The Main Event is an American series of professional wrestlingtelevision specials that were produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The Main Event was a spin-off of Saturday Night's Main Event and was held only one time in a year (with the exception of 1990 where it was held twice) and was equivalent to today’s monthly pay-per-view (PPV) events. Like Saturday Night’s Main Event, The Main Event aired late and held its main event match on the first hour of the show. There were five shows between 1988 and 1991. 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 included mainly 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.
All episodes of The Main Event are available on the WWE Network (in a few countries), Peacock in the U.S. and Netflix in other major international markets, included with Saturday Night's Main Event.
The Main Event took place, and aired live, on Friday February 5, 1988 at 8pm ET at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana.[6][7] The live broadcast drew a 15.2 Nielsen rating and 33 million viewers, both records for American televised wrestling.[8]
The match between André the Giant and Hulk Hogan saw André receive a pinfall victory despite Hogan raising his left shoulder before a count of two could be reached. It was revealed, post-match, that the referee who worked the match was not the assigned referee, Dave Hebner, but rather his twin brother, Earl Hebner. Earl had been hired by Ted DiBiase to cheat Hogan out of the belt. Immediately after the match, André surrendered the title to DiBiase. Later on, WWF President Jack Tunney said the title can only change hands by pinfall or submission. Tunney acknowledged that the referee's decision is final but, due to André surrendering the belt, he declared the title to be vacant.[9] Following the vacancy, a single elimination tournament was held at WrestleMania IV to crown the new champion.[10]
The Strike Force vs. The Hart Foundation match was still in progress when NBC signed off. In 2014, when the WWE Network made available this episode to its on-demand section, the ending of the match was added in.
The Main Event II took place and aired live on Friday February 3, 1989 at 8pm ET from the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[11][12] The live broadcast drew an 11.6 rating and 19.9 million viewers.[13]
The Main Event III took place and aired live on February 23, 1990, at 10pm ET from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.[14][15] The live broadcast drew a 12.8 rating and 20.9 million viewers.[16]
The WWF Tag Team Championship match between The Hart Foundation and The Rockers was supposed to be on the 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, erasing The Rockers' reign from the history books. Retrospectively, the WWF explained that the title change had been revoked due to a ring rope malfunction during the second fall of the two-out-of-three falls match. The match can be seen unedited on the DVD The Shawn Michaels Story: Heartbreak & Triumph. Marty Jannetty pinned Bret Hart in the first fall with a sunset flip counter at 9:33. Hart pinned Shawn Michaels in the second fall with the Hart Attack at 19:23. Jannetty pinned Jim Neidhart in the third fall when Michaels dropkicked Jannetty onto Neidhart, who was setting up the Hart Attack at 25:41.
Nikolai Volkoff was scheduled to face Sgt. Slaughter on the show, but Slaughter attacked Nikolai before the opening bell rang and the match never took place.
The broadcast drew 10.6 million viewers and a 6.7 rating,[22] which was at the time the worst rating any WWF program had received on NBC despite the presence of Hulk Hogan. This has been blamed on the controversial and exploitative Sgt. Slaughter Iraqi sympathizer storyline that was on going at the time.[23]
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