Remembering when Saturday Night’s Main Event was special
It’s not as if last night’s Saturday Night’s Main Event was a bad show, but it certainly wasn’t anything to get excited about. As I watched the broadcast on NBC, I thought back to the old days when Saturday Night’s Main Event was a really big deal.
For those not old enough to remember, SNME originally aired about five times a year from 1985-1991 on NBC in Saturday Night Live’s regular time slot from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. There was no Monday Night Raw or Smackdown back then, and SNME was the only WWE program to feature angles, title matches and skits.
WWE had exploded into the mainstream when SNME began, and for a while the show was doing better in the ratings than SNL. Eventually, pro wrestling’s popularity began to wane, ratings dipped and NBC canceled the show. Fox subsequently picked up SNME, but the show was dropped after just two episodes.
SNME was revived for NBC in 2006, but ratings for the second incarnation of the show tanked right from the start. With five hours a week of WWE prime time programming that has all the elements of the old SNME, the show no longer is special or even necessary. At this point, it’s obvious that neither WWE nor NBC puts much emphasis on SNME, and the only reason the shows are being produced is to fulfill contractual obligations.
In its heyday, however, SNME was must-see TV for any wrestling fan. Here are some of my favorite moments from the glory days (in chronological order):
Paul Orndorff on Piper’s Pit (5/11/85) – Roddy Piper placed all of the blame on Orndorff for their loss to Hulk Hogan and Mr. T at the first WrestleMania less than two months earlier. Orndorff sealed his babyface turn by standing up to Piper, but he was attacked from behind by Piper’s bodyguard, Cowboy Bob Orton. Mr. T then came out to make the save to a thunderous pop.
Uncle Elmer’s wedding (10/5/85) – The nuptials of Elmer and Joyce are memorable mostly because of Jesse Ventura’s running commentary. When the understated bride and rotund groom kissed, Ventura said: “It looks like two carp in The Mississippi River going after the same piece of corn.” Vince McMahon, who was a babyface announcer at the time and never acknowledged on TV as the owner of the company, actually got off a couple good lines as well, and Elmer was unintentionally funny as he stumbled his way through the vows. At the reception, Ventura ended up taking a bump face-first into the wedding cake.
Halloween party (11/2/85) – Now this was classic stuff. In between the matches, the wrestlers dressed up in costumes and participated in Halloween party games. Among the guests were The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff (as Batman and Robin), King Kong Bundy (as Abraham Lincoln) and Roddy Piper (as Super-Rod). Of course, the main reason that I’ll never forget this episode is because Elizabeth was the sexiest Jane ever (Randy Savage was Tarzan). The funniest part was the pass-the-pumpkin contest. During the pumpkin exchange between Piper and Elizabeth, the pumpkin fell to the floor, causing the heel team to lose. Naturally, Savage berated Elizabeth for blowing the game.
King Kong Bundy crushes Hulk Hogan (3/1/86) – Bundy interfered during Hogan’s WWE title defense against Magnificent Muraco and proceeded to “injure” Hogan’s ribs. It was the first time I recall Hogan being laid out like that, and the angle set up Hogan versus Bundy in a steel cage at WrestleMania 2.
Jake Roberts DDT’s Ricky Steamboat on the floor (5/3/86) – Nowadays a DDT is a transitional move, but back then it was a deadly finisher, and delivering a DDT on the floor was unthinkable. After rendering Steamboat unconscious, Roberts dragged him into the ring and placed Damien on top of him. What really made the scene great was play-by-play man Vince McMahon’s overacting as he went on about how horrific all of this was, while color commentator Bobby Heenan made wisecracks about smelling pineapple juice.
Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff in a steel cage (1/3/87) – I believe this was the first time that WWE did the angle in which both guys got out of the cage and their feet hit the floor at exactly the same time. For a second it actually seemed as if Orndorff might have won the WWE title. After some confusion, the match was restarted and Hogan, of course, prevailed.
