Tag: Saturday Night’s Main Event

Two potential matches for WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event

Posted on by Joseph Currier

In the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer has a report on two potential matches being planned for the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Saturday Night’s Main Event is making its return to NBC with a show from Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York on December 14. Meltzer writes that Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens and World Heavyweight Champion Gunther vs. Damian Priest are both currently slated for the card but not etched in stone:

Right now it appears the Saturday Night’s Main Event on 12/14 will have Rhodes vs. Owens and Gunther vs. Priest but we were told both are currently slated but not etched in stone.

In storyline, Owens has been suspended from WWE programming after attacking Rhodes in the parking lot following Bad Blood on October 5. He showed up on SmackDown two weeks ago despite the suspension and attacked Randy Orton.

Owens furthered the storyline in a social media video last week by teasing that, due to the disrespect that WWE has shown him, he doesn’t know if or when he will be able to bring himself to return.

Gunther vs. Priest would be a rematch from SummerSlam, where Gunther won the World Heavyweight Championship this August.

Saturday Night’s Main Event will air live on both NBC and Peacock on December 14. The classic series, which originally launched in 1985, is returning as a quarterly special as part of WWE and NBCUniversal’s new TV deal for SmackDown’s return to USA Network.

Jesse Ventura, who recently signed a Legends deal with WWE, is expected to make an appearance at the December 14 Saturday Night’s Main Event.

WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event update: Jesse Ventura role, possible Rhodes-Owens match

Posted on by Joseph Currier

With Jesse Ventura back in the WWE fold, his first assignment could come at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

The 73-year-old Ventura confirmed earlier this month that he’s officially signed a WWE Legends contract. He teased that there were “bigger and better” things coming but did not elaborate on what they were.

In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer shared that there are plans for Ventura to be involved with the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event this December. Ventura’s role is to be determined, but it’s more likely that he will be involved with a promo segment or calling just one match rather than announcing the whole show.

“Right now there are plans for Jesse Ventura on the show,” Meltzer wrote. “The role is to be determined. Right now the idea is for him not to announce the entire show, perhaps an interview segment or announcing a match but the idea now is simply for him to be part of the show for nostalgia reasons. There is a story going around now that the reason Ventura wasn’t fired in 1986 when Hulk Hogan told Vince McMahon that Ventura was trying to start a union and was going to plan a walkout right before WrestleMania II if the talent didn’t get certain demands is because Dick Ebersol liked him so much as an announcer for SNME. I don’t know that to be accurate but it’s the story that went around.”

Former AWA wrestler Greg Gagne had said last month that he heard Ventura would be involved with the return of Saturday Night’s Main event.

As part of WWE and NBCUniversal’s new TV deal for SmackDown on USA Network, Saturday Night’s Main Event is back as a quarterly special airing live on both NBC and Peacock. The first special is taking place from the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York on Saturday, December 14.

Meltzer adds that Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens is a possibility for the Saturday Night’s Main Event card: “While not 100 percent, we’re told it looks like the first Rhodes vs. Owens title match would be on that show.”

The Nassau Coliseum also hosted the first-ever Saturday Night’s Main Event in 1985. SNME originally existed from 1985-1992, returned from 2006-2008, and is now back for a third run.

WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event returning this December, will air on NBC & Peacock

Posted on by Joseph Currier

WWE has officially confirmed the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Airing live on both NBC and Peacock, Saturday Night’s Main Event will make its return on December 14. The special is taking place from the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York with a start time of 8 p.m. Eastern. No matches have been announced yet.

Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Liv Morgan, Bianca Belair, and Seth Rollins are included on WWE’s graphic for the show.

Nassau Coliseum also hosted the first-ever Saturday Night’s Main Event in 1985, which featured Hulk Hogan facing off against Bob Orton. The show’s original run lasted from 1985-1992 before making a brief return from 2006-2008.

Saturday Night’s Main Event is now back as a quarterly special as part of WWE and NBCUniversal’s new five-year deal for SmackDown. SmackDown returned to USA Network last Friday after completing its run on Fox.

