The year is 1999. People around the world are starting become terrified that computers will end the world come the turn of the millennium. Music was becoming edgier and edgier to the point where Limp Bizkit were a legitimate mainstream band, and for those who enjoyed watching television, they were introduced to shows that would go on to be critically acclaimed and culturally relevant 26 years later like "The Sopranos" and "SpongeBob SquarePants." Something else started in 1999, this time in the world of wrestling, as WWE looked to capitalize on their growing success by adding a second weekly show to their schedule. That show would be "WWE SmackDown."
"SmackDown" has become such an integral part of the wrestling schedule that a lot of younger fans simply can't imagine a world where the blue side of WWE didn't exist. Whether it aired on a Thursday, a Tuesday, or a Friday like it does today, whenever "WWE Raw" concluded on Monday nights, fan knew they could get another major dose of WWE action in the form of "SmackDown."
The show has undergone a lot of changes over the years. Just the set alone has seen oval shaped Titantrons and a fist so large that the WWE crew had to give it its very own truck just to get it from town to town. Bands such as AC/DC, Marilyn Manson, and Green Day have provided some of the theme songs for the show in the 26 years it has been on the air, and show itself has aired live from four different continents. With all that said, where did it all start? What was the first-ever episode of "SmackDown" like, why was it so special, and what made it so unique at the time?
That is what we're going to dive in to today. So sit back, relax, and join us on journey back to New Haven, Connecticut on the evening of April 27, 1999, where we take a look at the debut episode of "SmackDown," which now acts as the foundation for a show that has aired over 1,300 episodes at the time of writing.
If you read the date in that introduction and thought "That doesn't seem right," that's perfectly understandable as "WWE SmackDown," like many shows, has a debut date that has been argued about for quite some time.
The actual first episode of "SmackDown," or the pilot episode as it is technically called, was taped on April 27, 1999 before airing two days later on April 29. However, the episode that a lot of people claim to be the first episode of the show would be taped later that same year on August 24, 1999, and eventually aired on August 26. The August 26 episode that took place in Kansas City, Missouri is the first to feature the blue aesthetic that everyone has come to know and love, the oval shaped stage which is synonymous with the Attitude Era, and the theme song from Jim Johnston that is recognizable even to non-wrestling fans thanks to the success of the "WWF SmackDown" video games.
With all that said, the August 26 episode is the second episode that took place, with the April 29 show being the official debut of "SmackDown." Why was there such a large gap between the first and second episode? In the world of television, networks and television stations will order pilot episodes of shows to test the waters and see if audiences respond to them. For some shows, they can have a pilot air on a network and not have their second episode air until the following year depending on how many episodes a network has ordered and how long the show takes to make.
For WWE, they had already become masters of live television production by 1999, meaning they could put together a show and have virtually everything go according to plan without even breaking a sweat, making a show like "SmackDown" very easy to produce when it came to a pilot. UPN had been slipping down the rankings when it came to network television, and given the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States at the time, they wanted in on the action. WCW were owned by Ted Turner, meaning that UPN couldn't acquire any WCW programming as those shows aired exclusively on the Turner Networks, ECW was popular amongst hardcore fans but were not suited to network television, while WWE could shop their products around at will, and UPN ordered a pilot that went so well, they gave the green light for a second weekly dose of WWE programming,
Every wrestling fan knows about the Monday Night Wars. "WWE Raw" and "WCW Nitro" went head-to-head almost every week for five-and-a-half years in one of the most exciting stretches of television in wrestling history. The Thursday Night Wars on the other hand are not nearly talked about as much, with "WWE SmackDown" going head-to-head with "WCW Thunder" in the battle of the blue brands, but one thing that people seem to misremember is the fact that "Thunder" existed long before "SmackDown" was ever conceived.
By the end of 1997, Ted Turner wanted more WCW programming on his networks as "Nitro"had been comfortably beating "Raw" in the ratings for months on end. However, WCW Executive Producer Eric Bischoff didn't want another show to worry about, especially since WCW had been toying with the idea of making "Nitro" three hours. The powers that be insisted on it, and "WCW Thunder" was born on January 8, 1998, beginning with a three-hour live broadcast. This would of course put added strain on the quality of "Nitro," as well as upping the schedule of house shows in order to bankroll the "Thunder" episodes as it wasn't getting paid for by Turner, meaning that the more relaxed schedule that some wrestlers in WCW had joined for was now gone.
The January 8, 1998 episode of "Thunder" did a good rating for the time, but in the quest of taking advantage of being ahead of WWE in the wrestling arms race proved to be a step too far for WCW. "Thunder" would never reach the heights that Ted Turner wanted, and as WWE began to grow in popularity in 1998, eventually taking over WCW in the Monday night ratings, that's when they took their chance to even the playing field.
