IWE SmackDown

From Iwe

Revision as of 07:35, 4 December 2016

IWE SmackDown, also known as SmackDown Live, or simply SmackDown is a sports entertainment television program that debuted on August 26, 1999. The show's name is also used to refer to the SmackDown brand, in which IWE employees are assigned to work and perform on that program; the other program and brand currently being Raw. It is currently the only television broadcast for the SmackDown brand, though at one point IWE Velocity also featured SmackDown branded wrestling.

Prior to September 1, 2005, SmackDown! was broadcast on Thursday nights; from September 9, 2005 to January 9, 2015, it was broadcast on Friday nights. The show returned to Thursday nights on January 15, 2015. SmackDown! originally debuted in the United States on the UPN television network on April 29, 1999, but after the merger of UPN and the WB, SmackDown! began airing on The CW in September 2006. The show remained on the CW network for two years until it was moved to MyNetworkTV in October 2008. SmackDown moved to Syfy on October 1, 2010 and remained there until December 31, 2015. A week later, on January 7, 2016, SmackDown moved to its sister channel, USA Network. It complements IWE Raw as the second of IWE's two main weekly programs.

In its history, IWE SmackDown! has been broadcast from 162 different arenas, in 147 cities and towns, in seven different nations (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Iraq in 2006 and 2007 for specials Tribute to the Troops, Japan in 2005, Italy in 2007 and Mexico in 2011). Due to time differences, SmackDown! premieres a few hours earlier in Ireland and the United Kingdom and a day earlier in Australia, Canada, Singapore and Philippines than the United States, except for live episodes. For international broadcast listings, see below. The show celebrated its 15th anniversary on October 10, 2014.

As of July 19, 2016, SmackDown is broadcast live on Tuesday nights.

History

Original format (1999–2005)

Brand Extension (2002-2005)

Main article: IWE Brand Extension

Changing channels (2006-2010)

The CW (2006–2008)

MyNetworkTV (2008–2010)

NBCUniversal (2010-present)

Syfy and end of Brand Extension (2010–2015)

Return to Thursday nights (2015)

USA Network (2016–present)

Move to Tuesday nights and second Brand Extension (2016–present)

Production

Theme music

Cultural references

Special episodes

Main article: List of IWE SmackDown special episodes

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, as well as episodes commemorating various show milestones or anniversaries.

On-air personalities

Main article: List of IWE Smackdown on-air personalities

Champions

See also: List of current champions in IWE

Before the "supershows", the brand extension championships exclusive to Smackdown were seen. On the special live August 30, 2011, episode it was announced that wrestlers from Raw could now appear every week on SmackDown. This mirrored the proclamation made on Raw the previous day that SmackDown wrestlers could now appear every week on Raw. These moves made both programs full-roster "supershows", effectively ending the brand extension.

On July 19, the brand extension was brought back and for the first time ever, the brand extension was held on Smackdown. With the second Brand Extension, the current champions are listed below:

Broadcast

Canada

Asia-Pacific and Africa

Europe

Latin America

Online streaming

See also

• IWE Roster

Notes

References

External links

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