Paul Heyman was fired as head writer in 2004. According to Heyman, he was caught listening in to a conference call discussing WWE Raw (1993). He made matters worse by admitting to Vince McMahon and Stephanie McMahon that he had fallen asleep during the call.
On September 18th, 2003, Brock Lesnar faced Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship in a sixty minute Iron Man Match. That match was voted "Match of the Year" by Pro-Wrestling Illustrated, the only match in Smackdown history to be awarded that honor.
The name of the show is derived from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's catchphrase "Layeth the smackdown".
On May 25, 2016, it was announced that SmackDown would become a live program on Tuesday nights. It was aired on Tuesday until September 2019.
Second longest weekly episodic television program.