10 WWE Superstars who are/were the Heart and Soul of WWE Smackdown

The Rock

The Man who gave the show its name.

Can we talk about the radio and its history and not talk about its inventor Guglielmo Marconi? No, right. Just like that, it would be a crime to talk about the history of Smackdown and not talk about the man who gave the show its name. At the time when WWE was trying to establish Smackdown as their second weekly show, it was The Rock who became the star of the show during the peak phase of his career.

Between the show's inception in 1999 and the brand extension in 2002, almost all of the show's main storylines revolved around The Great One. Even though most of the important storylines took place on Smackdown, it was Rocky's constant appearances on the show, along with other top superstars in memorable segments, that resulted in the popularity of the show that it still boasts.

While he only made a handful of appearance after the brand split, his grand contributions during the initial years are enough to proclaim him as one of the greatest Smackdown superstars. Had it not been for just one legendary superstar, one could have made a strong argument that Rocky was the top superstar in the show's history, which leads us to...