Mid 20th Century
126-653: As individual (7 reigns): The WWE Tag Team Championship is a men's professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE , defended on the SmackDown brand division . It is one of two male tag team championships for WWE's main roster, along with the World Tag Team Championship on Raw . The current champions are The Motor City Machine Guns ( Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin ), who are in their first reign, both as
252-558: A Winners Take All match to claim both championships and become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions. WWE had billed the match as a championship unification match; however, both titles remained independently active. The Usos had defended both titles together across both brands as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship , but on a couple of occasions in early 2023, they also defended
378-653: A virtual audience and enhanced arena production. WWE returned to hosting and touring shows for both the SmackDown and Raw brands in June 2021. Since the move to Fox, SmackDown has occasionally been pre-empted to FS1 due to conflicts with other Fox Sports programming airing in primetime, particularly the Major League Baseball postseason. In one instance in October 2019 due to the World Series , an hour-long version of
504-539: A virtual audience displayed on a grandstand constructed from video boards. With the return to live shows in July 2021, a new universal stage was adopted by both SmackDown and Raw , with a high-resolution LED screen, and increasing use of augmented reality graphics for the television production. Notes On July 10, 2007, Merriam-Webster included the word smackdown in Webster's Dictionary . Merriam Webster defined
630-446: A " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to the platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of
756-732: A "pre-game" show. The move saw Syfy paying close to $ 30 million for the show as opposed to the $ 20 million paid by its former network MyNetworkTV. During the August 29, 2011 episode of Raw , WWE dissolved the brand extension, thus allowing performers to appear on Raw and SmackDown at any given time without restriction. The October 14, 2011, episode made SmackDown the second-longest-running weekly episodic television series of American television history (behind Raw , which surpassed that mark on August 1, 2005). On January 18, 2013, SmackDown celebrated its 700th episode. On October 10, 2014, SmackDown celebrated its 15-year anniversary. To help celebrate
882-571: A "smackdown" as: The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the word smackdown in English back at least as far as 1990, but notes that a professional wrestling television show "popularized" the term. Throughout its broadcast history, the show has aired editions that have different themes. These include tributes to various professional wrestlers who have recently died or retired from actively performing, and episodes commemorating various show milestones or anniversaries. Although SmackDown has been
1008-590: A WWE-oriented studio show ( WWE Backstage ) on FS1. From March 13, 2020, all WWE touring shows were cancelled indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic , with SmackDown , Raw , and pay-per-views being broadcast from a studio in the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida with no audience beginning that night. The ensuing episode also featured Triple H as a guest commentator, and an encore presentation of
1134-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
1260-520: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
1386-513: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
SECTION 10
#17330936937011512-574: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
1638-430: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . WWE SmackDown WWE SmackDown , also known as Friday Night SmackDown or simply SmackDown ,
1764-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
1890-558: A few days after the Raw Tag Team Championship was renamed as the World Tag Team Championship with its own new title belts. † When Chad Gable suffered a storyline injury after defeating The Usos , American Alpha were removed from the final. The Usos then defeated The Hype Bros at Backlash in a second chance tag team match to replace American Alpha in the final. When the championship was first introduced as
2016-785: A few hours earlier in Ireland and the United Kingdom than in the United States (and a day earlier in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the Philippines) due to time differences. For international broadcast listings, see below . The show celebrated its 15th anniversary on October 10, 2014, and the 1000th episode on October 16, 2018. The WWE Network ceased operations in the United States on April 4, 2021, with all content moved to Peacock which now has all previous episodes of SmackDown . Recent episodes are still available for on-demand viewing 30 days after
2142-414: A genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has a more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for
2268-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
2394-451: A live 800th episode special on Syfy's sister channel USA Network , SuperSmackDown Live! , featuring a main event between Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins . In January 2015, SmackDown returned to a Thursday time slot. The return to Thursday nights was expected to help attract a younger audience to Syfy, as well as more premium advertising dollars from marketers, who tend to spend more to promote their products, especially film releases, on
2520-416: A manner reminiscent of athletic conferences ). In the 2004–05 season, SmackDown! had an average viewership of 5.1 million viewers, making it UPN's second-highest-rated series behind America's Next Top Model . With the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise , SmackDown! moved into its former timeslot on Friday nights for the 2005–06 season, beginning September 9, 2005. WWE subsequently announced that
