Saturday Night’s Main Event

The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #31 – 11.14.92

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event – 11.14.92

(OK, wrapping up my well-earned week long break from reviewing wrestling, minus Dynamite, as we also wrap up the “classic” era of Saturday Night’s Main Event and I debate whether redoing the terrible 2006 reboot is worth my time.  Probably not.)  

Well, this fits perfectly into the timeline with Superstars right now, and it’s short.  This was the second of the FOX specials to be produced, and was such a bomb that it basically killed the SNME concept dead for a decade afterwards.

Taped from Indiana State, IN

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #30 – 02.08.92

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #30 – 02.08.92

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to FOX we go with the SNME series, although only for two one-hour episodes.  And with a terrible opening sequence and logo.  As I’ve mentioned before, the FOX network wasn’t available in most parts of Canada until well into the 90s, so this was a show I never got to see.

Taped from somewhere.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan.

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #29 – 04.27.91

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #29 – 04.27.91

End of the line for the NBC version of the show.  In a reverse of the November 90 show, this one was taped as The Main Event and then edited into a full SNME after the fact because NBC didn’t want to give them a primetime slot.  So all the banners say “The Main Event”.  This is another one I’ve never seen because advertising for the show was so minimal that I didn’t even know it was on at the time.

Taped from somewhere that is again never mentioned.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Randy Savage.

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The SmarK Rant for The Main Event #5 – 02.01.91

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The SmarK Rant for The Main Event #5 – 02.01.91

This is the last of the Main Event primetime specials, and one which I’ve never even seen before.  NBC was basically burning off their contractual obligations at this point because the product was ice cold and ratings were falling fast.

Taped from somewhere never mentioned.  Turns out it was Macon, GA.

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The SmarK Rant for The Main Event #4 – 11.23.90

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The SmarK Rant for The Main Event #4 – 11.23.90

So this one was of course originally taped as a Saturday Night’s Main Event, complete with the Rockers winning the tag team titles from the Hart Foundation, but due to schedule changes from NBC it ended up edited down to an hour and moved to a prime time slot instead, where it DIED.  In fact the banners even read “Saturday Night’s Main Event”.

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #28 – 10.13.90

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #28 – 10.13.90

(I’ve already done this episode a couple of times, and once fairly recently, so here’s a repost of the most recent version as a bonus rant tonight, and then tomorrow morning it’s the redo of THE MAIN EVENT #4.)  

It’s OKTOBERFEST!  Oh man, I kind of love this one.

Taped from somewhere that isn’t Germany, sadly, which turns out to be Toledo OH on 09.18.90.  I believe they were trying to get away from naming the city at this point for some reason.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Rowdy Roddy Piper in front of an obvious green screen, as the Jesse Ventura era comes to an end.

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #25 – 01.27.90

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #25 – 01.27.90

(OK, I’ve already done this particular episode twice and it doesn’t need another redo, so I’m gonna repost it and the Main Event #3 that follows this morning so I can move onto #26 tomorrow morning for you!)  

This is a redo of a rant from 98-ish and a pretty fun show anyway.  This one ties into the January theme of “ring royalty” via Macho King, I’m thinking.

Taped from Chattanooga, TN.  Attendance unknown but it did a huge 11.1 rating!

Your hosts are Vince & Jesse.

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #21 – 05.27.89

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #21 – 05.27.89

Taped from Des Moines, IA on 04.25.89

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jesse Ventura

Yes, Hulk Hogan is once again WWF champion following Wrestlemania V.  Just accept it.  In his pre-show promo, he promises to dish out justice to the Bossman and shove his fat head through the bars of the steel cage, and he’ll be judge jury and executioner!  Unless the Senate just doesn’t have time to hear evidence, in which case there’ll be an acquittal.

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #20 – 03.11.89

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The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #20 – 03.11.89

Taped 02.16.89 in Hershey PA, drawing 9000.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jesse Ventura

Is it just me or is the audio on this episode BRUTAL? It sounds like it’s recorded off a poorly-tuned FM radio, as everything has a crackly and echoing sound and it’s really annoying.

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The SmarK Rant for the Main Event #2 – 02.03.89

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(Originally written 01.28.21)

The SmarK Rant for the Main Event #2 – 02.03.89

Back to prime time as things have been getting bad for the Megapowers in the past few months of SNME, thanks to Hulk Hogan spending the past year putting the moves on his best friend’s manager and coveting his title. Thankfully Savage finally has a chance to deal with the Twin Towers and can hopefully navigate Hogan’s bullshit and get the job done, but no doubt Hogan will make it all about HIMSELF yet again.

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