Randy Savage vs. The Honky Tonk Man (10/3/87) – Just as Savage was about to win the Intercontinental title, The Hart Foundation interfered and the three heels beat down “The Macho Man.” Elizabeth pleaded for them to stop, but Honky shoved her down, which got a lot of heat because man-on-woman violence was rarely done. As Elizabeth ran to the back, Honky smashed his guitar over Savage’s head. At Elizabeth’s urging, Hulk Hogan made the save, and he and Savage cleaned house. Former enemies Hogan and Savage then shook hands, cementing Savage’s babyface turn and planting the seed for future angles.
Andre The Giant suffers a “heart attack” in the ring (10/29/88) – I was in attendance at The Baltimore Arena for this one. In the aftermath of the Jake Roberts-Rick Rude match, Andre came down to the ring to assist Rude. Roberts then brought out his snake and put it on Andre, who apparently was deathly afraid of snakes and had a heart attack. It was a great angle, and I actually recall some people in the arena believing it was real.
Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bossman in a steel cage (5/27/89) – Fans did not expect much in the way of big moves from Hogan, but he pulled one off in this WWE title match. With Bossman having climbed over the top of the cage, Hogan went up to the top rope, hooked Bossman and super-plexed him into the ring. For several minutes, both guys sold the move like they were dead. Hogan went on to win in what was one of his better matches as WWE champion.
Comments
i remember the heart attack, it was a pretty dumb angle because no one possibly believed a 7 foot , 550 pound guy was scared of something he could crush with one stomp but it was still pretty funny, thats the only moment i remember because i was about 10 years old at the time
Posted by: tito | August 3, 2008 11:50 AM
excellent feature.
Posted by: Leonard Crist | August 3, 2008 12:01 PM
Kevin,
You refer to many of the SNME matches being memorable for the announcing. How would you rate the announce teams of the 80's compared to today?
RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler (before being broken up) are best of this era. I enjoyed Vince McMahon/Jesse Ventura and Gorilla Monsoon/Bobby Heenan in the 80s.
Posted by: God of Rock | August 3, 2008 12:43 PM
I think in order to remember when Saturday Night's Main event, you'd have to remember back when wrestling itself was special. As much as I enjoy the theatrical and comedic elements of pro-wrestling, the entertainment side has swallowed the sports side whole. These days everybody is in on the joke: it's not real. And that's all fine and well, but I feel like along the way this new reality has allowed workers to get lazy within their craft since everybody knows it's fake. This "Who Cares?" mentality is starting to make the in-ring product as insulting and unwatchable as most of the interview and sketch segments. Now I'm not trying to insinuate that all of the names listed above were above average workers. Hogan and Bundy were never athletes, that's for sure. Still, where are the Steamboats and Savages? The Dynamite Kids and the Chris Benoits and even the Shawn Michaels? They are few and far between and they're not being pushed. It's a sad state of affairs when the biggest name in the business is John Cena, who, regardless of how you feel about him or his character, is a second-rate worker at best. Dude is a cartoon. They attempted to make The Great Khali into something even though he is, hands-down, the worst thing I've ever seen enter a ring. They put a world title on CM Punk who hardly even tries to conceal his in-ring "conversations" with his opponents. And don't even get me started on the girls. This maybe slightly off-topic but I feel like there was a time that, even though wrestling could be looked upon by people I know as stupid or childish, I could explain the art of what's going on the in the ring and how complex and athletic these guys are and how difficult it is to do what they do. It seems like now all you gotta do is look like Maria and lace up some boots and they'll throw you in there.
Keep up the good work, Kev. I don't think you're a WWE mark, at all. An HBK mark, maybe... haha
Posted by: JGavin | August 3, 2008 2:25 PM
Apart from the Hogan/Orndorff steel cage match, I have to say my favorite and most memorable moment of Saturday Night Main Event was when Savage finally turned on Hogan and clocked him upside the head with the belt. "You want this belt, Hogan?!" That was classic.
RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Savage's turn on Hogan was classic. Technically, that was not on Saturday Night's Main Event, though. That was on a prime time special on Friday night called The Main Event. Same with the infamous Hogan-Andre match with the evil twin referee.
Posted by: Paul | August 3, 2008 4:38 PM
The Hogan-Bossman cage match is the only time I remember Hogan taking a holy #*&%! bump. There might have been other times, but this the only one that I can recall.
Posted by: Christopher | August 3, 2008 5:40 PM
Since I'm young, I don't remember any of it. The best SNME memory of mine is when it doesn't come on. What a waste of program time.
Posted by: Mr. Bronson | August 4, 2008 7:03 AM
Mean Gene Okerlund's interview segments were a real highlight of any WWF programming in the 80's. He's sorely missed just like many of the classic 'characters' including Piper, Slaughter, Sheik, Hogan, Gorilla, Brain, and of course Lord Alfred Hayes. It was so much more fun back then. Hey even Cyndi Lauper managed Women's Champion Wendy Richter for awhile. Now that's what I call sports entertaiment.
Posted by: Mr. Eli | August 4, 2008 7:50 AM
I wish wwe would come out with a box set that had all snme and friday main event broadcasts. i still remember the last one that had bret v. papa shango, shawn v. davey boy and savage/warrior v. the nasty boys. Those were some good times.
Posted by: Pete | August 4, 2008 11:32 AM
The superplex off the cage was insane!! That was one of the craziest bumps of that era. SNME was special because it aired during a time that squash matches were the norm. Having the chance to see "main event" quality matches was a big deal. Today we get that kind of stuff 4 days a week. The more is better approach has benefitted wrestling financially but at the same time it has ruined the feeling of anticipation and surprise. The ppv's and tv shows of today are basically equal
Posted by: jt | August 4, 2008 2:33 PM
Was Cheryl the real life wife of Jake Roberts? In the WWF you sometimes never really knew.
RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: She was.
Posted by: Mr. Eli | August 4, 2008 5:21 PM
Cant forget the classic tag team matches. Rockers vs Brainbusters. Hart Foundation vs Bulldogs.Demolishion. I recorded every SNME from 86- 90
Posted by: Jon | August 5, 2008 10:56 AM
I remember being in High School and ruching thru the Sunday paper looking for theTV listings to see in SNME was going to be on. The crowd would be chanting Ventura's name thru the opening credits!
Posted by: Matt | August 5, 2008 1:07 PM
I was at the Hogan/Orndorff steel cage match... taped at the Hartford Civic Center. What's funny about that is, when it was done live, Orndorff clearly hit the floor a couple of seconds before Hogan. But when it was shown on TV they edited it to make it look a lot closer. Ahh, such memories.
Posted by: Sujit | August 6, 2008 9:35 PM
I know it wasn't on Saturday Night main Event, but the Saturday before the first Wrestlemania, Hogan and Mr. T were guests on Saturday Night Live. They were interviewed by Billy Crystal playing the character Fernando, as in "You look mahvelous". Although Hogan tried to play it straight, I remember that Mr. T was breaking up the entire bit, giggling at Crystal and his character. This, of course, at the time that Mr. T was supposed to be so tough; it was hilarious.
Posted by: Ron Edwards | August 7, 2008 11:31 AM
Just curious- was there any reason as to why the entrances for the 8-man tag team match were all mixed up?
Posted by: Zack | August 8, 2008 12:21 PM
Ahh.....that wacky WWF editing. True story....when Ric Flair first won the WWF title at the Royal Rumble the last three participants were himself, Hogan and Sid Justice. When Hogan was eliminated by Justice the place (Albany, NY) went nuts cheering. When the video was released though those "cheers" were turned to "boos". Funny thing though you can still see the crowd react positively to the elimination as the "boos" reign down.
Posted by: Eric | August 8, 2008 12:31 PM