Saturday Night's Main Event is a series of American professional wrestling television specials produced by WWE (previously the World Wrestling Federation or WWF). The series originally broadcast from 1985 to 1992, by NBC until 1991 then briefly by Fox. In 2006, Saturday Night's Main Event was briefly revived as a series of prime time specials on NBC, as part of WWE's agreement with NBC Universal to air its weekly program Raw on USA Network. Five episodes aired as part of the revived run before it was discontinued in 2008. In April 2022, WWE repurposed the Saturday Night's Main Event title for house shows held on Saturday nights. In 2024, as part of an agreement moving WWE SmackDown from Fox to USA, WWE announced that it would revive Saturday Night's Main Event, airing on NBC and streaming on Peacock, and on YouTube outside the United States. In August 2025, WWE announced that two Saturday Night's Main Event cards would air exclusively on Peacock in November and December 2025.
Let's delve into the rich history of this iconic show, exploring its origins, key moments, and lasting impact on the world of professional wrestling.
10 Greatest Classic WWE Saturday Night's Main Event Matches
The Beginning
Saturday Night's Main Event debuted on May 11, 1985, in the late-night time slot normally assigned to reruns of the NBC sketch comedy Saturday Night Live. Then-SNL executive producer Dick Ebersol had made a deal with WWF owner Vince McMahon to produce the show, after Ebersol had seen the high ratings that two WWF specials drew on MTV in 1984-85: The Brawl to End It All and The War to Settle the Score.
At this time when weekly wrestling programs typically consisted primarily of squash matches featuring established stars dominating enhancement talent, Saturday Night's Main Event consisted almost entirely of star vs. star matches rarely seen on television, including title defenses and specialty matches. It coincided with and contributed to the apogee of the "second golden age" of professional wrestling in the United States; bolstered by regular in-ring appearances by WWF stars such as Hulk Hogan, Saturday Night's Main Event drew large audiences for much of its run, while a spin-off simply titled The Main Event aired annually on a Friday night in February beginning in 1988.
Ebersol was not particularly awestruck by WWF's rudimentary production values of the time, and wanted WWF to implement higher production standards for their broadcasts. As was written in Sex, Lies, & Headlocks: "There would be no more showing up at an arena with a single truck carrying a ring and some lights. Ebersol wanted four cameras at ringside with boom mikes to catch the grunts and groans that usually went unheard. He wanted state of the art lighting rigs. He wanted concert quality sound."
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Adding to the big-time feel was the use of contemporary music. 'Obsession' by Animotion was the show's theme song for its first three years while other songs, including Dire Straits' 'The Walk of Life' and A-ha's 'Take on Me' were used in video packages. In later years, Phil Collins's 'Take Me Home' served as the closing theme.
As for the audience, the 8.8 TV rating was the highest for that time slot since the SNL era of John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd in the late 1970s. An impressed Tartikoff immediately ordered more episodes.
Quick Success
Although the show aired infrequently, it did, starting in 1986, settle into a predictable pattern of airdates: New Year's weekend, an episode in late February/early March, an episode in late April/early May, an episode in late September/early October, and Thanksgiving weekend. Saturday Night's Main Event was a tremendous rating success for NBC during its heyday, most notably on the March 14, 1987, show, which drew an 11.6 rating, which to this day remains the highest rating any show has ever done in that time slot. That show was headlined by a battle royal involving Hulk Hogan and André the Giant, who were slated to face each other at WrestleMania III.
As Hogan rarely wrestled on the WWF syndicated and cable television shows, Saturday Night's Main Event was the program on free television where most viewers were able to see him in action. The success of Saturday Night's Main Event led to several Friday night prime time specials, known as The Main Event.
Early on, the Saturday Night's Main Event broadcast formula came together, and remained in place with minimal flexibility in the coming years. In this formula, the main event attraction did not go on last, as wrestling convention usually dictated. Instead, the biggest match of the night (i.e. Hogan's match) generally went on close to midnight, making it the second or third match on the broadcast.
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Similar to SNL, the last match of the night was generally a "who cares" affair. Usually, you would get a low-energy squash like Kamala over Lanny Poffo or Blackjack Mulligan over Jimmy Jack Funk, strictly for the diehards that were still tuned in, in abject defiance of slumber.
Although all of the top stars of the period were featured on Saturday Night's Main Event at one time or another, the undisputed star was Hulk Hogan. As WWF's cash cow, Hogan rarely wrestled on WWF's other television shows, so when Saturday Night's Main Event rolled around, WWF champion Hogan vs. [insert opponent here] was always a big deal, and was the key to the show's success.
Even with Hogan being dethroned, the show maintained a fairly steady audience with eventual champion Randy Savage on top. That said, much of the Rock 'n' Wrestling flavour had died off come 1988, as was evident in the switching out "Obsession" for the synth-heavy instrumental that many fans recognise today as the definitive show theme.
