The history of WWE SmackDown!

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We get in the ring with the famed wrestling franchise

WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2006

Ahead of SvR06's release, we were concerned. The addition of a year number in the title had us fearing an EA-style series of incremental annual updates, but in fact this particular effort was a return to form. That wasn't because of the new match type, though, the tongue-twistingly named Buried Alive Casket Match, an Undertaker specialty. This actually turned out to be a miserable-to-play war of attrition in which it often took more than half an hour to successfully "bury" your opponent. Better were the minor tweaks to the actual wrestling engine, including the addition of power Irish whips, sleeper holds, and chain wrestling - where two grapplers could pull off a string of counters and reversals.

Verdict: Number one contender.