WWE: How SmackDown Live became the show to watch

SmackDown’s Beginnings

As the first woman chosen by Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan on draft night, Lynch became SmackDown’s first Women’s Champion at Backlash. Then, she lost the title at TLC to another future multi-time champion and top star in Alexa Bliss. Three years later, though, Lynch is sitting atop WWE as the WrestleMania 35 hero, a star on par with Cena, and the face of the Raw brand. And it all started with her initial run on the SmackDown roster.

Speaking of Cena, he was embroiled in a bitter rivalry with AJ Styles, as the two moved on to compete for Dean Ambrose’s WWE Championship. The matches were excellent, but they were nothing compared to the promos. Who can forget the words, “Have fun being the guy who plays John Cena on TV?”

Cena used his star power to help SmackDown get off to the right start in the main event scene, because when he left television, Ambrose and Styles seamlessly transitioned into a feud that elevated the WWE Title. Styles’s incredible work in his first year on SmackDown helped make him the face of the brand, eventually defeating shock champion Jinder Mahal in Manchester in one of the biggest title wins of 2017.

But the feud that really showed WWE fans that SmackDown would be different was the Intercontinental Championship rivalry between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler. Entrusted with elevating a title that legends like Mr. Perfect and Bret Hart held, Miz and Ziggler did exactly that. Despite being familiar opponents who had held this championship many times before, the close friends from Cleveland created an emotionally gut-wrenching story that crescendoed when Ziggler put his career on the line in his hometown; it made his win at No Mercy that much sweeter.

All the while, Miz wonderfully weaved a long-term story with authority figure Daniel Bryan. The two would cross paths two years later inside the ring on the same blue brand where Miz antagonized his former NXT pupil.