Ranking All 7 WWE SmackDown PPVs Since the Brand Split

Adam O'Brien

WWE.com

Where does last night’s WWE Battleground rank among the rest of SmackDown Live’s brand-exclusive PPVs over the past year?

We’ve officially surpassed the one-year mark with regards to the WWE brand extension, which saw the company’s main roster divided in two and dispersed among Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live last July. While there was a handful of moments over the past twelve months where each brand’s products took a dip in quality, the movement has seemingly been a success for the most part.

More stars are getting their chance to shine than before, fans have a larger variety of content to fit their preferences, and – for the first time in years – SmackDown Live is actually worth watching, given its exclusive athletes, storylines and championships.

Another exclusive has been brand-specific pay-per-views, and with last night’s WWE Battleground now in the rear view mirror as we turn our attention to SummerSlam, the blue brand now equals Raw with a total of seven specials since the draft.

After WWE Great Balls of Fire, we covered each of Raw’s exclusive PPVs in order from worst to best. Today, we’ll be doing the same with the “land of opportunity”. Have each of SmackDown’s shows measured up over the last year, or has the brand gotten progressively better or worse at bringing its feature stories to a close?

Without further ado, let’s take a look at every SmackDown PPV since the WWE draft.

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7. Backlash 2017

SmackDown Live went into WrestleMania with a reputation for being the superior brand, which is why it was so important to uphold that pattern as we moved past the annual spectacle. With April’s “Superstar Shake-Up” shifting some names around, there was a clear opportunity for the brand to maintain its popularity and stay fresh.

That’s a lot easier said than done, however, as SmackDown delivered its worst brand-exclusive pay-per-view thus far seven weeks after WrestleMania 33. The brand’s second Backlash event since the draft looked terrific on paper, but a lot of the matches that promised to be outstanding unfortunately fell a little bit flat.

6. Battleground

So Battleground wasn’t the worst event SmackDown has put forward over the last year, but it doesn’t even come close to the top spot. There aren’t a whole lot of words to describe the event other than “average”, as while nothing on the card stood out as absolutely terrible, not a whole lot really shined through as spectacular either.

The opening rematch between The Usos and The New Day from Money in the Bank was extremely riveting, with a whole host of sick spots and false finishes prompting the audience to chant “this is awesome” not fifteen minutes into the show.

Aside from that, things started to go downhill pretty swiftly. The Corbin-Nakamura match was slow with barely any standout moments, a disappointing pattern we’re seeing with the Japanese icon’s singles matches on the main roster so far.

The women’s elimination match served its purpose to get all women on the show, but when Naomi isn’t defending the title it doesn’t matter who’s competing. The championship looks meaningless because it seems being No. 1 contender is more important than being champion. Hopefully we see some changes soon if Carmella cashes in at SummerSlam after Naomi’s defense against Natalya.

The U.S. Championship match was very good, verging on great towards the end, with Styles and Owens maintaining a steady pace and leading towards a big finish – but it never came. Styles never hit the Styles Clash or the Phenomenal Forearm, but instead Owens pinned the man clean as a means of reversing a submission.

The issue here is that the ref, who had been injured, took a lifetime to count the pin and AJ Styles just sat there and let it happen, before looking gobsmacked at what just transpired. It just made the whole situation look goofy, and didn’t make Owens look like a dastardly heel – if that’s what they were shooting for.

HE DID IT...FOR AMERICA! @JohnCena wins the #FlagMatch at #WWEBattleground! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/9uajqusMRk
— WWE (@WWE) July 24, 2017

Cena’s flag match with Rusev was predictable and could’ve been done on the Independence Day edition of SmackDown Live. Rusev’s momentum upon returning to competition seems to be squandered already with the loss.

The main event Punjabi Prison match wasn’t as a bad as many expected, however. It started slowly as with any Orton-Mahal match thus far, but once the two men escaped the inner cage, the pace really picked up – with that sickening spot that saw one of the Singh brothers crash through the announce table.

The return of The Great Khali was a shocking development that led nicely to the inevitable result of Mahal picking up the win, and although Khali has never been a great performer, maybe this is the alliance Mahal needs to really hit home as champion. Who knows? Either way, the pay-per-view didn’t hold up with the best of SmackDown’s PPVs so far, and it seems there is plenty to work on ahead of SummerSlam and beyond as we progress further into the brand split.

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5. No Mercy

If this event showed us anything, it’s that nothing is more important in a pay-per-view than match ordering. In fact, if not for a couple of stand-out bouts, No Mercy would’ve easily found itself at the tail-end of this list for one poor decision.

Since the show was competing against the presidential debate, the night shockingly kicked off with its main event; a terrific triple threat for the WWE Championship, with AJ Styles barely retaining against John Cena and Dean Ambrose.

This match could easily have main-evented a SummerSlam or WrestleMania, so its quality was never in question, but the fact that the fans in attendance reached their peak at the top of the night was critical to almost every other match on the card.

The absence of SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch was also a huge blow.

The night would be saved, however briefly, by the Career vs. Intercontinental Championship Match between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz. This would end up being one of the best matches of 2016, with impeccable storytelling as “The Show-Off” attempted to turn his career around. His victory is one of the most heart-felt moments in recent memory, but it really should have main-evented.

Instead, we capped off a night of questionable match ordering with a main event between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt. Sure, this would end up being the WWE Title clash at this year’s WrestleMania, but it had no business closing a pay-per-view in October 2016 – even with the WWE Championship opening the show.