Tickets for the December 14 Saturday Night’s Main Event are going on sale to the general public this Friday (September 20). A pre-sale will begin on Thursday (September 19).

WWE has released a retro-style video promoting the show:

We’re Live, Pal: The latest on the AEW TV deal, All Out insanity

Posted on by Garrett Gonzales

It’s another episode of We’re Live, Pal, which is also available for free on YouTube below, as Andrew Zarian and I talk about what’s going on in wrestling today.

We kicked off the show talking about eating crow, before digging into the latest on the AEW TV deal.

We discussed all the things that Andrew thinks is happening in the very near future and go over how they could possibly use MAX if streaming on MAX is part of their deal.

We then talked about the insanity that was Hangman Page against Swerve Strickland as the main event of the AEW All Out PPV. We then hit on a few WWE notes such as RAW going back to two hours after October and through the rest of the year, Saturday Night’s Main Event, and the WWE Bad Blood card so far.

You can also follow the show account on X.

For website subscribers, you can click here to listen (sub needed).

WWE files for new ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ trademark

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Ahead of its likely return to NBC, WWE has applied for a new trademark for Saturday Night’s Main Event.

The filing was made on September 9 and is for the term “Saturday Night’s Main Event” relating to merchandising purposes. It’s listed as covering the following items:

Clothing, namely, tops, shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, hoodies; outerwear, namely, coats; bottoms, pants, shorts, underwear, dresses, pajamas, lingerie, clothing ties, scarves, gloves, swimwear; Halloween and masquerade costumes; footwear, namely, shoes, sneakers, slippers, flip flops, boots; headwear, namely, hats, caps; wrist bands as clothing; bandanas

Dave Meltzer confirmed last week that WWE will be announcing the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event soon. Four live in-ring specials per year on NBC are part of WWE and NBCU’s new deal for SmackDown’s return to USA Network. SmackDown will be back on the channel starting this Friday.

WrestleVotes reported that there’s been “internal speculation” within WWE that the first Saturday Night’s Main Event special back on NBC will take place this December.

Saturday Night’s Main Event originally existed from 1985-1992 and returned for a brief second run on NBC from 2005-2008. Recently, WWE has used the Saturday Night’s Main Event branding for its Saturday house shows.

Wrestling Observer Live: AEW Collision vs. WWE SmackDown, All Out card, legal drama

Posted on by Bryan Alvarez

Image: WWE

Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including AEW Collision and WWE Smackdown going head-to-head tonight, All Out tomorrow, legal news on Vince McMahon and Cody Rhodes, more NXT thoughts from Tuesday, the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!

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WWE to announce return of Saturday Night’s Main Event NBC special soon

Posted on by Joseph Currier

The return of a classic WWE series could be imminent.

On Thursday, WrestleVotes reported that — within the next few days — WWE is set to announce an upcoming prime-time NBC special. The date and location for the event are not known yet, but WrestleVotes heard some “internal speculation” regarding a Saturday night in December.

Dave Meltzer followed up on that report in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, noting that the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event will be announced very soon. Four in-ring specials per year airing on NBC are part of WWE’s new TV deal for SmackDown to return to USA Network.

Meltzer wrote:

Wrestlevotes reported WWE would be announcing a prime time special on NBC, perhaps on a Saturday night in December. The deal getting SmackDown on USA included four prime time specials per year on NBC. We were told by WWE that the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event will be announced very soon so that would indicate this is accurate.

WWE and NBCU’s deal to bring SmackDown back to USA Network is a five-year agreement. SmackDown airs its final episode on Fox tonight before moving to USA next week (September 13).

Saturday Night’s Main Event debuted in 1985 with an initial run that lasted until 1992. It then returned for a brief stint from 2006-2008. Recently, WWE has used the Saturday Night’s Main Event branding for its Saturday house shows.

WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event helped fund early run of ‘Seinfeld’

Posted on by Josh Nason

Thanks to WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, comedian Jerry Seinfeld said he was able to keep the first season of his eventual hit show going on NBC.

Making an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show Thursday, the star and co-creator of the iconic “Seinfeld” TV show said that the network didn’t really care for the 1989 pilot when they saw it, then called “The Seinfeld Chronicles.”

