All good things must eventually come to an end, and This Day in Wrestling History celebrates the airing of Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 28, 2008.
Few things in my childhood brought me as much joy and the opening sound of “Obsession” by Animotion for Saturday Night’s Main Event.
It began in 1985 on NBC as a replacement for Saturday Night Live as needed, and it brought matches between the WWE’s top stars to network television for the first time.
Until then, the stars tended to face jobbers and save their one on one matches for pay-per-views, so this definitely changed the landscape.
I was lucky enough to see some of the most entertaining moments of my childhood like when King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd took out Hulk Hogan to build for Hogan and Bundy’s WrestleMania 2 match.
Another was Hulk Hogan facing Paul Orndorff for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship that I contend to this day Orndorff reached the floor first.
Ricky Steamboat suffering a concussion after Jake Roberts DDT’s him into the concrete floor, and numerous Randy Savage and George “The Animal” Steele matches.
But the airings were sporadic through the years and it totaled 36 episode by the time it ended.
Ground breaking
Since Saturday Night’s Main Event showed top matches involving some of the typical gimmicks we’ve grown accustomed to like steel cage matches, two out of three falls, and championship matches, we got to see more than just someone getting squashed.
Out of the 36 episodes, 29 were on Saturday night and 6 were its sister show, The Main Event, on Friday nights and its original run went through 1991.
One of the most memorable moments was the first episode of The Main Event where Andre the Giant defeated Hulk Hogan to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
It was watched by 33 million people and is the largest audience for any wrestling broadcast on television.
The nomad
Saturday Night’s Main Event was eventually dropped when NBC acquired the right to air NBA games nationally and professional wrestling’s popularity waned.
The show would go to Fox in 1992 but was dropped after 2 airings.
It was resurrected in 2006 by NBC, but the WWE had been booking similar matches on Raw and Smackdown for years it ended its run for good in 2008 to make This Day in Wrestling History.
For many of us, it seems like there were more airings because of the content early on. While I didn’t see it during its last run, it’ll always hold a special place in my heart.
What was your favorite Saturday Night’s Main Event match? Let us know in the comments below.
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