By mark Rodriguez
Now that we've seen the 1000th episode with all the old school callbacks, let's take a look at the very first episode that started it all. Before all the brand splits, Smackdown was just a second show when one night of WWE a week just wasn't enough. The first episode aired August 29, 1999 and had some of the stars we still love today like The Rock and Triple H. Let's take a look at where the WWE was back in 1999.
Triple H Promo-
Triple H is the current WWF Champion with Chyna by his side and he starts things off by bragging about how he took down Mankind, Stone Cold, and The Rock.... which brings in The Rock ready to fight. Shawn Micheals is the new WWF Commissioner so he schedules a match between The Rock and Triple H for the title, and he will be a guest referee. Shane McMahon, owner of the WWF at the time, says he will also be a guest referee to keep an eye on Micheals.
Micheals says he can book any wrestler as he sees fit and since Shane fought in a special match in Summerslam, he considers him a WWF Superstar... so he pits him against Mankind. Mankind arrives and between him and The Rock, they take the fight to Triple H and Shane. We finally see our hosts Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross properly introducing the show.
Match 1- Jeff Jarrett VS Mr. Ass
Even though Double J was the current Intercontinental champion, the title wasn't on the line. The promo showing why Jarret and Ass hate each other, we that Jarrett even slammed his guitar upside Chyna's head, taking her out. The match was OK, but it got interesting when Chyna stepped into the scene. She grabbed Jarrett's guitar and smashed one of his valets down. Jerrett did manage to pin Mr. Ass and get the win, but Chyna would show up, get in his face, and sock him in the balls. She walked off as Jarrett laid there holding his junk in pain. Ouch, but hey, serves you right.
Match 2- Kane and X-Pac VS The Big Show and the Undertaker VS The Acolytes for the Tag Team Title- Triple Threat Match
Undertaker and The Big Show were the current Tag Team Champs at this time. Undertaker decided to basically sit this one out and hang with the commentators, leaving it all up to Big Show. This of course leaves him as a big target as the other 4 men would strike him down any chance they get. Undertaker smacked some sense into the giant, and he went back into the ring, fired up and started choke slamming everybody. Kane attacked Big Show with an off-the-rope strike but was taken out of the action. X-Pac managed to kick the Acolytes out of the ring, but this left him at the mercy of Big Show who would choke slam him and get the win.
Match 3- The Big Boss Man VS Al Snow for the Hardcore Title
I remember the Big Boss Man, but far from being a regular cop, now he seems to be wearing SWAT gear and he even stole Al Snow's chihuahua, threatening that bad things will happen to the dog if he doesn't bring the Hardcore Belt and put it on the line. Al Snow has no choice but to agree to a title match. The Boss Man does bring in the dog and leaves him with he commentators.
Al Snow cares more about his dog than the Boss Man, so he's distracted during the match. Being a match for the Hardcore Title, anything can be used and pinfalls can happen anywhere. Boss Man used a brightly colored blue ladder, and Snow managed to hit him with a chair. As Snow went to check on his dog, Big Boss Man clocks him with his nightstick and pins him outside of the ring. The Big Boss Man is the new Hardcore Champion... and he still runs off with the dog. What a jerk.
Match 4- Road Dogg VS Chris Jericho
Now this is the younger, crazy haired Jericho I remember from WCW and it seems this was his WWF debut. Pretty decent match here that could have gone either way. During the match while Jericho was on the ropes, a guy came over to give him an energy drink or something, but then he sprayed it all over Road Dogg and used that to his advantage. Then for whatever reason, Jericho decided to bring a table into the match even though using it would get him disqualified. He didn't care and still slammed Road Dogg through the table. He then put him in the Lion Tamer submission move from his WCW days, but it seems Lawler and JR didn't know what to call this move at the time. Jericho might have lost, but he did it with style.
Match 5- Ken Shamrock VS ???
