WWE Saturday Night's Main Event (2024)

For one night only, WWE brought back the classic 'Saturday Night's Main Event'; a network television PLE level show with five big-time matches. It broadcast on NBC and Peacock in the United States, but was supposed to stream live on YouTube for UK fans - however, that didn't end up being the case, unfortunately. Regardless, I found a way to watch the event.

The show opened with a classic "David versus Goliath" type of match, which saw Drew McIntyre take on Sami Zayn. The match was fine, a little short, perhaps, but still entertaining enough. The result was fairly predictable, but that doesn't make it wrong. It would've felt odd to have the unexpected result.

The second match of the evening saw Women's World Champion Liv Morgan defend her title against Iyo Sky. It turned out to be a really fun, back-and-forth match. There were a couple of stiff looking shots, which gave the match a convincing feel, and the ending was well done. Again, the winner was never really in question, but I enjoyed the journey that the two women took the audience on to get there.

The midway point of the evening was the World Heavyweight Championship match, which saw champion GUNTHER defend against both Damien Priest and Finn Balor in a triple-threat match. It was an intense and ultrafast match which got the crowd, and myself, very excited. I loved some of the spots in this one - there was almost no time to stop for breathe! Again, there was little doubt in my mind who was going to win, but all three men did a stellar job of making the result feel anything but a foregone conclusion.

The penultimate match of the evening was the finals of a tournament to crown the inaugural Women's United States Champion. It pitted deserving talents' Michin and Chelsea Green against each other. It was a relatively short, but very back and forth match, which, in all honesty, could've gone either way. Both women were deserving, and this was a rare win-win scenario for the WWE. The person I hoped would win did indeed do so, and I really enjoyed the finish, which was very creative. The crowd loved it too.

The main event was the big-time bout between the WWE Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes and former friend Kevin Owens, with the title on the line. I loved the intensity between the two men as they went at each other. The match was slightly shorter than I had hoped, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it. The finish was chaotic, but allowed both men to come out of the match protected. The right man won the match, but there looks to be more in the future with these two.

Overall, this was a good night of wrestling, albeit the matches all felt a little too short for my personal liking. It was also slightly annoying that there were very frequent ad breaks and tv spots throughout the night - it meant large portions of matches were missed - I guess that's network television for you. I digress, this was an exciting one night special event to end a strong year of Premium Live Events for WWE. I'm looking forward to more next year, although the move to netflix may be tricky.