Professional wrestling television show.
Smackdown is one half of
World Wrestling Entertainment's main wrestling programming (
WWE Raw being the other). It is
taped every Tuesday night and broadcast on
UPN on Thursday evenings in the
US, or on Saturday nights on
Sky Sports in the
UK.
Smackdown is hosted by
Michael Cole and
Tazz, and is used extensively to further the
angles and storylines of the WWE. For obvious reasons, it is known (by
The Rock at least) as 'The Rock's Show'.
Smackdown has been broadcast regularly since July 1999, after a successful
pilot in May of that year (in which
Shane McMahon formed the
Corporate Ministry).
Following the
brand extension in the spring of 2002, Smackdown now has its own roster, champions and General Manager in the form of
Stephanie McMahon. At the time of writing, its top stars are
Kurt Angle,
Brock Lesnar,
The Undertaker and
Chris Benoit.