2646-754: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
SECTION 20
#17330936937012772-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
2898-446: A removable center section which can be replaced with the reigning champion's logo; the default side plates feature the WWE logo over a globe. The two smaller outer side plates have a shield design with two wrestlers grappling. As of December 1, 2024, overall there have been 34 reigns between 24 teams composed of 44 individual champions, and one vacancy. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno were
3024-421: A small LED board to the left side of the ring on SmackDown , similar to Raw . On the September 14, 2015 season premiere of Raw , the middle rope was colored gold. Throughout the month of October 2015, the WWE broadcast table, entrance ramp, and ring skirts were co-branded with Susan G. Komen for the cure of breast cancer. Also, the middle ring rope was pink to promote the fight against breast cancer. Following
3150-416: A special pink middle-rope in the ring. SmackDown ' s ring ropes were usually blue from 1999 to 2012 (although they were black for a period between 2001 and 2002). They remained blue until December 2012 when they were permanently changed to white, with all WWE programming now using white ring ropes. On August 22, 2014, SmackDown switched to a full 16:9 letterbox presentation, with a down-scaled version of
3276-550: A tag team title. Over the course of the following month, SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan stated that he wanted to build up the tag team division before introducing a championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016, episode of SmackDown Live , Bryan and SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon introduced the SmackDown Tag Team Championship; the WWE Tag Team Championship
3402-482: A team and individually. They defeated The Bloodline ( Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa ) on the October 25, 2024 episode of SmackDown in Brooklyn, New York . Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling ) is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with
3528-550: A team and individually. They won the titles by defeating The Bloodline ( Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa ) on the October 25, 2024 episode of SmackDown . The championship was originally established as the SmackDown Tag Team Championship on August 23, 2016, and Heath Slater and Rhyno were the inaugural champions. It was introduced for the SmackDown brand as a second title for tag teams in the promotion to complement
3654-497: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
3780-575: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
3906-936: A wrestling match. The primary commentators for SmackDown are Michael Cole and Corey Graves . Additional commentary has been provided by Taz , Jim Ross , Josh Mathews , Mauro Ranallo , Tom Phillips and others since its creation. In addition to the Spanish-language Fox Deportes simulcasting with Fox live in the United States and broadcasts to American troops deployed overseas on AFN Sports 2 , SmackDown also appears on-air internationally. SmackDown airs live on Fox Sports in Mexico and across Central and South America since 2014. In Canada, SmackDown has historically been aired by Sportsnet 360 (SN360, formerly known as The Score), as part of network owner Rogers Media 's long-term deal with WWE. The program has historically aired sometimes in simulcast with
WWE Tag Team Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
4158-442: Is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE . It airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on USA Network . SmackDown is the most viewed television show on Friday nights in the United States of America. Fox Deportes simulcasts the program with Spanish-language commentary. The show features characters from the SmackDown brand , to which WWE employees are assigned to work and perform. It
4284-726: Is considered to be one of WWE's two flagship programs, along with Monday Night Raw . SmackDown! debuted in Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri UPN on April 29, 1999, and was formerly broadcast on Thursday nights. The show moved to Friday nights on September 9, 2005, and began airing on The CW in September 2006, after the merger of UPN and the WB . The show later moved to MyNetworkTV in October 2008. On October 1, 2010, SmackDown moved to cable network Syfy , and eventually returned to Thursdays on January 15, 2015. The show then moved to
4410-567: The 20th Anniversary special. The episode also marked the return of SmackDown to Friday nights and the return of WWE programming to Fox for the first time since Fox aired the November 14, 1992 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event . The agreement came as WWE's previous broadcast deal with USA Network to air both SmackDown and WWE Raw was set to expire, and as Fox has increasingly emphasized live sports programming and non-scripted entertainment in
4536-527: The Elimination Chamber match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship from the titular pay-per-view the previous Sunday. On August 17, WWE announced that SmackDown , Raw , and pay-per-views would move out of the Performance Center to the " WWE ThunderDome " at Orlando's Amway Center , beginning with SmackDown on August 21. The program continued to be broadcast behind closed doors, but with
4662-609: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
4788-762: The United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including a distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by
4914-406: The brand extension and split between Raw and SmackDown , it was announced that SmackDown would move to Tuesday nights and be broadcast live. On the July 11, 2016 episode of Raw , Vince McMahon named Shane McMahon the commissioner of SmackDown. Then next week on Raw , Daniel Bryan was revealed as the new SmackDown General Manager. On July 22, 2016, general manager Daniel Bryan revealed
