The Second SmackDown Six

The SmackDown Six was a group of wrestlers that wrestled for the SmackDown brand after the original WWE brand split in 2002. These wrestlers were: Rey Mysterio, Edge, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Chaco Guerrero. What made them stand out was the incredible matches the group put on in the early days of SmackDown as a separate brand that made it must watch television.

2016 saw WWE bring back the brand split and to say it worked would be an understatement, the second half of 2016 was absolutely phenomenal for WWE, especially on SmackDown. So who were the wrestlers who helped the second version of SmackDown thrive? Here are the Second SmackDown Six

AJ Styles: Starting with the obvious choice, the phenomenal one wrestled the best matches SmackDown had seen in years. Soon after being drafted to the blue brand, AJ Styles captured the WWE Championship, and as “the champ that runs the camp” AJ gave SmackDown the great champion it needed to stand out.

Dean Ambrose: Jon Moxley’s long lost brother Dean Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown while he was WWE Champion, giving the most prestigious championship in wrestling to SmackDown, a sure way to get people to watch. While his reign was short on SmackDown his run on SmackDown saw some of the best in-ring work of his WWE career.

Becky Lynch: SmackDown got its own Women’s Championship to match the renaissance of women’s wrestling, and while Charlotte and Sasha Banks were fighting over the Raw Women’s Championship, Becky Lynch was the first SmackDown Women’s Champion, making the division as legit as it gets right from the start.

The Miz: Just go back and watch that promo from Talking Smack. Seriously The Miz is beyond belief on the microphone. He revitalized his career on SmackDown and legitimized SmackDown’s mid card with the International championship around his waist.

Dolph Ziggler: The old saying is that it takes two to tango and SmackDown’s mid card in 2016 is proof of that. Along with The Miz, the former Nicky of Spirit Squad fame had a memorable feud for the Intercontinental Championship that saw Ziggler become as over as he was in his popularity prime of 2013.

Bray Wyatt: Man it took WWE way too long to give Bray Wyatt the WWE Championship. To be honest I never thought it would happen. When the spooky swamp man won the title in the Elimination Chamber, many were overjoyed, Bray Wyatt was as good as he ever was and with the new great storyline of Randy Orton joining the Wyatt Family, Bray was able to do some of the best promo work of his career, follow the buzzards indeed.

Wrestling Trivia: Who was the first member of the original SmackDown Six to leave SmackDown after 2002?

DM @JackDownVSRaw on Twitter for the answer