Last month marked the 20-year-anniversary of WWE SmackDown. This Blue-band show has since provided the world with some great athletes and great shows. Wrestlers like John Cena, The Rock, The Undertaker, AJ Styles, Batista, Randy Orton, and countless others showcased their talents in SmackDown and later became WWE legends. The WWE SmackDown made its debut in 1999 to compete with WCW’s Thursday night show, Thunder. SmackDown became so famous that WCW had to move Thunder to Wednesday. SmackDown made use of the colour blue, earning the nickname 'The Blue-Band Show' among WWE (formerly known as WWF) fans.

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The History of WWE SmackDown 

In 2002, WWE underwent 'The Brand Extension' which divided WWE into two parts, RAW and SmackDown. The announcement was made on March 2002 and was made official the next day. This created a lot of problems, like Brock Lesnar who was then in SmackDown refused to defend his WWE Undisputed Champion title on Raw, which caused the title to become a SmackDown exclusive. WWE officials then had to unveil the World Heavyweight Championship as a Raw-exclusive title.

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WWE then changed many Networks, between 2006 to 2015, the wrestling company telecasted its shows on the CW Network, then moved to MyNetworkTV on 2008 and then shifted to Syfy in 2010. SmackDown was with Syfy for five years where it saw many changes. Former wrestler Booker T started commentating for SmackDown, and the Blue-Band telecast the second-largest episode in American television history. Memorable matches like John Cena vs Big Show and Triple H vs Sheamus were played between these five years. WWE and Syfy officials then decided to telecast all the episodes of SmackDown on Fridays, which took the ratings of the show through the roof. 

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In 2015, WWE moved to USA Network and SmackDown was telecasted on Thursday and later it was shifted to Tuesdays. In 2016, WWE saw the return of Brock Lesnar and then WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H after the main event of SmackDown. In early 2019, WWE came into a five-year-deal with Fox and it is reported that SmackDown will be telecasted on Friday.   

Earlier this week, Brock Lesnar returned to SmackDown Live on Tuesday and delivered an F-5 to WWE Champion Kofi Kingston after challenging him for the WWE title. Brock Lesnar earlier lost the Universal Championship to Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania following which he was rumoured to make a return to SmackDown. With Brock joining the blue-band, WWE is planning to give SmackDown the same big stage as Monday night RAW before joining Fox. 

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