The Main Event was a professional wrestling television program produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It was a spin-off of the show WWF Saturday Night's Main Event and occasionally aired on NBC on Friday nights. Only the first three The Main Event episodes were shown live on NBC. The final two were taped and then shown on NBC at a later date. It mainly featured the high-card wrestlers of the WWF including Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior and "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.
These are the results for the tapings of The Main Event.
Note: The numbers are added for organizational purposes only, and were not used on air. The show was only referred to as "The Main Event."
The Main Event I
February 5, 1988 - Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana
It was revealed post-match that the referee was not the assigned referee, Dave Hebner, but rather his twin brother, Earl Hebner, who was hired by Ted Dibiase as part of a storyline screwjob. One of Hogan's shoulders was off the mat during the pinfall, which was ignored by the referee. After winning, André the Giant surrendered the title to DiBiase; the transaction was declared invalid by then-WWF President Jack Tunney and the title was declared vacant.
The live broadcast drew a 15.2 Nielsen rating and 33 million viewers, both records for American televised wrestling.
The Strike Force vs. Hart Foundation match was still in progress when NBC signed off. However, in 2014 when the WWE Network uploaded this episode to its on-demand section, the ending of the match was shown for the first time ever. also Don Muraco defeated Butch Reed
The Main Event II
February 3, 1989 - Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The slowly building tension between Hulk Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage boiled over during the team's match against The Twin Towers, leading to the team's breakup upon Savage's heel turn when Savage contended that Hogan was lusting after his valet, Miss Elizabeth.
The Main Event III
February 23, 1990 - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Mike Tyson was originally scheduled to be the referee, but this changed following Douglas' knockout title win over Tyson just under two weeks before, on February 11. Tyson would eventually go on to be the guest referee at WrestleMania XIV.
Tito Santana was a substitute for Jimmy Snuka
This marked the second time a WrestleMania rematch would be held on the program.
The Main Event IV
November 23, 1990 (taped October 30, 1990) - Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana
The WWF Tag Team Championship match between The Hart Foundation and The Rockers was supposed to be on the show, but was edited out of the broadcast, due to demands from NBC for a one-hour Friday night broadcast instead of a ninety-minute Saturday night broadcast. To accommodate this, the WWF cut the approximately 30 minute Rockers-Hart Foundation match from the program. If this had aired, the show would have been given an extra half an hour, and aired on a Saturday, making it a Saturday Night's Main Event show. The Rockers defended their newly won titles a few times before the WWF rehired Jim Neidhart, pairing him with Bret Hart once more, and quietly handing the belts back to the Hart Foundation, in essence whitewashing The Rockers' reign from the history books. Retrospectively, the WWF explained that the title change cancellation was due to a ring rope malfunction during the match in the second fall (which did occur, but was not the primary reason for Neidhart and Hart being handed back the title belts). The match can be seen unedited on the DVD The Shawn Michaels Story: Heartbreak & Triumph.
Two out of three falls results
Marty Jannetty pinned Bret Hart in the first fall with a sunset flip counter (9:33).
Hart pinned Shawn Michaels in the second fall with the Hart Attack (9:50).
Jannetty pinned Jim Neidhart in the third fall when Michaels dropkicked Jannetty onto Neidhart, who was setting up the Hart Attack (6:18).
There was scheduled to be a Nikolai Volkoff vs Sgt. Slaughter match on the show, but Slaughter attacked Nikolai before the opening bell rang and the match never took place.
The Main Event V
February 1, 1991 (taped January 28, 1991) - Macon Coliseum, Macon, Georgia
WWF President Jack Tunney made the announcement to Gene Okerlund that Hulk Hogan would be the number one contender for Sgt. Slaughter's WWF Championship at WrestleMania VII.
KNBC, the NBC-owned-and-operated station in Los Angeles, did not air this program when it was shown by the network on February 1. That day, a collision took place at Los Angeles International Airport between a US Airways passenger jet and a SkyWest Airlines commuter plane. The crash occurred in the late afternoon, and KNBC opted to air news bulletin coverage of this story throughout the night. The station chose not to reschedule the program.
