WrestleTalk Roundtable – WWE SmackDown 1000

WrestleTalk Roundtable – WWE SmackDown 1000

I don’t know if this ever happens to any of you, but from time to time I’ll be struck by a sudden bout of nostalgia. Often it’s a fully-formed memory, other times just a fleeting moment from the past. I’m not always sure what sets it off, but last night it was definitely the beginning of the 1,000th episode of SmackDown Live.

The reason that SmackDown is so near to my heart traces back to the origins of my love for wrestling. When I was growing up, my parents couldn’t afford satellite TV. So my childhood selection was largely limited to free Saturday morning cartoons and the evening news, which aired weeknights on public television.

But my grandparents? Well they were living the high life off of that sweet, sweet pension money, which meant that they could afford all kinds of luxuries – like a TV package that included WWE programming.

The video package which aired at the outset of SmackDown 1000, as well as the periodic clips from yesteryear peppered throughout the broadcast, took me back to the days that I first got in to wrestling.

I remember begging my parents to drive the twenty minutes to my grandparents’ house on weekends and school holidays. If I was in luck my nine-year-old charm would be enough to guilt them into taking me up to their small townhouse on the other side of the city. Naturally we would have called ahead to make sure that snacks and refreshments were at hand: my personal favorites being BBQ potato chips and Fanta Grape (which is the only legitimate flavor of Fanta, fight me!).

As we arrived, I’d hug my grandparents, tell them about whatever mundane thing had happened at school that week, before casually shifting the conversation to wrestling. My gran would smile, tell me where to find the snacks, and present a VHS cassette – it was the 90s after all – and, with a pat on the head, sit me down in the middle of the lounge.

As far as primary school me was concerned, these were perfect days… shoveling industry-grade levels of MSG down my throat and chanting along to “SmackDown Hotels“, “resting in piece” and “ayatollahs of Rock ‘n’ Rolla”. I could go on for ages, but perhaps WWE itself is the best source for quick recap of the past 19 years of SmackDown.

So with the burden of two decades of SmackDown Live hanging over its head, could WWE possibly put on a satisfactory tribute show, balancing the sentimentality of the past with the talent of the present? Undoubtedly, it would be a tough task – especially with the constraints of a two-hour show – but we’re here to cover it all.

Read on to find out what our WrestleTalk writers enjoyed about the show and which segments laid a massive goose egg. Then leave a comment to let us know what you thought about the landmark show.

5 years ago by Nicholas Holicki

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