10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE Saturday Night's Main Event
1. Dearth Of Title Changes
Watching the original Saturday Night’s Main Event programs in the 80s and 90s, fans were all but guaranteed at least one title match per episode. Only three of the 31 WWF efforts did not feature a championship defense.
But title changes were a different story. The WWF World, Tag, Intercontinental and Women’s Championships were defended 48 times, but those belts traded hands only twice: in July 1989 when the Brain Busters ended Demolition’s record-setting WWF Tag Team Championship reign, and in November 1992, when Shawn Michaels won his first Intercontinental Championship by beating the British Bulldog. That’s an incredible success rate of 95.8% for champions.
The WWF World Championship was defended 19 times and never changed hands, while the tag and IC titles were for grabs 14 times each. The Women’s Championship was defended at the very first SNME only.
WWE’s 2000s reboot only saw one title match across five episodes, which might in part explain why it flamed out so quickly. This month’s restart already has far eclipsed that total, and if WWE is feeling frisky, they could tie or eclipse the original run’s mark of two title changes in just one episode.
Given how much attention WWE has steered toward this latest revival, one would expect the company to pull off a big surprise. We're already guaranteed to see at least one new champion with the finals of the Women's United States Championship tournament, but there could be something else big in store.