While "SmackDown" was created to be a second weekly show for WWE, it was never designed to be the competitor to "Thunder" despite both shows airing on Thursday night. WWE had simply exploded in popularity to the point where the almost needed a second show just to carry the wave of momentum they had created for themselves. Much like WCW creating "Thunder" to saturate the market as the number one brand, "SmackDown"was made under the exact same circumstances, the placement of the show being on Thursday night was simply a way of muscling WCW out of the spot they had created for themselves.
"SmackDown" would end up being the dominant "B-Show" on Thursday nights, to the point where "Thunder" actually moved to Wednesday nights in 2000, where the show would stay until WWE bought WCW in March 2001. "SmackDown" was less of a competitor to "Thunder," but more of a "salt in the wounds" type of show.
As time went on for "WWE SmackDown," it became very clear that it was seen as the "B-Show" in the eyes of both the fans, and the people in charge of the company. "WWE Raw" was the golden goose where all of the action took place, while "SmackDown" became a show, partially due to the fact that it was taped and spoilers were readily available, that wasn't as consequential and eventually for some, skippable. That wasn't the case when the show first started, so much so that a very noteworthy moment took place on the pilot episode.
At the beginning of the night, Shane McMahon and The Corporation took to the microphone to open the show which set up a tag team main event pitting The Corporation's Triple H and The Undertaker of The Ministry of Darkness against Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, who had just main evented WrestleMania 15 one month earlier. This was significant because later in the night, The Undertaker would arrive alongside The Corporation and eventually formed The Corporate Ministry, one of the most memorable yet short-lived factions of the Attitude Era.
The Corporate Ministry would ultimately be remembered for the infamous "Higher Power" storyline that took place later on in 1999, where The Undertaker revealed that he was answering to someone else rather than being the outright leader. That someone turned out to be none other than Vince McMahon, who was originally against The Ministry of Darkness as they tried to kidnap his daughter Stephanie force her to marry "The Deadman." While most of the memorable moments for the group ended up happening on "Raw," the group was formed on the pilot episode of "SmackDown."
Pulling the trigger on such a huge story-beat on the pilot episode of a brand new television show worked wonders with the audience as it gave the impression that anything could happen. This was something that would usually be reserved for Monday nights, but doing it on a Thursday to a network audience rather than a cable one made "SmackDown" a must-watch show right from the start. Add on the fact that the show would be main evented by four of the biggest stars in WWE at the time, who would all go on to be four of the greatest WWE Superstars ever, and "SmackDown" felt like a show that if you missed it, you would have probably missed something very important.
That wouldn't always stay that way, but it showcased a clear sign of intent from WWE that "SmackDown" was a show that would be as important as "Raw."
Outside of the formation of The Corporate Ministry, and the aforementioned all-star tag team match that closed out the show, the pilot episode of "WWE SmackDown" was, to put it bluntly, a bit all over the place. This is 1999 WWE we are talking about here, the height of the Attitude Era where "car crash television" reigned supreme. So if you go back and watch this show for yourself, don't be expecting any five-star classics because you'll be majorly disappointed.
Including the main event, a total of seven matches took place on the two-hour broadcast, and none of the matches went longer than seven minutes. In fact, the total in-ring time for the pilot episode of "SmackDown" comes in at 24 minutes and two seconds which, for context, is shorter than the match John Cena had with Logan Paul at WWE Clash In Paris 2025.
Of course, the wrestling was the least important part of the show during this era, but some of the matches did have their moments. The first match in "SmackDown" history was between The Blue Blazer, played by the late Owen Hart, and Val Venis, with the masked man getting the victory. The Big Show would proceed to beat Test in under a minute, D'Lo Brown's match with Droz ended in a disqualification, and the longest match on the show at seven minutes exactly featured Kane and X-Pac defending the WWE Tag Team Championships against The New Age Outlaws.
Ken Shamrock and Bradshaw would follow that with a No Holds Barred Street Fight which some fans have since called their match of the night. Mankind took less than two minutes to defeat The Big Bossman, and the main event of Steve Austin and The Rock defeating Triple H and The Undertaker sent the fans home happy.
The show is looked back on fondly for its historical significance, but from an in-ring perspective it isn't going to blow anyone away from a quality standpoint. What made the pilot episode of "SmackDown" unique looking back on it was that it is a true representation of how popular WWE was at the time, and a time capsule of where the company was heading. Everyone who wrestled on the show got a reaction regardless of their placement, the old school stage set up that would evolve into something more grand, and the stories that were told had everyone hanging on everything that happened. You wouldn't think this was a pilot, you'd see it as a bonus episode of "Raw" for how lively and energetic it was.
"SmackDown" has gone through many phases throughout its 26 year lifespan, some good, some not so good. But everything that has happened in those 26 years has been built off the success of this pilot, and for that, it has earned its place in history.
