Was Smackdown! ever the "A" show for you?

[BROSKI]

Smackdow lost the A show name when The Rock "Walked Tall" But really, I think it was when Batista got traded from RAW to Smackdown when JBL won the world title but then they didnt need a new belt.

[Vitamin Z]

To me Smackdown has always been the better show.

[cjskittles4]

In 2003

[vivalaraza1331]

Smackdown was the A-Show for me from August of 2002 until around January 2003. It featured great booking, the best wrestling in the world, and simple-yet-effective story telling.

[Dan]

It's probably fair to say that in 2003, Smackdown was at its all time strongest. It had Brock Lesnar in the Main Event as WWE Champion, one of the best Tag Divisions in WWE History with the likes of Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit, Los Guerreros etc. It had the Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon Fued, the Undertaker and Vince McMahon Fued, and the Cruiserweight Division.

The only downfall is that Raw on the other hand had the likes of Goldberg, Evolution in its prime, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

[cordless2016]

Easily from April 2002-June2005.

When they first started the brand split, Smackdown was the "A Show" IMO for the next 3 years. In 2003 it was at it's strongest, w/ Lesnar, Angle, Taker, Benoit, and Show being the main eventers, while guys like Cena, Guerrero, Mysterio, Edge, and countless other made up a great mid-card. The tag division from 2002-2003 on smackdown was also phenominal, w/ Teams like Los Guerreros, Angle & Benoit, Edge & Mysterio, The World's Greatest Tag Team, The APA, and The Bashams giving us good matches. Lets also not forget that Vince McMahon was also constantly on Smackdown in 2003, and not Raw, and Smackdown also had Hogan for a bit.

Raw was pretty bad at that time IMO. Triple H and Evolution dominated Raw for 2 years and most of the main event matches were crap compared to Smackdown's, mainly because of Triple H hogging it though IMO. Triple H had killed off so many guys that they were forced to bring Benoit to Raw in 2004 to give him someone new to fight.

Smackdown started to go downhill during the 2005 drat IMO. It wasn't that Smackdown was lowballed in who they got, but that most of the guys they got wern't that credible yet in the main event IMO. Besides for Benoit, the rest of the guys were still new to the top of the card. Batista was a new world champ, Orton was a failed world champ, Christian was still trying to find his way to the top of the card, and Hassan was over but was released about a month later. By the end of the year Christian and Hassan were gone from the company, Batista and Kennedy were injured, and Guerrero had passed away, leaving a HUGE whole on the show, to the point where Kurt Angle had to be quickly moved back to smackdown.

Raw, however, got Cena, who was also a new champ but was in better feuds than Batista after the draft, Big Show(proven guy), Angle(proven guy), Carlito(new guy), and Rob Van Dam(proven guy). At the time, Raw seemed like it had gotten alot better picks.

[Random Hero Est. 2003]

Between 2002 and 2005. Right after the draft up until Eddie's passing. They had the most talent and best storylines.

[Sami Hazard]

Dec 10, 2010 17:20:48 GMT -5 @machoking said:

Smackdown was without any shadow of a doubt the A show for me in the summer of 2009.

[MVH]

in 2009 to me it was

[k5]

Dec 11, 2010 10:00:37 GMT -5 Dan said:

It's probably fair to say that in 2003, Smackdown was at its all time strongest. It had Brock Lesnar in the Main Event as WWE Champion, one of the best Tag Divisions in WWE History with the likes of Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit, Los Guerreros etc. It had the Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon Fued, the Undertaker and Vince McMahon Fued, and the Cruiserweight Division.

The only downfall is that Raw on the other hand had the likes of Goldberg, Evolution in its prime, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

yea, however stone cold wasn't overly active and goldberg didn't make as big as an impact as he should've. smackdown was definitely kicking raw's ass at that time.

[tom]

2002-2004 for sure. Lesnar/Angle/Mysterio/Big Show/Benoit all tearing it up.