WWE Smackdown/Awesome: Difference between revisions

* '''November 22 2001:''' Also the ''SmackDown'' before ''Survivor Series''. The main event was a tag match between [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] and [[Chris Jericho]] vs [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] and [[Kurt Angle]]. It ended in quite the brawl involving all members of the main event at ''Survivor Series''. It was [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDOVOQBNwg awesome].

** [[Jim Ross]]' commentary during said brawl made the moment about 20x more epic than it already was.

* '''December 6 2001:''' The ''SmackDown'' before ''Vengeance'', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2bMym_AeKA The Rock makes Vince literally kiss some ass].

** The setup was this: a week earlier on ''Raw'', Vince "inducts" [[Jim Ross]] into the "Kiss My Ass" club as punishment for laughing at him when he tried to have Austin "inducted". The following ''SmackDown'', he tries to do the same to [[Trish Stratus]], but The Rock steps in and has had enough of Vince's antics. Vince gives The Rock an ultimatum: if he loses in an inter-gender tag team match with Trish against Vince and [[Kurt Angle]] next week on ''Raw'', The Rock must kiss Vince's ass. Fortunately, [[Kayfabe]] co-owner [[Ric Flair]] says if Vince loses, ''he'll'' be the one to kiss The Rock's ass! If he doesn't, Angle will lose his shot at The Rock's then-WCW Championship at ''Vengeance''. With some help from Austin, The Rock wins the match and McMahon is scheduled to do the most humilating thing in his life on ''SmackDown.

=== 2002 ===

* '''January 17 2002:''' [[Chris Jericho]]'s "I am not a joke!" promo before facing The Rock for the WWE Undisputed Championship at ''Royal Rumble 2002''. The story of the night was that after Rock won the right to face Jericho for the title, everyone figured Rock was going to run through Jericho and go to ''WrestleMania'' as the Undisputed Champion. Jericho (then portraying a cowardly heel who would do anything and everything to hold on to his title) took exception to this, telling everyone who ever treated him as a joke (including the fans) to go to hell. Near the end of the promo, Rocky started to blow Jericho off with his usual catchprhases... then this happened:

'''[[Chris Jericho]]:''' ''"NO!!! NO NO NO NO NO!! THIS IS NOT A JOKE! I AM NOT A JOKE! I AM SERIOUS! AND YOU WILL NOT LOOK PAST ME,'' '''YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH!''' }}

** A powerful promo only slightly undermined by the fact that he lapsed into all-out Cartoon Supervillainy at times.

* '''October 31 2002:''' The WWE wrestlers hold a Halloween costume party backstage, which ends up including [[Eddie Guerrero]] dressed as Zorro, a hilarious backstage chase between [[Chris Benoit]] and [[Kurt Angle]], Tajiri with an afro being hit on by Mae Young, a fight between Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie in a kiddie pool filled with liquid chocolate, and the somewhat [[Squick|squicky]] kiss between Eric Bischoff and [[Stephanie McMahon]]. In all, it was one of the more surreal, memorable and hilarious episodes.

** This party is actually a very important moment in WWE history. Back in 2002, [[John Cena]] was not the face of WWE; he was an undercard babyface with little-to-no personality whose most memorable moment was debuting against [[Kurt Angle]] (and very nearly beating Angle in the process). Cena decides to attend the Halloween party dressed as [[Vanilla Ice]]. One freestyle rap later, Cena began a gimmick change that would alter the course of his career forever.

=== 2009 ===

* '''April 10 2009:''' The Cutting Edge segment had [[Edge]] hosting [[John Cena]] for an interview; after having done weeks of damn near embarrassing promos, both men cut an electrifyingly serious promo on each other, selling their Last Man Standing match -- and ''Backlash 2009'' -- to everyone. Not only do they reference their past feuds, but aside from a single quip, both men remained serious and emotional (which was quite a change in form concerning Cena). Edge's exhausted and hate-filled voice just emphasized this part:

* The Rock's long-awaited return to SmackDown for its 10th Anniversary show was a sight to behold. Even after five years of being out of the business, and having the handicap of his segment being pre-taped (and slipping in and out of character a bit, too), he is still clearly able to work the crowd with no problems at all. Whilst the crowd seems fairly subdued in the TV version of his segment, footage taken at the actual event shows the crowd going absolutely ''nuts'' for most of his promo and regularly breaking into chants of "Rocky! Rocky!". To top it all off, The Great One then heavily implied he'd eventually be a RAW guest host in the future.

