Variety has learned that the pro wrestling series will air live on NBC and simulcast on Peacock on Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. ET. It will originate from the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island, N.Y., the site of the first-ever “Saturday Night’s Main Event” back in 1985.
I’m interested to see what they do with this, if it’s treated like a PLE with meaningful stuff or if it’s just a show because NBC wanted a show.
Man…back in 1985 it wasn’t even called ppv. It was closed circuit television, which meant you had to go to a bar, or a theater to watch it. And you only got Wrestlemania and Survivor Series. Even the first few Royal Rumble’s were just on the USA network, and didn’t even come with a chance at wrestlemania for the belt yet.
So when you only had these two big events, and you had to go out in public to watch them, SNME broadcasting on NBC was basically used as their PPVs on free tv. Then the PPV business came along, and you started to get 3 pay per views a year, but SNME was already a staple, and treated as just as important as all but wrestlemania.
Some of the biggest moments of the 80s were shown on SNME.
By the early 90s, PPV numbers had gone up from 3 to 6. Then by the mid 90s, WCW just kept making more and more until they were doing 1 a month. And WWE had to keep pace, and somewhere along the line SNME no longer had a relevant place.
Then I think it was 2008 they tried bringing back SNME, but it didn’t work because Raw was 2 hours, smackdown was 2 hours, wwecw was 2 hours, they had a host of B and C level shows. And they didn’t treat SNME with the same gravity it had in the 80s. It was essentially a C show, in prime time for no reason.
Now, we’re going to be in an era where raw is 3 hours on netflix, smackdown is 2 hours on cable television, and nxt is 2 hours on OTA broadcasts, with PLE’s being far cheaper than 80s PPVs were. PLEs will now cost roughly the same as watching RAW. And Smackdown will actually cost far more.
So…what place does SNME have in all this?
The only thing I can see is that it replaces a PLE. There are no PLE’s scheduled in December that I saw on the schedule so this likely is taking the place of one and the Day One PLE hasn’t been announced for 2025 so it may not happen which would leave December and January without PLE’s. When they start releasing next years schedule, it should be interesting to see if they leave some months without a big show so this can take its place, as they need to do 1 per quarter.
Guarentee you there will be a January PLE. It’s called the Royal Rumble.
Rumble 2025 takes place Feb 1st.
:O