This is a weird skit.... The same guy that helped Jericho with the sports drink is also a ring announcer, and Y2J gets him pumped up to be the best announcer he can be. The guy runs down the ring to the Ultimate Warrior's theme acting just as pumped up and out of control and gets into a fight with the regular ring announcer. He gets thrown out of the ring and Jericho arrives to get him out of harm's way. Just then Ken Shamrock arrives, ready to fight... but Jericho's buddy tries to pick a fight with him. Jericho lays out Shamrock with a steel chair across the back and leaves with his friend. Shamrock gets back and up and chases after them. That ends that, but we never even found out who his opponent was supposed to be.
Stephanie and Test
Then Stephanie McMahon comes in, ready to speak to a wrestler named Test that proposed to her and has been waiting throughout the program for an answer. Surprisingly, she says yes... but then Shane and his Posse arrive to break it up and attack Test. Mankind arrives and takes out the Posse with a steel chair. He then says he's not going to leave and come back a third time... so he wants his match with Shane now. He even gives him a free shot with the steel chair, and Shane takes it, apparently laying Mankind out. However, he still gets up and starts smacking Shane with his own microphone.
Match 6- Mankind VS Shane McMahon
Shane tries to get away but Mankind smacks him all over the announcements table and then tosses him into the ring, now with a referee. The Posse would cause trouble for Mankind but Test and Stephanie would take care of them. Once Shane's goons are down again, Test takes Steph out of harm's way and they leave together. Mankind manages to slam Shane with a DDT and then attacks him with Mr. Socko (yes, his gimmick was to wear a stinky sock puppet and shove it down the opponent's throat). Suddenly Chyna and Triple H show up, and Hunter slams a steel chair on the back of Mankind that helps Shane win the pin. Triple H and Chyna walk off, helping Shane leave the building with a win.
Match 7- Ivory VS Tori- Evening Gown Match
At this time Ivory was the WWE Woman's Champion, but the title was not on the line. In this match whoever rips the evening gown off the other, leaving them only in their underwear wins, and even Lawler remarks that the viewers will win no matter what. With this rule in play though, it makes for a very short match. Ivory wastes no time in ripping off Tori's gown, and then continues to beat the crap out of her until Luna Vachon comes in to pull her off. Seriously, the match was over in seconds.
Main Event- Triple H VS The Rock for the WWF Heavyweight Title with Shawn Micheals as the special referee
This was a pretty good match with both guys being evenly matched. However, Triple H still had Chyna at his side, so whenever she saw a chance to sneak in a cheap shot at the Rock when he was out of the ring, she would take it. Micheals had enough and sent Chyna away from the match. After she left, Shane would come in and purposely distract Micheals whenever The Rock was close to pinning Triple H. The Rock manages to sock Shane out and then hit Triple H with the Rock Bottom. Ready to finish him off with the Peoples' Elbow... Micheals surprisingly hits him with Sweet Chin Music. Triple H takes the advantage and finishes The Rock off with the Pedigree, winning the match and keeping his title. Shane, Chyna and Shawn Micheals all celebrate alongside The Game leaving the fans and commentators confused as to Micheals' sudden betrayal.
My Overall Opinions
This was quite a trip down memory lane and an interesting view into what WWE was doing at the time. This sure was the Attitude Era with wrestlers named Mr. Ass and Tori being shown in her underwear. I'm surprised that so many years later, we're about to have a PPV that features Triple H and Shawn Micheals facing off against the Undertaker and Kane, and that it wasn't that long ago that Shane McMahon was throwing himself off of steel cages. It's insane.
Unfortunately with all the promos and skits, the matches themselves were incredibly short. I mean Jericho purposely disqualified himself from the match. The match between Big Boss Man and Al Snow was a title match, but since Snow was more worried about his dog, it almost didn't feel like a true title match where both guys pull out all the stops. The evening gown match was over before you knew it. At least the match between Triple H and The Rock was decently paced. I'd say of the matches I saw at least the Triple Threat Tag Match should have been a bit longer as well, especially with so many awesome guys involved.
As for Chyna, I have to say I'm surprised how often she was shown in this episode. It seemed she was all over the place, backing up Triple H but also having personal business with Jeff Jarrett. I'm still surprised they had a guy smash a guitar on the back of a woman's head.
This was pretty awesome, though I noticed after the fact that while this is in fact Episode 1 of Smackdown, I didn't realize there was a Pilot Episode. I might have to come back and review that one as well.
