NBC cleared the Saturday Night Live slot for the World Wrestling Federation in 1985, and the company answered with a card of nothing but headliners. Weekly wrestling television at the time ran on established stars flattening local talent brought in to lose. Saturday Night's Main Event put star against star for the full card.

The roster carried it. Hulk Hogan took the main events. Jim Hellwig ran to the ring as the Ultimate Warrior, faster than the camera crew could follow. Merced Solis worked under the name Tito Santana, Curt Hennig as Mr. Perfect, and Michael Hickenbottom appeared as Shawn Michaels. Louis Albano supplied the noise at ringside. The producers built it as television first: matches timed to network breaks, entrances framed for the hard camera, grudges moved forward in the gaps between segments. The performances hold up on that level, in the timing, the selling, the reading of a live crowd.

NBC ran the specials until 1991, Fox carried a short stretch after that, and the original run closed in 1992. NBC revived the series from 2006 to 2008, then again in 2024, now drawing on the Raw and SmackDown rosters. WWE kept the original booking rule through every version.