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4. Money in the Bank

In recent years, the “big fight feel” of Money in the Bank has been WWE’s best kept secret. Its fantastic line-ups have warranted the event to be considered by fans as one of the Big Four pay-per-views in WWE in Survivor Series’ place.

That hype was certainly present this year, with WWE again trying to make history with its women’s division by booking the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Unfortunately, we came out of this year’s Money in the Bank with our head in our hands as the WWE somehow messed that history-making moment up.

The show opened with this, but instead of the chaos and carnage we were promised, we got a short and safely booked ladder match with the most controversial finish we could have predicted. As it turns out, James Ellsworth would be the one to climb the ladder, retrieve the briefcase, and win the match for Carmella.

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The decision would later be overturned with a rematch booked for SmackDown Live, which Carmella won anyway. And this was the first match!

The rest of the card was decent enough, with The New Day vs. The Usos standing out as an exemplary tag-team championship match, sullied only by its count-out finish to allow Jimmy and Jey to retain. Lana performed far better than expected in her SmackDown Women’s Championship match against Naomi, despite her loss.

Randy Orton’s WWE Championship rematch with Jinder Mahal from Backlash would be a poor rehash of their already average first match, with basically the exact same finish aiding Mahal to victory, further damaging the importance of the title.

That said, a ladder match done right would close the show on a positive note, with Baron Corbin defeating Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens to become Mr. Money in the Bank. The match was slow to start, but would have fans on their feet come the end of it, with incredible spots and great encounters – such as Styles vs. Nakamura – standing out as highlights.

Regardless, the over-hyped women’s match would be the show’s downfall as one of the event’s predominant selling points would be made redundant just two days later.

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3. TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs

SmackDown closed out 2016 with a very strong showing at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs last December. With only two weeks to build towards the event after the clash between Raw and SmackDown at Survivor Series, the fact that the brand could deliver as good of a pay-per-view as it did is a testament to its terrific booking.

The night would see the first of two title changes in the opening match, as Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton defeated Heath Slater and Rhyno in a solid tag-team match to win the SmackDown tag titles. Surprisingly enough, this would be Wyatt’s first-ever title win since debuting in 2013, and it came at a great time with him, Orton and Luke Harper doing tremendous work as The “New” Wyatt Family.

The show would see great usage of the TLC gimmicks, with a terrific ladder match finally putting the Miz-Ziggler rivalry to bed. Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch would put on a very good tables match, with Bliss winning to kick off her first reign as SmackDown Women’s Champion – a run with the strap that would contribute to her being one of the most entertaining women’s wrestlers in WWE at the moment.

The night’s standout match would once again feature AJ Styles, whom successfully defending the WWE Championship against Dean Ambrose in a brutal TLC match.

The shocking heel turn of James Ellsworth was a fitting payoff to the obscure main event story that transformed the one-time enhancement talent into an official WWE Superstar, giving Ambrose new direction upon leaving the title picture.

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2. Elimination Chamber

With the excitement of the Royal Rumble only just subsiding, and hype for WrestleMania quickly starting to build, the final pay-per-view before the “Showcase of the Immortals” rarely stands out when the year is said and done. This past February’s Elimination Chamber event, however, is a glaring exception.

With yet again only two weeks to build to a pay-per-view after a huge inter-promotional event, SmackDown pulled out all the stops in building a card that would blow all expectations out of the water for a great show.

The undercard was solid, highlighted by American Alpha proving their worth as champions by running through all competition at their disposal in a gauntlet match that really showcased how great they can be given the right booking.

1. Backlash 2016

We started this list with Backlash and we’ll finish with it too, as SmackDown Live’s first pay-per-view under the brand extension remains its best so far.

Team blue had its work cut out for it with the role of putting on the first post-draft brand-specific PPV, giving Raw an additional two weeks to get their rivalries in order for Clash of Champions. Still, Backlash ended up being a tremendous event that set the tone for what would soon be SmackDown emerging as the superior brand.

Following SummerSlam, Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan announced that we would be getting two new championships on Tuesday nights for the women’s and tag divisions. Backlash would play host to the crowning of those new champions.

The first of those would come in a spectacular six-pack challenge involving the SmackDown women’s division, which would see Becky Lynch emerge victorious to break the curse of “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” that had plagued her.

In a similar, equally heart-warming tale, Heath Slater earned both a contract with SmackDown Live and a championship to sweeten the deal, as he and Rhyno defeated The Usos to win a tournament to crown the inaugural titleholders. This would all come after about two months of struggle for Heath Slater to be signed to either of WWE’s primary brands, a Cinderella story with a perfectly-executed payoff.

Throw in another decent Intercontinental Championship bout between Ziggler and Miz and you’ve already got a tremendous pay-per-view without the main event.

Next: WWE SummerSlam Match Card Predictions

That main event, however, would end the night in phenomenal fashion with AJ Styles living up to the nickname and defeating Dean Ambrose in a terrific match to capture his very first WWE Championship – cementing himself as the “champ that runs the camp.” Styles would go on to become the face of Tuesday nights, with his performance only serving to heighten SmackDown Live as the place to be in WWE.

Adam O'Brien

Adam is a writer based out of Dublin, Ireland, and ever since he was six years old, he has been a fan of professional wrestling. He’s put that passion to use, having written for a number of reputable networks including WhatCulture, The Sportster and Fan Rag Sports. He can also be found at SLTD Wrestling, where he takes serious pride in his work as an editor and site administrator.