[6.0] "Liked this better than the pilot a few months back. More wacky storylines and general Attitude Era silliness. I liked the 3way tag, it felt a bit unique and some good moments stood out. Too much Triple H but I guess we're locked in on that path now."

[6.0] "A pretty average episode with the main event being the best segment and a solid swerve to head into the next week. Jericho's debut was cool even if the finish seemed odd to me personally, but his interactions with Finkel were good and seemed to set up his first feud in the WWF with Shamrock. Every match seemed to be half baked and almost rushed due to timing so not much really stood out. 3 star show."

[7.0] "pretty cool show, the classic late 90s swerve happens and considering I had only seen clips of it and had never seen the full live time swerve, I had a good time with this show"

[8.0] "Very good premiere edition of SmackDown that had a memorable Rock v Triple H main event where Shawn Michaels swerved and cost Rock the match. This also had a very entertaining opening segment where Triple H cuts his first promo as the new champ and it was also the first tease of The Rock and Mankind becoming a tag team as Foley comes down and starts copying The Rock's signature catchphrases and mannerisms. Very entertaining stuff there. The rest of the show has short segments and matches that follow on from each other and advance different storylines and Jericho in particular is very entertaining with his new character where he had a memorable finish to his debut match against Road Dogg where he gets himself DQ'd putting him through a table and uses his proper Lion Tamer submission hold (I wish he'd kept that move) and he also manipulates the Finkel to attack people, which was hilarious. The only weak points was the Bossman kidnapping Pepper storyline continuing and the evening gown match."

[7.0] "A huge, important moment in WWE history, where a word that The Rock himself coined, is the name that is now the company's B-show. The opening segment really set the mood for the episode, with an amazing twist at the main event where Shawn Michaels attacked The Rock."

[5.0] "more a compilation of entrances than a wrestling show, which you can expect because of the time period. nothing really gets a chance to breathe and its just a case of advancing as many angles as possible. can't deny how over most of this roster here is thought and i appreciate that everyone has something going on."

[8.0] "This was the first real Smackdown episode, and they knocked it out of the park, as the opening promo and the main event were both really good and the only real negative was the evening gown match. JR and King calling this and not Cole and King like in the episodes after this made it feel even bigger."

[8.0] "The opening segment was really good, entertaining, and helped to set up two matches later in the night. Undertaker making Big Show work a tag team match on his own is pretty funny, so is the stuff involving Jericho and Finkel. Main event was a fine match with a lot of overbooking that ends with Shawn Michaels turning heel."

[8.0] "Maybe I'm a buzzkill for giving it a 10/10 because I understand the historical significance of the show (and it was a great show), but 8/10 is what it deserves, imo."

[10.0] "Maybe it is not a 10/10 show but I can give it this rating for the historic value. It is a perfect debut episode of a show anyways. Like at the pilot episode there are many surprises and unexpected things. Even Jericho/Finkel and Snow/Bossman segments are fun in some way. However what makes this show better than the pilot episode of SmackDown is that is ends with something really shocking and important."