By 1989, the Main Event spinoff had become a February tentpole, a Friday night spectacle that set the wheels for the big WrestleMania storyline in motion. When champion Randy Savage turned on supposed friend Hogan in an all-time hate-filled rant on February 3, the next Saturday Night special a month later did a 10.0 rating, comparable to the peak years of the program.
Key Matches and Moments
Saturday Night's Main Event was the stage for numerous memorable matches and moments that have become etched in wrestling history. Here are some notable examples:
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- Hulk Hogan vs. Nikolai Volkoff (May 11, 1985): Hogan defended his WWF World Heavyweight Championship in a flag match, defeating Volkoff in a patriotic showdown.
- Hulk Hogan & Andre The Giant vs. King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd (October 5, 1985): Hogan and Andre teamed up to face Bundy and Studd, ending in a disqualification victory for the heels.
- Randy Savage vs. Jake Roberts (November 29, 1986): A heated rivalry culminated in a double disqualification match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
- Hulk Hogan vs. Hercules (November 29, 1986): Hogan defended his WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Hercules, showcasing his power and resilience.
- Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy (January 2, 1988): Hogan battled Bundy, with Andre the Giant in Bundy's corner, in a rematch from their WrestleMania II encounter.
- The Mega Power vs. The Twin Towers (February 3, 1989): Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage teamed up as The Mega Powers, but their alliance crumbled amidst jealousy and tension.
- Hulk Hogan vs. Big Boss Man (May 27, 1989): Hogan defended his WWF World Title in a steel cage match, famously superplexing the massive Boss Man off the top of the cage.
- The Ultimate Warrior vs. Andre the Giant (November 25, 1989): The Ultimate Warrior defended his Intercontinental Championship against the colossal Andre, winning by disqualification.
- The Genius vs. Hulk Hogan (November 25, 1989): Arguably the biggest upset in Saturday Night's Main Event history, WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan took on The Genius, at best a preliminary wrestler and at the time the manager of Mr. Perfect.
- Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior vs. Mr. Perfect and The Genius (January 27, 1990): A clash of titans as Hogan and Warrior joined forces to take on the formidable duo of Perfect and Genius.
- The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels (November 14, 1992): The final title change in SNME history happened when Shawn Michaels challenged The British Bulldog, who had only recently captured the Intercontinental title.
The End
While ratings remained strong through 1990, they began to fall shortly thereafter. NBC, who had just acquired the rights to broadcast NBA games nationwide, now started to lose interest in wrestling, and Saturday Night's Main Event was dropped. Its final NBC airing occurred on April 27, 1991.
By 1989, the Main Event spinoff had become a February tentpole, a Friday night spectacle that set the wheels for the big WrestleMania storyline in motion. When champion Randy Savage turned on supposed friend Hogan in an all-time hate-filled rant on February 3, the next Saturday Night special a month later did a 10.0 rating, comparable to the peak years of the program.
NBC then restructured the calendar to give us more wrestling, adding a July edition of the show to help set the stage for SummerSlam. It was on that first-ever July card that, after more than four years on the air, the Saturday night version of the program had its first-ever title change, as Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard upended Demolition to become World Tag Team Champions.
On April 27, a more traditional episode of Saturday Night's Main Event was broadcast, and it proved notable because it was the end of the show as we knew it. A month after that broadcast (which did a rather meagre 7.7 in the Nielsen ratings), reports emerged that NBC was washing its hands of WWE, and that the wrestling giant was now looking for a new home for airing infrequent TV specials. The poor ratings of the last two prime-time specials helped seal their fate, as did the negative publicity around the Slaughter turncoat angle.
Revival and Legacy
When WWE's flagship show, Raw, returned to the USA Network in 2005, Saturday Night's Main Event was revived in 2006 as a "special series" to air on occasion on NBC as part of a deal between WWE and NBC Universal. Saturday Night's Main Event returned to NBC on March 18, 2006, in a prime-time slot.
In 2024, after having moved from USA Network to Fox in 2019, WWE SmackDown returned to USA Network as part of a five-year agreement with NBCUniversal. As part of the agreement, it was stated that WWE would produce four prime time specials for NBC per-year for the length of the agreement.
The new revival features homages to the original run of Saturday Night's Main Event and WWE in the 1980s, including a lack of TitanTron, red, white, and blue ring ropes, referees in formal outfits, some branding elements using the WWE "throwback" logo, and the reinstatement of "Obsession" by Animotion as its theme music (albeit this time not as an instrumental).
Saturday Night's Main Event holds a special place in wrestling history, remembered for its exciting matches, larger-than-life personalities, and significant contributions to the sport's popularity. It remains a beloved part of WWE's legacy.
Saturday Night's Main Event is a professional wrestling television program that aired occasionally from 1985 to 1991, under the World Wrestling Federation banner on NBC in place of Saturday Night Live. EST time slot. At the time of the original airing it was a rare example of professional wrestling being broadcast on an over-the-air commercial television network after the 1950s. It coincided with and contributed to, the apogee of the " 1980s wrestling golden age " of professional wrestling in the United States.