Now that we've seen the 1000th episode with all the old school callbacks, let's take a look at the very first episode that started it all. Before all the brand splits, Smackdown was just a second show when one night of WWE a week just wasn't enough. The first episode aired August 29, 1999 and had some of the stars we still love today like The Rock and Triple H. Let's take a look at where the WWE was back in 1999.
Triple H Promo-
Triple H is the current WWF Champion with Chyna by his side and he starts things off by bragging about how he took down Mankind, Stone Cold, and The Rock.... which brings in The Rock ready to fight. Shawn Micheals is the new WWF Commissioner so he schedules a match between The Rock and Triple H for the title, and he will be a guest referee. Shane McMahon, owner of the WWF at the time, says he will also be a guest referee to keep an eye on Micheals.
Micheals says he can book any wrestler as he sees fit and since Shane fought in a special match in Summerslam, he considers him a WWF Superstar... so he pits him against Mankind. Mankind arrives and between him and The Rock, they take the fight to Triple H and Shane. We finally see our hosts Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross properly introducing the show.
Match 1- Jeff Jarrett VS Mr. Ass
Even though Double J was the current Intercontinental champion, the title wasn't on the line. The promo showing why Jarret and Ass hate each other, we that Jarrett even slammed his guitar upside Chyna's head, taking her out. The match was OK, but it got interesting when Chyna stepped into the scene. She grabbed Jarrett's guitar and smashed one of his valets down. Jerrett did manage to pin Mr. Ass and get the win, but Chyna would show up, get in his face, and sock him in the balls. She walked off as Jarrett laid there holding his junk in pain. Ouch, but hey, serves you right.
Match 2- Kane and X-Pac VS The Big Show and the Undertaker VS The Acolytes for the Tag Team Title- Triple Threat Match
Undertaker and The Big Show were the current Tag Team Champs at this time. Undertaker decided to basically sit this one out and hang with the commentators, leaving it all up to Big Show. This of course leaves him as a big target as the other 4 men would strike him down any chance they get. Undertaker smacked some sense into the giant, and he went back into the ring, fired up and started choke slamming everybody. Kane attacked Big Show with an off-the-rope strike but was taken out of the action. X-Pac managed to kick the Acolytes out of the ring, but this left him at the mercy of Big Show who would choke slam him and get the win.
Match 3- The Big Boss Man VS Al Snow for the Hardcore Title
I remember the Big Boss Man, but far from being a regular cop, now he seems to be wearing SWAT gear and he even stole Al Snow's chihuahua, threatening that bad things will happen to the dog if he doesn't bring the Hardcore Belt and put it on the line. Al Snow has no choice but to agree to a title match. The Boss Man does bring in the dog and leaves him with he commentators.
Al Snow cares more about his dog than the Boss Man, so he's distracted during the match. Being a match for the Hardcore Title, anything can be used and pinfalls can happen anywhere. Boss Man used a brightly colored blue ladder, and Snow managed to hit him with a chair. As Snow went to check on his dog, Big Boss Man clocks him with his nightstick and pins him outside of the ring. The Big Boss Man is the new Hardcore Champion... and he still runs off with the dog. What a jerk.
Match 4- Road Dogg VS Chris Jericho
Now this is the younger, crazy haired Jericho I remember from WCW and it seems this was his WWF debut. Pretty decent match here that could have gone either way. During the match while Jericho was on the ropes, a guy came over to give him an energy drink or something, but then he sprayed it all over Road Dogg and used that to his advantage. Then for whatever reason, Jericho decided to bring a table into the match even though using it would get him disqualified. He didn't care and still slammed Road Dogg through the table. He then put him in the Lion Tamer submission move from his WCW days, but it seems Lawler and JR didn't know what to call this move at the time. Jericho might have lost, but he did it with style.
Match 5- Ken Shamrock VS ???
