20 Greatest WWE SmackDown Moments Ever

The best of the rest ahead of WWE's biggest EVER television switch...

SmackDown Vince McMahon Undertaker Maryse The Rock
WWE.com

If a favourite moment is missing from this list, consider complimenting the company before castrating it in the comments section. It speaks to WWE's success over twenty years with a show often derided or demoted by design to prop up its bigger brother on Monday Night.

SmackDown has been all things to WWE at various points over the past two decades. At its apex it was the white hot go-home show during a period of unfathomable success for the organisation. At its nadir a dying recap show in between an abandoned and reborn brand extension. Thanks to a 2002/03 period with Paul Heyman at the backstage helm, it became the favourite of the online majority, and retained a (sometimes undeserved) reputation for being the place great matches still took place.

Though it took this current billion dollar deal with Fox to earn it, the show deserves as big a celebration for the milestone as Monday Night Raw has received seemingly every other week over the past few years. Particularly when reviewing just how much they've slotted in over the years. Even during the darkest days, the mood was anything but blue in the B-Show locker room...

20. He Hurt Kurt

As awkward as it was (literally) gripping, the shoot showdown between Tough Enough competitor and Mixed Martial Arts amateur Daniel Puder and Kurt Angle almost ended in disaster for the Olympian when the trainee very nearly broke his arm in an open challenge.

The storyline called for Angle the bully heel to roughhouse the candidates, but Puder's unexpected skillset left the Hall Of Famer in all sorts of bother before the two rolled into enough of a pinning combination for the referees to count three. Angle looked incensed as he squared up to Puder in the aftermath, with few fans fortunately catching how close he was to capitulation.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett