent in producing bad main events, but what do you expect from a show dominated by Undertaker, Big Show, Mark Henry and King Corbin?

10. Hardcore Holly Vs. Big Show - January 8, 2004

A lot of things came together in this match, a number of ingredients that make for a pretty wretched main event.

For one, Big Show as at his most immobile here. Maybe not the most immobile of his entire career, but immobile enough to make the match a dull affair, no matter the plunder. Show was the United States Champion at the time but there was a look in his eyes that said he had stopped caring, and his work didn't exactly dispel that myth. When 50% of the match isn't really doing much, you really need an all-time great worker on the other side of the ring to make the difference.

No offence to Bob Holly, but an all-time great worker he is not. Holly's brief push to the main event at the beginning of 2004 is maligned by most, but it is easy to see why it was done. At this time, the Royal Rumble often served as a testing ground for fresh championship challengers, allowing the Rumble match itself to be stacked with talent. Also, the story of Brock Lesnar and Bob Holly was too obvious not to go with, especially as Lesnar wasn't dropping the title until the next month.

But still, the crowd wasn't overly convinced, and that gave us a Bob Holly vs. Big Show main event featuring a disinterested crowd and Show, with Holly doing all within his limited powers to make something of it all. Those powers extended no further than head shots and choking, at one point even attempting to put a Full Nelson on the bloated Show.

The main positive was Brock Lesnar playing uber-jock on commentary. Always a joy.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.