* '''October 16 2009:''' [[The Miz|Miz]] and [[John Morrison|Morrison]]'s "Dirt Sheet" promo, setting up their match at ''Bragging Rights 2009''; not only was it hilarious, and not only did it do a stellar job of selling their match, but near the end, things get serious and Morrison tears into Miz with one of the best promos of his career.

* '''December 4 2009:''' [[Villain Team-Up|Unified Tag Team Champions]] [[Chris Jericho]] & [[The Big Show]] faced Cryme Tyme in a non-title match. Jericho & JTG, the smaller man in each team started the match & wrestled several minutes before reaching the point where both men needed to tag out. Shad & Big Show both got the tag and... Big Show ''immediately'' knocked Shad out with one punch & got the win.

** Jericho & Big Show gota [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] out of the end of the match too, when Jericho picked himself up a few seconds later to find the match was over & he asked Big Show what happened. The mics didn't pick it up, but you could lip read Big Show nonchalontly saying "I punched him."

=== 2010 ===

* '''January 22 2010:''' This was what turned the "Piggie James" angle from a bad skit to a powerful feud and certainly one of the best we've seen in a while. [[Lay Cool]] (Layla El and Michelle McCool) had set up a "Going away party" for Mickie James and talked about how they were forcing her out of WWE. Then '''Maria Kanellis''' of all people comes down and cuts the best promo of her career. But the real CMOA of the segment was Mickie's speech.

** All four women were solid on the mic and I can't remember the last time a Divas segment took up that much time on TV. The usually generic [[Lay Cool]] were getting great heel heat, and Mickie and Maria both got great reactions from the crowd.

* '''June 4 2010''' and '''July 23 2010''' will go down as the days [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]] delivered arguably the best promos of his career. The first date marks the day [[The Undertaker]] was announced as [[Kayfabe|having been found in a vegetative state by his half-brother Kane]], directly after which Kane promised that "There will be '''''VENGEANCE!'''''" The second date marks his first appearance on ''SmackDown'' as the World Heavyweight Champion, still vowing to take revenge for his half-brother while gloating over his world title victory. Both were accompanied by haunting organ music, the ring was appropriately bathed in red lighting, and Kane's delivery was so perfect that people declared these two promos his best ever - and Kane's not even really known for his promos to begin with!

** Cut to January 2011 and the ''Royal Rumble'' and Del Rio is over. He is ''oh so over.''

* '''August 27 2010:''' Undertaker returns to ''[[Smack Down]]'' to deliver one of the best lines of his career; after a promo the previous week in which Kane called himself "the Devil's favorite demon", in his big return promo, Undertaker told Kane...

* '''September 24 2010:''' After successfully defeating [[The Undertaker]] in a No Holds Barred match at Night of Champions, Kane challenges Taker to a Hell in a Cell match at...''Hell in a Cell''. His promo is interrupted by Taker's druids, who deliver a red casket to ringside. Kane, feeling that his brother lurks within, opens the casket - but instead of [[The Undertaker]], Kane comes face to face with ''[[Paul Bearer]],'' who has [[The Undertaker]]'s urn with him. The gong rings, the lights go out, and Undertaker is standing right behind Kane when the lights return. Taker then beats the living daylights out of Kane, but The Big Red Monster retreats before getting chokeslammed. Undertaker poses with Bearer inside the ring as Kane lets off a [[Big No]] on the entrance stage, realizing that ''he is screwed.'' Easily a Crowning Moment for both Undertaker and "The Father of Destruction" [[Paul Bearer]] (the latter of which hasn't been on WWE programming since 2004).

* '''October 1st, 2010:''' [[The Nexus]], in a 5-on-1 handicap match with [[The Big Show]], apply [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBa7Ff61K_E submissions to Show's head and all his limbs] and choke him out.