On December 14, 2024, Saturday Night’s Main Event made its triumphant return to television.
A popular program in the 1980s, this was the first time the special had appeared on television in over 16 years.
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The return of Saturday Night’s Main Event featured several nostalgic moments, including the return of the “Winged Eagle” WWE Championship, referees wearing uniforms similar to those from the ’80s, and several WWE legends involved in the broadcast.
While most fans responded positively to the event, one WCW icon wasn’t as happy with how things went.
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During his “Keepin’ It 100” podcast, Konnan revealed that he thought Saturday Night’s Main Event was simply “disappointing” due to the lack of surprises.
“I was disappointed,” Konnan said (per Wrestling Inc.). “They didn’t do any promotion, they didn’t do any altercations, they didn’t do anything that would make you want to see, like you’re a new viewer and you haven’t seen it in a while. , anything that would make you want to see ‘Raw.’ Maybe they’re saving it all for Netflix, but I was very disappointed.”
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Konnan is not wrong that the show was predictable. Almost every match had an obvious outcome, except for the fight between Chelsea Green and Michin for the United States Women’s Championship.
However, predictable does not mean bad.
It’s safe to say that every title match for undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes since WrestleMania 40 has been predictable. However, almost every match was a real success.
Rhodes had fantastic matches with AJ Styles, Gunther, Kevin Owens and many others. Even though the outcome has always seemed obvious, the journey to this moment has always been entertaining.
Every Saturday Night Main Event match was entertaining and it seemed the fans agreed.
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In total, the show attracted 1.59 million viewers on NBC and 700,000 on Peacock, for a total of 2.3 million viewers.
According to Nielsen data (per Variety), this topped the NBA Cup semifinal game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets on ABC, which had 1.89 million viewers on ABC.
Saturday Night’s Main Event is expected to happen even more next year, and then it will have plenty of opportunities to surprise fans.
For this special premiere, the series simply had to prove that it could attract fans. And that’s certainly what he did.
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