This is a weird skit.... The same guy that helped Jericho with the sports drink is also a ring announcer, and Y2J gets him pumped up to be the best announcer he can be. The guy runs down the ring to the Ultimate Warrior's theme acting just as pumped up and out of control and gets into a fight with the regular ring announcer. He gets thrown out of the ring and Jericho arrives to get him out of harm's way. Just then Ken Shamrock arrives, ready to fight... but Jericho's buddy tries to pick a fight with him. Jericho lays out Shamrock with a steel chair across the back and leaves with his friend. Shamrock gets back and up and chases after them. That ends that, but we never even found out who his opponent was supposed to be.
Stephanie and Test
Then Stephanie McMahon comes in, ready to speak to a wrestler named Test that proposed to her and has been waiting throughout the program for an answer. Surprisingly, she says yes... but then Shane and his Posse arrive to break it up and attack Test. Mankind arrives and takes out the Posse with a steel chair. He then says he's not going to leave and come back a third time... so he wants his match with Shane now. He even gives him a free shot with the steel chair, and Shane takes it, apparently laying Mankind out. However, he still gets up and starts smacking Shane with his own microphone.
Match 6- Mankind VS Shane McMahon
Shane tries to get away but Mankind smacks him all over the announcements table and then tosses him into the ring, now with a referee. The Posse would cause trouble for Mankind but Test and Stephanie would take care of them. Once Shane's goons are down again, Test takes Steph out of harm's way and they leave together. Mankind manages to slam Shane with a DDT and then attacks him with Mr. Socko (yes, his gimmick was to wear a stinky sock puppet and shove it down the opponent's throat). Suddenly Chyna and Triple H show up, and Hunter slams a steel chair on the back of Mankind that helps Shane win the pin. Triple H and Chyna walk off, helping Shane leave the building with a win.
Match 7- Ivory VS Tori- Evening Gown Match
At this time Ivory was the WWE Woman's Champion, but the title was not on the line. In this match whoever rips the evening gown off the other, leaving them only in their underwear wins, and even Lawler remarks that the viewers will win no matter what. With this rule in play though, it makes for a very short match. Ivory wastes no time in ripping off Tori's gown, and then continues to beat the crap out of her until Luna Vachon comes in to pull her off. Seriously, the match was over in seconds.
Main Event- Triple H VS The Rock for the WWF Heavyweight Title with Shawn Micheals as the special referee
This was a pretty good match with both guys being evenly matched. However, Triple H still had Chyna at his side, so whenever she saw a chance to sneak in a cheap shot at the Rock when he was out of the ring, she would take it. Micheals had enough and sent Chyna away from the match. After she left, Shane would come in and purposely distract Micheals whenever The Rock was close to pinning Triple H. The Rock manages to sock Shane out and then hit Triple H with the Rock Bottom. Ready to finish him off with the Peoples' Elbow... Micheals surprisingly hits him with Sweet Chin Music. Triple H takes the advantage and finishes The Rock off with the Pedigree, winning the match and keeping his title. Shane, Chyna and Shawn Micheals all celebrate alongside The Game leaving the fans and commentators confused as to Micheals' sudden betrayal.
My Overall Opinions
This was quite a trip down memory lane and an interesting view into what WWE was doing at the time. This sure was the Attitude Era with wrestlers named Mr. Ass and Tori being shown in her underwear. I'm surprised that so many years later, we're about to have a PPV that features Triple H and Shawn Micheals facing off against the Undertaker and Kane, and that it wasn't that long ago that Shane McMahon was throwing himself off of steel cages. It's insane.
Unfortunately with all the promos and skits, the matches themselves were incredibly short. I mean Jericho purposely disqualified himself from the match. The match between Big Boss Man and Al Snow was a title match, but since Snow was more worried about his dog, it almost didn't feel like a true title match where both guys pull out all the stops. The evening gown match was over before you knew it. At least the match between Triple H and The Rock was decently paced. I'd say of the matches I saw at least the Triple Threat Tag Match should have been a bit longer as well, especially with so many awesome guys involved.
As for Chyna, I have to say I'm surprised how often she was shown in this episode. It seemed she was all over the place, backing up Triple H but also having personal business with Jeff Jarrett. I'm still surprised they had a guy smash a guitar on the back of a woman's head.
This was pretty awesome, though I noticed after the fact that while this is in fact Episode 1 of Smackdown, I didn't realize there was a Pilot Episode. I might have to come back and review that one as well.
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