Saturday Night's main event
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Saturday Night's main event |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1985-1992, 2006-2008 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Episodes | 36 |
| genre | Wrestling |
| Theme music | |
| idea |
|
| First broadcast | May 11, 1985 on National Broadcasting Company |
Saturday Night's Main Event was a WWE television format that aired on NBC between 1985 and 1992, and 2006 and 2008 . Fox also aired two episodes in 1992 .
Charisma
1985-1992
In the course of wrestling that became popular after Wrestlemania , national cable television stations also began to show interest in the format. NBC television broadcast the first edition of Saturday Night's Main Event on May 11, 1985 . The broadcast took place irregularly during the broadcast breaks of Saturday Night Live , if only reruns would have been shown on this broadcasting slot.
The show was the first of its kind to broadcast matches between the WWE Superstars among themselves on free TV. Before, it was common practice to have a promotion star compete against a jobber .
There were also four title changes in total:
- on February 5, 1988 André the Giant was allowed to defeat Hulk Hogan for the World Heavyweight Title
- on the same day he gave this to Ted DiBiase , the title was then declared vacant.
- on July 29, 1988, The Brain Busters ( Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson ) defeated Tag Team Demolition for the WWE Tag Team Championship
- on November 14, 1992 Shawn Michaels was allowed to defeat The British Bulldog and received the Intercontinental Championship for the first time
In addition to the fights, skits and interviews with the wrestlers of the WWE were part of the program. The moderators were Vincent K. McMahon and Jesse Ventura , supported by Bobby Heenan (1986/87). After Ventura left WWE in 1990, McMahon hosted the event along with Roddy Piper . In 1992 the format switched to Fox for two issues and was discontinued after the October 27, 1992 episode.
2006-2008
From 2006 to 2008 a new edition of the Saturday Night's Main Event was tried. The transmission time was increased from 90 minutes to 120 minutes, otherwise the concept remained the same. Despite a big promotion and because of rather low audience ratings, the show was discontinued after 5 episodes. Commentators were Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler .
DVD release
In 2009, WWE released a 3-DVD set entitled The Best of Saturday Night's Main Event with the highlights of the TV show in both broadcast periods.
Web links
- Saturday Night's Main Event on WWE.com
- Saturday Night's Main Event (1985-1992) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Saturday Night's Main Event (2006-2008) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Eric Cohen: SNME - The History of Saturday Night's Main Event. About.com, accessed May 28, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c The Best of Saturday Night's Main Event , 3-DVD, Silvervision, 2009
- ↑ Collin Vassallo: Saturday Night's Main Event gets hammered in ratings. Wrestling.com, August 5, 2008, accessed May 28, 2011 .