Smackdown 2002-03 vs. Smackdown 2016-17

[The Rick Jericho]

In the history of this show, these two era seemed to be the best. Both booked, ratings and generally appreciated by the public. But, if you have to pick one. Which era was better?

Smackdown 2002-03: The Smackdown Six Era

Champions: Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Kurt Angle

Smackdown Six Stars: Benoit, Guererro, Edge, Mysterio, Angle, Chavo

People loved this era of action as it was a great contrast of the Raw is Crap era of HHH, HLA, Billy and Chuck. It was a wrestling show with wrestling performers. Plus rising stars like Cena in the division.

Smackdown 2016-17: The Smackdown Lit Era

Champions: Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles, John Cena, Bray Wyatt

People loved this era of action as it was a great contrast of the Roman Reigns show on the side on Raw. AJ Styles brought it as the fresh WWE Champion, the mid card was up and running like crazy with Ziggler and Miz. And Dean Ambrose becoming champion. James Ellsworth being a troll. And the women's division led by Becky being fresh and over.

Who do you prefer?

[Deleted]

Not all of it holds up, but SD from August 2002 through 2003 was mostly pretty damn great while SDL started going downhill around mid 2017. So I'll have to go with 2002-03 just because it was better for a longer period of time IMO.

[thehottag]

I've been watching WWF/WWE since 1992 & honestly, Smackdown from August '02 to April '03 was my absolute favourite time watching. Was it all gold? No, but what was there was so well done it was easy to look past the rest. New rising stars mixed with established names, a great tag division, & to top it off, Here Comes The Pain on the PS2 to play in the meantime.

[CeilingFan]

I voted for Smackdown 2016-17 because the Torrie-Dawn Marie storyline  ruined the 02-03 era.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

I'm more of a 2009 SD guy. I didn't really get the hype around the 2016 SDL, honestly. I did enjoy seeing a very fresh AJ Styles every week, though. I missed a lot of the "SD Six" era so I've only seen it out-of-context via match collections. Seems like a lot of great stuff from that time period if you ignore the Torrie/Dawn stuff that turned me away from it.

[Chiral]

I started wrestling with 2003 SD so I'm definitely biased to that time period. 2016 Litdown was excellent but cracks started showing up as soon as Ellsworth became a major focus late 2016, then started to fall apart with the shift to Cena's 16th reign and then awkwardly shifting from that to the Bray/Orton feud as the WM world title main event for SD. Then completely fell apart with Jinder.

[fw91]

02-03 felt just as much as an A show as RAW. 2016-2017 was great in terms of SD being its own identity and no longer being an afterthought after brand split 1.0 ended, but RAW still felt more important for some reason.

[Deleted]

Smackdown 2002-2003 is arguably the best time from a pure wrestling, storytelling, angles, character and fan combination that we've ever had in WWE. For as dope as SDL 2016-2017 was it can't compete with the loss of fans and the pure characters that we saw from 14 years prior.

[Bishblast]

It was really rare for an episode of Smackdown in the second half of 2002 to not have at least one really good, PPV quality match. For that alone, I have to go with that era, but there was some great stuff on SD in the second half of 2016, though the James Ellsworth stuff quickly overstayed its welcome and became too much of a focal point in the Ambrose/Styles feud.

[Nic Nemeth]

It may just be my age showing but being a kid during 2002 definitely made me love that era more. Lesnar was a legit beast, Big Show was a giant, Taker was a badass, Cena was unironically cool, Mysterio was a true underdog, Edge was the future, Eddie was hilarious, Angle was a wrestling machine and Benoit was the old wise vet. Hell even heading into 2004 with JBL was more enjoyable than heading into 2017 with Jinder Mahal.

It was just a special time that can't be recreated these days.

[-Lithium-]

Dec 12, 2020 16:43:49 GMT -5 DZ: WF Legacy said:

I'm more of a 2009 SD guy. I didn't really get the hype around the 2016 SDL, honestly. I did enjoy seeing a very fresh AJ Styles every week, though. I missed a lot of the "SD Six" era so I've only seen it out-of-context via match collections. Seems like a lot of great stuff from that time period if you ignore the Torrie/Dawn stuff that turned me away from it.

There was a short time after the draft in 2009 where SD just had an amazing roster. Edge, Jericho, Jeff Hardy, Morrison, Rey Mysterio, CM Punk. The short lived new SD6. I'll never forget how the whole draft everyone was feeling how shitty SD was getting treated as usual (where RAW takes all the guys SD built up and gives SD all the guys they ruined, repeat the next year), and then at the end I remember everyone in the chat I was in collectively realizing how great the SD roster looked now. I just wish Kennedy and MVP were able to stay. God knows RAW did nothing with them as usual. If you were a rising star on SD or ECW, you NEVER wanted to be drafted to RAW. No one ever did better on that show except for maybe The Miz.

But then of course...Edge got injured, Jeff left, I think Rey got wellnessed. Within weeks shitty ass Batista was over there just decimating guys like Jericho and it was back to the same old shit. Now if MVP and Kennedy had been able to stay, things could have been different for them and SD...

[thegame415]

Smackdown from SummerSlam 2002 to WrestleMania 20 is awesome.

[cornettesracket]

Smackdown 2002-2003 easily. I loved the whole vibe of smackdown during that period. The silver ring apron and the giant fist and the blue ropes and the whole look I loved. I preferred smackdown to raw during that time because as good as triple h was he was starting to take the piss on raw. Less is more as they say. Smackdown was a wrestling show and Paul heyman as a creative mind was a genius. Paul’s problem was he wasn’t the best business man ever and ECW is proof of that.

[Wilfred]

I didn’t have the channel for SD 02-03 at the time so I was only watching Raw. Then after reading online about how good Heyman was as booker I eventually went back and watched all of 02 and 03 in early 2010s and it lived up to the hype. Every thing flowed well, felt fresh, made sense and the wrestlers on the brand gave amazing matches every week. Felt more like WCW 96 than a WWE brand for some reason.

Then I also went back and tried to watch Smackdown 16-17, again, after hearing the hype online. I hadn’t watched WWE since 2014 and was hoping it would be different. I was immediately turned off by the same stale, boring, monotonous presentation, scripted robotic promos and for some reason James freaking Ellsworth was featured quite a bit. I gave up on it quick,

I just can’t get into modern day WWE. Maybe it’s nostalgia for the roster of the time, but I chose 02-03. Just really good stuff. I still go back and will watch episodes from that period several times a year.