5040-423: The 15th anniversary, Stephanie McMahon came out first, then Laurinaitis and Long, respectively, the latter of which kept one-upping each other for the main event of the night until McMahon decided to keep the 15-man tag team match that Long suggested, on the condition Laurinaitis and Long be the captains of each team like at WrestleMania XXVIII . Long's team won the match. On December 16, 2014, SmackDown aired
5166-577: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
WWE Tag Team Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
5292-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
5418-506: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
5544-411: The 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance the spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from
5670-466: The 2002 to 2010 version of the previous WWE Tag Team Championship belts used during the Ruthless Aggression Era . Unlike WWE's other championship belts of the modern era, which have three plates (a centerplate and two side plates), the WWE Tag Team Championship has five gold plates on a black leather strap. At the center of the center plate is a globe with the WWE logo over it. Above the globe at
5796-641: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
5922-518: The Day. As of August 3, 2012, the show has used the modified WWE HD universal set, which debuted at Raw 1000 on July 23. From September 21, 2012, until October 26, 2012, October 4, 2013, until November 1, 2013, October 3 and 31, 2014, and October 2 and 30, 2015, WWE worked in conjunction with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to raise awareness for breast cancer by adorning the SmackDown set with pink ribbons and
6048-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
6174-477: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
6300-527: The Ovaltron either to the left or to the right of the stage. In August 2001, as part of celebrating SmackDown! ' s second anniversary, the show received a new logo and set, which consisted of a fist centered above the entrance with the WWF/E scratch logo above it, and many glass panes along the sides strongly resembling shattered glass with two TitanTrons on each side. From September 23, 2004, to September 26, 2008,
6426-591: The Ring ( Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah , Saudi Arabia ), and August 31 for Bash in Berlin ( Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany ). On September 21, 2023, it was announced that SmackDown would return to USA Network in October 2024, following the expiration of WWE's contract with Fox. The agreement with NBCUniversal was reported to be valued at $ 1.4 billion over five years, an increase over
SECTION 50
#17330936937016552-696: The SmackDown Tag Team Championship, they featured the same physical design as the 2010 to 2016 version of the previous WWE Tag Team Championship (which became the Raw Tag Team Championship), with the differences being that the leather straps were blue as opposed to the former's original black and the plates were silver as opposed to the former's original copper. The renamed Raw Tag Team Championship belts were then updated on December 19, 2016, with silver plates on red straps to bring both sets of titles in line with each other. While all other WWE championship belts were updated to feature customizable side plates for
6678-496: The U.S. airing and sometimes a day before. In 2005, when the taped show moved to Friday airings in the U.S., it remained on Thursdays in Canada for a period of time. During its return to Thursdays in the U.S. from January 2015 to July 2016, pre-recorded episodes of SmackDown aired on Wednesdays—one night earlier—due to conflicts with the channel's Thursday-night National Hockey League broadcasts. The program has aired in simulcast with
6804-478: The U.S. broadcast since it switched to a live format in July 2016, initially on Tuesdays and then moving back to Fridays in October 2019. Despite the move to Fox (which is widely carried on Canadian television providers), Rogers had not elected to simulcast SmackDown on its broadcast network Citytv to invoke potential simsub rights. As Rogers holds the rights to the National Hockey League broadcasts ,
6930-446: The WWE Tag Team Championship with the Raw title becoming the World Tag Team Championship. During WWE 's original brand split (2002–2011), in which the professional wrestling promotion divided its roster into "brands" where wrestlers were assigned to exclusively perform on each brands' respective weekly television program, the men's world tag team championship of the SmackDown brand was
7056-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
7182-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
7308-550: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
7434-465: The brand split in 2016, the ropes return to its original blue color as well as debuting a new set. The post brand extension set was almost identical to the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs set from 2009 to 2013 and caused some negative feedback among online fans for re-using an old stage design. A month after the new set debut, a more distinctive and elaborate stage was created for SmackDown. The stage used
7560-412: The broader public. In the United States, wrestling is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as
7686-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
SECTION 60
#17330936937017812-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
7938-466: The champion's logos, the Raw and SmackDown tag titles were the only championship belts in the promotion that lacked this feature. In conjunction with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship being renamed as WWE Tag Team Championship on April 19, 2024, the belts also received a new design. The updated design resembles the title belts of the original World Tag Team Championship used during the Attitude Era and
