Outside of the formation of The Corporate Ministry, and the aforementioned all-star tag team match that closed out the show, the pilot episode of “WWE SmackDown” was, to place it bluntly, a bit everywhere. That is 1999 WWE we’re talking about here, the peak of the Attitude Era where “automobile crash television” reigned supreme. So for those who return and watch this show for yourself, don’t expect any five-star classics because you will be majorly upset.
Including the major event, a complete of seven matches took place on the two-hour broadcast, and not one of the matches went longer than seven minutes. Actually, the whole in-ring time for the pilot episode of “SmackDown” is available in at 24 minutes and two seconds which, for context, is shorter than the match John Cena had with Logan Paul at WWE Clash In Paris 2025.
In fact, the wrestling was the least vital a part of the show during this era, but a number of the matches did have their moments. The primary match in “SmackDown” history was between The Blue Blazer, played by the late Owen Hart, and Val Venis, with the masked man getting the victory. The Big Show would proceed to beat Test in under a minute, D’Lo Brown’s match with Droz resulted in a disqualification, and the longest match on the show at seven minutes exactly featured Kane and X-Pac defending the WWE Tag Team Championships against The Latest Age Outlaws.
Ken Shamrock and Bradshaw would follow that with a No Holds Barred Street Fight which some fans have since called their match of the night. Mankind took lower than two minutes to defeat The Big Bossman, and the major event of Steve Austin and The Rock defeating Triple H and The Undertaker sent the fans home blissful.
The show is looked back on fondly for its historical significance, but from an in-ring perspective it’s not going to blow anyone away from a high quality standpoint. What made the pilot episode of “SmackDown” unique looking back on it was that it’s a true representation of how popular WWE was on the time, and a time capsule of where the corporate was heading. Everyone who wrestled on the show got a response no matter their placement, the old fashioned stage arrange that might evolve into something more grand, and the stories that were told had everyone hanging on every thing that happened. You would not think this was a pilot, you’d see it as a bonus episode of “Raw” for a way vigorous and energetic it was.
“SmackDown” has undergone many phases throughout its 26 12 months lifespan, some good, some not so good. But every thing that has happened in those 26 years has been built off the success of this pilot, and for that, it has earned its place in history.