Smackdown vs Raw 2005: The best WWE battle of the brands

The storyline rivalry between Smackdown and Raw in 2005 was the first of its kind and by far the best battle between the two WWE brands.

From the dawn of the brand split in March 2002 until the start of the storyline in October 2005, there was little interaction between the two brands with an emphasis on making them feel different. Raw was the soap opera, sports entertainment show while Smackdown was less over the top, more focused on wrestling.

Notable exceptions in this time came in the form of an on-screen rivalry between Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon in mid-to-late 2002, General Managers of Raw and Smackdown at the time, and a mass brawl between the rosters on the WWE draft edition of Raw in 2004.

The seeds for the rivalry were planted with the release of the first “Smackdown vs Raw” video game in late 2004, with what happened next on-screen a clear knock-on effect of its release and promotional marketing.

The Royal Rumble, the annual event where wrestlers of the two brands did collide, set the scene for a near-year long build towards the battle for brand supremacy at Survivor Series.

Bischoff and Teddy Long, now Smackdown GM, engaged in debate while Triple H tried to entice Batista to move to Smackdown and take on JBL for the WWE title, regularly taking pot shots at his opposing champion in the process.

The Rumble also saw the first ever interaction between Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels, two of the best ever, which led to a mini-series starting at WrestleMania 21.

Another inter-promotional bout took place at Mania between Randy Orton, then of Raw, and The Undertaker, the standard bearer on Smackdown.

It was clear that a storyline of sorts was brewing between the two brands and it came to ahead on the October