8064-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
8190-461: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
8316-468: The competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on the independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in
8442-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
8568-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
8694-717: The episode aired on Fox the following Sunday afternoon. In conjunction with the 2023 Money in the Bank event, which was held at The O2 Arena in London, England , on July 1, the June 30, 2023, episode of SmackDown was held at the same venue, and broadcast live on BT Sport in local primetime hours for the first time. In 2024, the program aired episodes from other countries for the first time in conjunction with other WWE PPV's, including May 3 for Backlash France ( LDLC Arena in Décines-Charpieu, Lyon, France ), May 24 for King and Queen of
8820-597: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
8946-491: The final three episodes of SmackDown to FS1 to accommodate the premiere of Fox College Football in its former time slot. On May 9, 2024, USA Network announced that SmackDown would return to the channel on September 13, 2024, retaining its Friday-night timeslot. Starting in 2025, SmackDown will be exclusive on Netflix outside of the United States which includes Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. WWE taped SmackDown on Tuesday evenings to air on Thursday evenings on UPN
9072-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
9198-502: The first tag team championships to be defended in the main event of WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania , which occurred as the main event of WrestleMania 39 Night 1 in April 2023. The titles would again be defended in the main event of a pay-per-view and livestreaming event at Night of Champions the following month. The titles were then split at WrestleMania XL in April 2024 with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship subsequently renamed as
9324-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
9450-455: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
9576-505: The inaugural champions. The New Day ( Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods ) have the most reigns at seven, both as a team and individually, and their seventh is the shortest reign for the title at 3 days (2 days as recognized by WWE); during their first six reigns, Big E was also recognized as champion under the Freebird Rule . The Usos ( Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso ) have the longest singular reign at 622 days for their fifth reign, and they have
9702-464: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
9828-492: The individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in a professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
9954-471: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
10080-487: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
10206-425: The longest combined reign as a team at 1,002 days, while individually, Jey has the longest combined reign at 1,011 days (1,010 days as recognized by WWE). The oldest champion is Shane McMahon , winning the title at 49 years old, while the youngest is Dominik Mysterio when he won it at 24. The current champions are The Motor City Machine Guns ( Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin ), who are in their first reign, both as
10332-543: The main event of a pay-per-view and livestreaming event at Night of Champions the following month on May 27 when Owens and Zayn retained the titles against The Bloodline ( Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa ). At WrestleMania XL Night 1 on April 6, 2024, The Judgment Day ( Finn Bálor and Damian Priest ) defended the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship in a Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder match in which both sets of championships had to be retrieved for
10458-450: The match to end. As a result, the championships were split with A-Town Down Under ( Austin Theory and Grayson Waller ) winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championship while Awesome Truth ( The Miz and R-Truth ) won the Raw title. On the April 19 episode of SmackDown , the SmackDown Tag Team Championship was renamed as the WWE Tag Team Championship with a new set of title belts. This came just
10584-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
10710-442: The native HD feed on a 4:3 SD feed. Although the graphics were re-positioned, SmackDown continued to use a variation of the graphics package that had been in use since its first HD broadcast in January 2008, until the show moved to Thursday nights on January 15, 2015, when an all-new graphics package (now optimized for the 16:9 format) and intro video were introduced along with a revised SmackDown logo. On March 26, 2015, WWE added
10836-446: The new SmackDown logo on his official Twitter page, renaming the show SmackDown Live . On April 10, 2018, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon announced that Daniel Bryan was back as a full-time WWE wrestler and named Paige the new general manager. On June 26, 2018, Fox announced a five-year agreement to air SmackDown , in a deal worth $ 205 million per year. SmackDown would debut on October 4, 2019, with its first episode being
10962-417: The night as consumers head into the weekend. The last SmackDown airing on a Friday night had 2.43 million viewers with a 0.7 share. On January 7, 2016, SmackDown moved to USA Network, remaining on Thursday nights. With the move, all top three WWE programs— Raw , SmackDown and Tough Enough —would air on the same network for the first time ever. On May 25, 2016, as part of the re-implementation of
