10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 1999

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SmackDown's debut year has a lot to thank 'WWE Champ' Arnold Schwarzenegger for...

Transcript

00:00Be it the debut of SmackDown or Arnold Schwarzenegger turning up, the WWE was firing off

00:05in 1999, and I tell you, it was a wild time. If you want to call the blue brand the most

00:10successful additional wrestling show ever, I think you're well within your rights to say so.

00:14But hey, let's go back to 1999 and see what we can learn by bin-watching the whole thing.

00:21Number 10, there are some weird matches.

00:23Alright, so we got all excited during that intro, but let's be honest,

00:26the WWF was definitely finding their feet with SmackDown at first, because man,

00:30there were some strange fights.

00:32Large reason for this was due to the fact it was the Attitude Era, and yeah,

00:36the in-ring portion of proceedings often came second to the madness outside.

00:40It's why during this period we got the likes of Triple H vs. Gilbert and Shane McMahon vs. Joey Abbs.

00:46If you jump forward to the 16th of September edition, my gosh, you get the Big Boss Man and

00:51Al Snow in a Pepper on a Pole match, and you heard me right and no, this was not good,

00:56shock horror, and in case you don't know, Pepper was a dead dog.

01:00Even ones on paper like X-Pac vs. Chris Jericho and Kane facing the game for the WWE title take a

01:05while to get going.

01:07It is the season, I suppose, but do not go out of your way.

01:10It's probably not worth it.

01:11Number 9, another tuxedo match.

01:13I mean, we could probably leave it there, right?

01:16What are we doing?

01:17It is to the 2nd of September SmackDown where Howard Finkel stormed out and challenged a totally

01:22confused Tony Chimel to this stipulation contest.

01:25Well, I'm sat here in 2024 and I'm still not entirely sure what's happening.

01:30It was all from the mind of Vince Russo as we saw Chris Jericho grinning from ear to

01:33ear backstage, because yes, this was when he had hired The Fink as his personal ring announcer.

01:38His emotion changed to terror here and there because for some reason this does indeed go

01:4310 minutes, but as suggested, we had already done this once before back in 1995.

01:48Number 5, fair Harvey Whippleman was our opponent and we should have learned our lesson, so let's

01:53do it now here, please.

01:55Never ever do this again.

01:57It wasn't very good.

01:58Number 8, people did not like Michael Cole, and I actually understand this.

02:02I've been there.

02:03Because when I first joined Watt Culture, everybody hated me.

02:07That's right, who the flub is this guy?

02:09Then they looked me up and my word, he's a bald a-hole.

02:12It was the same in 1999 due to the fact that everybody loved Jim Ross, so when his heir apparent

02:17rolled around, we were scared, and therefore took our rage out on Cole.

02:22Happens all the time.

02:23It's why Smackdown was a good idea as it gave new guys a proper shot, although Michael had

02:27been in the company for years by this point.

02:29It was just time for his big break.

02:31The thing is, if you do go and watch him now without this bias, he's good.

02:35Cole gets better with time of course, but to do what the WWF expected commentators to

02:40do, bam, you can see why they liked him.

02:42He also tries damn hard, which counts for a lot, which he's also done over the last

02:47three decades, so I think we all owe Michael Cole a nice apology.

02:52Number 7, The Rock gets a bunch of wins.

02:54Makes sense.

02:55It's his show, sort of.

02:57Look at this though.

02:58On the 23rd of August, Raw, Triple H won the WWF title, and three days later, as Smackdown

03:03kicked off, he was indeed facing The Rock.

03:06Shawn Michaels was brought in as a special guest referee too, and my word, about five times

03:10during this, you see The Great One clearly have the new champion beaten when shenanigans

03:15screwed him over.

03:16I mean, without Shane McMahon, he definitely would have done it.

03:19This carried on as well when The Great One was about to hit the people's elbow, went

03:22wham.

03:23HBK took him out with the sweet team music to realign with his old friend and stop Rocky

03:28from holding the belt.

03:29Everybody, including the commentators, made this clear as well, so yeah, we were protecting

03:34the most electrifying man as best as we could.

03:36This did make sense.

03:37It was not 2 plus 2 equals potato, because by the end of the year, he was going to be

03:42a megastar.

03:43The 7th Vince Russo's WCW template likely started here.

03:48That's right.

03:49It was in October 1999 when Vince Russo jumped to WCW, and he's always claimed a huge reason

03:54for that was Smackdown.

03:56Vince McMahon expected him to now work two shows for the same money.

04:00It's likely going to annoy anyone.

04:02I would guess Russo had this in his head too, as the first blue brand episodes feel a lot

04:06like what he would do over at World Championship Wrestling, aka, they are bonkers.

04:11Storytelling dominated the wrestling, as we had what felt like dozens of segments with

04:15a lot of bodies.

04:16There were just so many gimmicks.

