Ranking The Biggest Rivalries In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020

19. 2002 - Raw Vs SmackDown

Eric Bischoff, Stephanie McMahon
WWE.com

In the absence of obvious standout stars in the wake of Stone Cold Steve Austin's June departure and The Rock's permanently reduced role, WWE's brand extension became the biggest consistent talking point from an enormously uneven year.

What started with Ric Flair and Vince McMahon as the Raw and SmackDown Owners later morphed into Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon taking General Manager spots on the red and blue brands respectively.

Behind the scenes, separate writing teams helped craft enough of a philosophical difference between the two that there was at least partial believability in the rivalry, even if it wasn't able to yield too much in the way of an actual major match between the two sides.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 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 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, 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