11088-514: The original SmackDown stage. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , all WWE programs suspended touring shows from mid-March 2020 through mid-July 2021. All SmackDown broadcasts were filmed behind closed doors with no in-person spectators, initially from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, before returning to an arena setting with a closed set known as the " ThunderDome "—which featured a larger-scale production more in line with its PPV shows, but with
11214-461: The original air date. WWF SmackDown! was set up to compete against World Championship Wrestling (WCW)'s Thursday night show, Thunder . SmackDown! first appeared on April 29, 1999, using the Raw set as a single television special on UPN . On August 26, 1999, SmackDown! officially debuted on UPN. Like Thunder , SmackDown! was recorded on Tuesdays and then broadcast on Thursdays. The new WWF show
11340-512: The premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain
11466-479: The previous WWE Tag Team Championship , which was established in 2002 to be the counterpart to the promotion's original World Tag Team Championship , which was designated to Raw . At WrestleMania 25 in April 2009, the titles were unified as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship , although both titles remained independently active until August 2010 when the original World Tag Team Championship
11592-472: The previous WWE Tag Team Championship, which became exclusive to Raw in the 2016 WWE Draft following the reintroduction of the brand split and renamed as Raw Tag Team Championship. From May 2022 until April 2024, both titles were held and defended together as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship , with each maintaining their individual lineages. Under the Undisputed banner, both titles simultaneously became
11718-537: The previous agreement. As part of the agreement, WWE would also produce four primetime specials for NBC per-year. With it later being later reported in September 2024 that the specials would be wrestling shows under the Saturday Night's Main Event branding marking the first such shows since 2008. The original date of SmackDown 's return to USA Network was October 4, 2024, the fifth anniversary of its premiere on Fox, however, Fox had originally planned to move
11844-565: The program is occasionally pre-empted to OLN during the Stanley Cup playoffs. All archived broadcasts of SmackDown are available on the WWE Network . Rogers Media secured the rights to Canadian WWE programming until 2024, after which in January 2025 the rights go to Netflix , but will not air on the Canadian iteration of USA Network , which will relaunch on the former Discovery Channel space at
11970-714: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
12096-620: The promotion's third major brand when it was moved to the USA Network in September, thus making the NXT Tag Team Championship the third major tag team title for men in WWE. However, this recognition was reversed when NXT reverted to its original function as a developmental brand in September 2021. During the May 20, 2022, episode of SmackDown , reigning SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated reigning Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro ( Randy Orton and Riddle ) in
12222-439: The purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise a bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether
12348-529: The same time. SmackDown airs live in the MENA region on Shahid Saturday mornings, and later on the same day, a one-hour version airs on MBC Action at 8PM Egypt Standard Time . SmackDown airs live in Australia on Saturday late mornings/early afternoons and Sunday afternoons on Fox8 and Friday nights on 9Go! as a one-hour version, and airs live in New Zealand on Sky 5 and Sunday nights on Sky Open as
12474-489: The same week. However, SmackDown had aired occasional live specials on Tuesday nights (which are then replayed in its usual Thursday night timeslot). The show began broadcasting in HD beginning with the January 25, 2008 episode of SmackDown , where a new set (which became universal for all WWE weekly programming) debuted. Following the first broadcast in HD, the exclamation mark used since
12600-400: The season premiere of SmackDown on MyNetworkTV was the highest-rated program in that night on the network, with 3.2 million viewers. On March 20, 2009, SmackDown celebrated its 500th episode. On October 1, 2010, as part of a new broadcast deal with NBC Universal , SmackDown moved to Syfy , retaining its Friday night timeslot. Prior to this premiere of SmackDown , Michael Cole hosted
12726-573: The second-largest show in the WWE, the company's use of the term went beyond its namesake program. During the 2000 U.S. election campaign, the WWE launched the SmackDown! Your Vote program. The name was also used when WWE released its 2015 film The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! and WWE Network 's show Kitchen SmackDown! . The wrestlers featured on WWE take part in scripted feuds and storylines . Wrestlers are portrayed as heroes , villains , or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in
12852-408: The secondary theme, then a swap was made, as "Born 2 Run" was used as a secondary theme, when "This Life" is used as SmackDown's main theme. Prior to November 2, 2012, SmackDown opened with " Know Your Enemy " by Green Day while "Hangman" by Rev Theory served as the secondary theme song. Upon SmackDown ' s debut on Syfy in 2010, it replaced the previous theme song "Let it Roll" by Divide
12978-410: The show would be renamed Friday Night SmackDown! to emphasize the new scheduling. In January 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced that UPN and The WB would merge to form a new network known as The CW that fall. As part of the announcement, The CW announced that it would renew Friday Night SmackDown! for two more seasons as part of its launch schedule—which drew from