However, it did have a believer in then-NBC vice president Rick Ludwin.

“And Rick Ludwin said, ‘I’m gonna take some money from Saturday night wrestling.’ In those days, professional wrestling replaced Saturday Night Live once a month. And he took the money from one of those and it was enough money for us to make four episodes. We made four episodes and they still didn’t like it,” Seinfeld said.

“Saturday night wrestling” was a reference to Saturday Night’s Main Event. Four episodes of the then-WWF product aired that same year.

A 2017 book revealed that Ludwin later canceled a Bob Hope special in order to finance the rest of the first season. The show eventually become a major hit for the network and has made Seinfeld more than $1 billion thanks to syndication and a Netflix streaming deal for the entire series.

Conversely, Saturday Night’s Main Event met its initial end in 1992 before returning for five episodes from 2006 through 2008.

Bryan & Vinny & Craig & Shawn Show: Saturday Night’s Main Event S8:E1, plus Granny!

Posted on by Bryan Alvarez

The Bryan & Vinny & Granny & Craig & Shawn Show is back with our usual Granny segment, a look at what everyone got for Black Friday, Granny’s wrestling and soap opera reports and memoir reading, then the boys review Saturday Night’s Main Event S8:E1! A fun show as always so check it out~!

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Bryan & Vinny & Shawn & Craig Show: Saturday Night’s Main Event S7:E2, plus Granny and more!

Posted on by Bryan Alvarez

The Bryan & Vinny & Granny & Craig & Shawn Show is back with tons to talk about including what everyone hates on Thanksgiving that everyone else seems to like, the wrestling and soap opera reports, her memoirs and more. Then the boys review Saturday Night’s Main Event Season 7 Episode 2, a classic 90s SNME! A fun show as always so check it out~!

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Bryan & Vinny & Craig & Shawn: Saturday Night’s Main Event from 10/13/90, plus Granny and more!

Posted on by Bryan Alvarez

The Bryan & Vinny & Craig & Granny & Shawn Show is back with tons to talk about including our weekly Granny visit, her memoirs, wrestling and soap opera report and more. Then, THANK GOD NO NWA-TNA, the boys review Saturday Night’s Main Event from Oct. 13, 1990, a show we actually already reviewed, but god damn was it an improvement. A fun show as always so check it out~!

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March 27, 2006 Observer Newsletter: WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event tanks, sanctioned MMA begins in California

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

It took 15 years for WWE to return to NBC for Saturday Night’s Main Event, but it took only one night for the people involved in negotiating the deal to be embarrassed.

A good show, promoted like hell, featuring every big name in the company as well as the returns of Steve Austin and Jim Ross (admittedly only touched on and not hyped at all) drew a 3.11 final rating and 5.15 million viewers (combination live and same-day video/Tivo watching) on 3/18 from 8-10 p.m.

To put this number into perspective, that is slightly lower than the XFL (considered one of the biggest TV flops in history) averaged for the season in the same time slot five years ago. And, the XFL came before the ratings included same day recording device viewing.

The show led to NBC finishing dead last among the four networks that program on Saturdays, even though Fox and ABC aired repeat programming. 

Subscribers can click here to read this issue.

‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ branding returning for upcoming WWE house shows

Posted on by Joseph Currier

The “Saturday Night’s Main Event” name is returning for two upcoming WWE house shows.

WWE.com’s calendar lists that two shows named “Saturday Night’s Main Event” will be taking place on back-to-back Saturdays this April. The first show is at the Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, Alabama on Saturday, April 23. The second is at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida on Saturday, April 30.

Both events will feature wrestlers from the Raw roster.

PWInsider reported that the events will be house shows and not TV productions: “We are told that each of those events are still live events, not TV productions, and that this is simply rebranding for the Saturday Night live events taking place post-WrestleMania.”

Saturday Night’s Main Event made its debut as a television special on NBC in 1985. Its initial run lasted until 1992. 

In 2006, Saturday Night’s Main Event was revived for a brief second stint on NBC. Five shows aired from 2006-2008.