04:18I mean, on the 23rd of September episode, we had a Chokeslam match, as well as an Inferno

04:22one, Boiler and Brawl, a Brahma Bull rope fight, and a First Blood.

04:27I don't know about you, but this feels like too much.

04:30If you have lost track, that is six stipulation matches in two hours.

04:33And now go and watch WCW when he was in control and get back to me.

04:37Exactly.

04:38Number five, it is pretty good.

04:40Yep, I want to make that clear.

04:42I really enjoyed it.

04:43This is mostly because the fans are so into the action, but you could also tell the WWF

04:48has confidence too.

04:49Whatever they were going to do, they were going to do it hard.

04:52Even when it does go off the rails, it works for one specific reason.

04:55The talent on the books were just excellent.

04:57Steve Austin, The Rock, Mankind, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, China Kane, all these people

05:02were treated like they were super duper stars, mostly because they were.

05:06It does mean that when things go totally crazy, they can all figure this out, and that combo

05:11somehow makes these shows zoom by.

05:13It is the fastest two hours of TV you could hope for, and you leave actually wanting to

05:17see what next week will bring.

05:19That is how it's meant to work too.

05:21Even in 2024, the WWF were just on it.

05:25Number four, not all the buildings are full.

05:28Right, straight off, I don't care.

05:30If a promotion sells out a venue, awesome.

05:32That is the best.

05:34If they don't, whatever.

05:35We are running 52 weeks a year.

05:38That is pretty hard.

05:39But your eye does catch certain things when watching these shows, and yep, despite being

05:42knee-deep in the added era, you can see that a couple of buildings aren't always

05:46packed to the rafters.

05:47Now, this could be due to the fact Smackdown was a new show, so fans wanted to see what

05:51the deal was, and one episode was in Vegas.

05:55WWE does have a history of weird houses there.

05:57It is most definitely the minority, however, and not the majority, but hey, you all love

06:02talking about it, so there you go.

06:04Stick it up, you pipe.

06:05I don't know why I said that.

06:06Number three, the sexual chocolate embarrassment.

06:09Never watch this with someone who doesn't get wrestling.

06:12In fact, don't watch it at all.

06:13No wonder Mark Henry took so long to work.

06:16This is awful.

06:17Early on in Smackdown's run, we really did lean into this, though, as Henry admitted

06:21he was a sex addict, and pretty much said this started with his sister when he was younger,

06:27and no, I am not kidding.

06:29Mark was in therapy during all of this, so in a state of shock, the therapist asked when

06:33the last time this happened was, and Henry replied, just the other day, and I shouted

06:38f*** off, and I mean it, it's garbage.

06:40This is full-on bottom-of-the-barrel nonsense, and you should stay well away.

06:44It's horrible stuff, and I don't know who the audience is.

06:47I never want to see this again, but I can't believe I had to watch it twice.

06:51My gosh.

06:52Number two, Schwarzenegger had a great time.

06:55We mentioned this in the intro, because yeah, Arnold Schwarzenegger appears on the 11th of

06:59November Smackdown as a promotional tactic for his movie End of Days, and he has a really

07:03good time.

07:04That's nice.

07:05It helped the WWF too, because it told you the show was going to be legit and not throw

07:09away, but man, this is a little weird.

07:12Not only does he ham it up with Vince McMahon, but he gets given his own title belt, and then

07:16during the main event as he does commentary, he knocks out Triple H.

07:20This must have been super cool for the real-life Paul Levesque, who was a huge Arnie fan growing

07:24up, plus you also see him backstage interacting with The Rock.

07:27Maybe he knew.

07:28It is the right use of a celebrity guest, though, and it is Schwarzenegger.

07:32He is, and was, a pretty big deal.

07:35Number one, they definitely muted some Jericho chants.

07:38We all know that when Chris Jericho first jumped to the WWF from the WCW, it didn't

07:43go to plan.

07:44It started well, then he ran afoul of the top guys and Vince McMahon, he had to start

07:48again.

07:49Chris was a heel in a feud with Ken Shamrock, but the audience didn't care.

07:53They loved them some Y2J.

07:55This is why the fans do indeed start to chant for Chris Jericho, but the production

07:58truck must have got an order to stop these.

08:00Because, yeah, you hear them vanish, and doesn't that just sum it up?

08:04Yes.

08:05Yes, it does.

08:06It would actually be a few more years before Jericho hit the top level, but once again,

08:09if you do go back to the late 90s and early 2000s, could we have pulled the trigger a

08:14little bit earlier?

08:15You bet your ass.

08:16But better late than never, but better never late.

08:19Now, please do leave a comment below and let me know what you thought about SmackDown in

08:221999.

08:23I mean, maybe you were watching it at the time, and if you do click the video on the screen,

08:26that's right, you're gonna get more Attitude Era nonsense.

08:30Also, thank you very much for lending me your ear.

08:32I do appreciate it.

08:33You take care of yourself, and I'll speak to you again soon.

08:36You take care of yourself, and I'll speak to you again soon.

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