13104-451: The show's inception disappeared from all references pertaining to "SmackDown", including the official logo, which resembles the 2001–2008 logo, but with a darker blue scheme. The early set included an oval-shaped TitanTron entrance and stage (dubbed the "Ovaltron") which made it stand out from the Raw Is War set with its rectangular Titantrons. Later productions gained the ability to move
13230-732: The sibling USA Network on January 7, 2016, and later that year, beginning on July 19, SmackDown began broadcasting live on Tuesday nights. SmackDown ' s move to Fox on October 4, 2019 marked the show's return to Friday nights and over-the-air broadcast television (as well as the second time SmackDown has aired on a Fox-owned network). On September 13, 2024, the show returned to USA Network. SmackDown has been broadcast from over 100+ arenas, 100+ cities and towns, and nine countries: United States , Canada , United Kingdom , Japan in 2005, Italy in 2007, Mexico in 2011, and France , Saudi Arabia , and Germany in 2024. Prior to switching to its current live format, taped episodes premiered
13356-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
13482-497: The strongest programs of its two predecessors. On September 22, 2006, Friday Night SmackDown! aired its first ever episode on The CW. The CW declined to renew SmackDown , resulting in the series being picked up in October 2008 by MyNetworkTV , a second new network that had been formed by Fox Entertainment Group to take on former UPN and WB affiliates who were not selected to join The CW. Retaining its previous Friday-night time slot,
13608-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
13734-503: The theme song for SmackDown! was "Rise Up" by Drowning Pool , with variations, making it the longest tenured theme song used in the program. Whenever SmackDown! shared the arena with Raw during the 2005–2007 period in a form of a supershow, the SmackDown! stage utilized all or some components of the same set from Raw . From November 2, 2012, until April 18, 2014, SmackDown began using "Born 2 Run" by 7Lions as its theme song , with "This Life" by CFO$ and Cody B. Ware serving as
13860-526: The titles separately. In the main event of WrestleMania 39 Night 1, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defended the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against the team of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn . This subsequently made both the Raw and SmackDown titles the first tag team championships to be defended in the main event of WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania . At the event, Owens and Zayn defeated The Usos to become champions. The titles would again be defended in
13986-418: The top of the plate is a crown, while below the globe are two black banners. The first black banner says "TAG TEAM" written in gold while the one below that says "WRESTLING CHAMPIONS", also written in gold. On the opposing sides of the globe are griffins facing inwards. Filigree fills in the rest of the plate, which has an ornamented border. Like all of WWE's championship belts, the two inner side plates feature
14112-505: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
14238-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
14364-405: The venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as a performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in
14490-454: The wake of its then-upcoming sale of its in-house studios to Disney . Fox had hoped to acquire Raw for the Fox network and SmackDown for FS1 . However, amid a competitive bidding situation, NBCUniversal focused its efforts on renewing Raw , freeing up Fox to pursue SmackDown . In particular, Fox promised a larger amount of promotion for SmackDown during its sports programming , as well as
14616-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
14742-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
14868-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
14994-412: Was a new design with multiple LED side panels on each side with a titan-tron in a semi circle in the center. The new set also introduced LED floor panels on the entrance ramp. Feedback was more positive for this set design. With the shift to Fox, both Raw and SmackDown introduced new sets during their "premiere week". The new set featured a large TitanTron screen, with semi-arches partially resembling
15120-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
15246-408: Was deactivated in favor of the WWE Tag Team Championship, which then became the sole tag team championship in WWE, available to both brands. The first brand split then ended in August 2011. In July 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand split and during the 2016 draft , reigning WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day ( Big E , Kofi Kingston , and Xavier Woods ) were drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without
15372-636: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
15498-590: Was so popular that WCW moved Thunder to Wednesdays so that it would not compete directly. Throughout the show's early existence, The Rock routinely called SmackDown! "his show", in reference to the fact that the name was derived from one of his catchphrases , "Layeth the Smack down". In March 2002, WWF implemented the " brand extension ", under which Raw and SmackDown! would have separate rosters of performers that are exclusive to their respective programs and events, and be positioned in-universe as competing "brands" (in
15624-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
15750-401: Was subsequently renamed Raw Tag Team Championship. An eight-team tournament was then scheduled to determine the inaugural champions, culminating in a final match at Backlash on September 11, 2016. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno defeated The Usos ( Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso ) in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions. In 2019, WWE's developmental territory NXT became
15876-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
#700299