The MVP of Smackdown’s first decade – Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since I saw Shawn Michaels don his trademark girlie referee outfit – complete with spandex short shorts – in the main event of the very first Smackdown.

Tonight, WWE celebrates the milestone anniversary of its blue brand with “A Decade of Smackdown” airing tonight at 8 p.m. on your local MyNetworkTV station.

Over those ten years, WWE’s B-Show has felt more like its F-show, especially during the years of Kenzo Suzuki and Moredcai. At other times, it’s very much felt like the A-Show, producing better storylines, better performers and better matches than Raw. I’d say that’s been the case for most of the last year, up until the present.

But I’d say the peak point of the Smackdown era came in 2003, when the show was built around one man – a man whose size, brutality and athleticism captivated the pro wrestling world – just as it is doing now in the mixed martial arts world. That man, of course, is Brock Lesnar.

In mid-to-late 2003, with Paul Heyman on booking duties, Smackdown was the show to watch. That was largely due to Lesnar, and his rivalry with Kurt Angle. Together, the two put on a series of classic matches, ranging from their WrestleMania XIX main event, to an incredible one-hour iron man match on Smackdown, to another classic at SummerSlam.

But, even Lesnar wasn’t mixing it up with Angle, he was still a heck of a lot of fun to watch. One of my favorite Smackdown feuds involved him and – of all people – Matt Hardy, who spent weeks calling out and mocking Lesnar, similar to how The Miz called out John Cena for weeks earlier this summer. The mismatches feud led to some fun TV segments involving Lesnar, Hardy and his “Moore-on” Shannon Moore.

As well, Lesnar provided one heck of a TV moment during a match with The Big Show, when the impact of a top rope superplex caused the entire ring to collapse. And who among us could forget the night he left “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan in a bloody heap during an episode of Smackdown.

But if I had one favorite Smackdown moment from its ten years on the air, it might be this one. You talk about a mismatch – Well, disparities don’t get much bigger than that between the superheavyweight Lesnar and the one-legged cruiserweight Zach Gowen.

This match showcased what made Lesnar such a star during his relatively brief WWE career. He was the ultimate heel – massive, intimidating, technically skilled, a good talker, and as vicious as they come.

My favorite part of this match is actually in the first half (which you could link to at the end of the video.) In it, he walks up to Gowen’s sweet old mom, stares at her up and down and sniffs her like a gorilla might do to his prey, and then just simply flexed one of his pectoral muscles. Just awesome.

And so, while Montel Vontavius Porter may have contributed a lot to the brand, for my money, the true MVP of Smackdown’s last ten years was Brock Lesnar.

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