10 best WWE Smackdown only Pay-Per-Views
When the original brand extension took place in March 2002, WWE continued to present all pay-per-views every month as featuring matches from both brands. It wasn't until over a year after the extension, in June 2003, that WWE decided to try out solo branded pay-per-views for RAW and Smackdown, and the result was a success for the most part, considering shows were often light on major players.
With ECW thrown into the mix, WWE decided to end the trend in 2007 and reverted back to multi-branded pay-per-views that year, and officially ended the extension in 2011.
Due to a great influx of talent from their developmental brand NXT, as well as other talent being brought in straight to TV, the brand extension was revived on July 19, 2016, when SmackDown began broadcasting live on Tuesdays.
With this also brought the revival of single-branded pay-per-views, however, this trend would not last as long as the original. After just under a year and a half, WWE announced that the Elimination Chamber event in February 2018 would be the final RAW only pay-per-view, and Fastlane in March would be the final SmackDown, and thus returning to all pay-per-views being dual branded.
During both single branded PPV era's, we did manage to get some really excellent events, and here I will be looking at the top 10 best that came out of Smackdown.
#10 No Mercy 2003
No Mercy 2003 was an interesting card, featuring storylines that had both been built up for a while, and some thrown together last minute.
The ever-popular Rey Mysterio opened the show challenging Tajiri for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. This was a hot opening match, as these two had several matches on Smackdown during this time and never failed to deliver. Tajiri took the win with help from the future Jimmy Wang Yang, disguised as a fan.
Chris Benoit made A-Train/Albert tap out in a fair match. This was easily the best match of Albert's WWE career. It featured a very dangerous spot where Benoit was accidentally dropped head first onto a steel chair. A very concerned Albert could be heard very loudly asking his opponent was he okay.
The one-legged wonder Zach Gowen was up next, he picked up a big victory over Matt Hardy. This was just over 5 minutes so nothing much to it, Zach disappeared from TV within the next few weeks and never seen on WWE TV again.
The Basham Brothers beat the APA in a boring match with help from their dominatrix manager Shaniqua. In a match that was never seen before and never to see again, Vince McMahon faced daughter Stephanie McMahon in an I Quit match. If Vince lost, he would step down as WWE CEO and if Stephanie lost, she would as Smackdown General Manager.
In something today's fans would find hard to believe, the crowd were really into Stephanie here, as she was over. Considering what it was, it was an okay match, Vince obviously won, Linda McMahon threw in the towel while Vince was choking Stephanie.
The Big Show beat Eddie Guerrero for the United States Championship next. It was a good match which Show dominated for the most part.
The main event was the first and only ever 'Biker Chain Match' between The Undertaker and WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. Whoever acquired the chain, got to use it. Lesnar beat Taker to retain his title with help from Vince McMahon.
The best match came earlier in the show, when Kurt Angle and John Cena faced off. This was a very exciting match, with lots of near falls. This was also Cena's best match since his WWE debut match a year and a half earlier, which was also with Kurt Angle.