WWF The Main Event
Genre	Professional wrestling
Created by	Vince McMahon
Starring	World Wrestling Federation roster
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	5
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	Once a Month Productions Titan Sports Inc.
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	February 5, 1988 (1988-02-05) – February 1, 1991 (1991-02-01)
Related
Saturday Night's Main Event

The Main Event is an American series ofprofessional wrestlingtelevision specials that were produced by theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF).The Main Event was a spin-off ofSaturday Night's Main Event and was held only one time in a year (with the exception of 1990 where it was held twice) and was equivalent to today’s monthlypay-per-view (PPV) events.LikeSaturday Night’s Main Event,The Main Event aired late and held its main event match on the first hour of the show. There were five shows between 1988 and 1991. Only the first threeThe Main Event episodes were shown live on NBC. The final two were taped and then shown on NBC at a later date. It included mainly high-card wrestlers of the WWF includingHulk Hogan,André the Giant,"Macho Man" Randy Savage,The Ultimate Warrior and"Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.

All episodes ofThe Main Event are available on theWWE Network (in a few countries),Peacock in the U.S. andNetflix in other major international markets, included withSaturday Night's Main Event.

The Main Event took place, and aired live, on Friday February 5, 1988 at 8pm ET atMarket Square Arena inIndianapolis, Indiana.^[6][7] The live broadcast drew a 15.2Nielsen rating and 33 million viewers, both records for American televised wrestling.^[8]

The match betweenAndré the Giant andHulk Hogan saw André receive apinfall victory despite Hogan raising his left shoulder before a count of two could be reached. It was revealed, post-match, that the referee who worked the match was not the assigned referee,Dave Hebner, but rather his twin brother,Earl Hebner. Earl had been hired byTed DiBiase to cheat Hogan out of the belt. Immediately after the match, André surrendered the title to DiBiase. Later on, WWF PresidentJack Tunney said the title can only change hands by pinfall or submission. Tunney acknowledged that the referee's decision is final but, due to André surrendering the belt, he declared the title to be vacant.^[9] Following the vacancy, a single elimination tournament was held atWrestleMania IV to crown the new champion.^[10]

TheStrike Force vs.The Hart Foundation match was still in progress when NBC signed off. In 2014, when theWWE Network made available this episode to its on-demand section, the ending of the match was added in.

The Main Event II took place and aired live on Friday February 3, 1989 at 8pm ET from theBradley Center inMilwaukee, Wisconsin.^[11][12] The live broadcast drew an 11.6 rating and 19.9 million viewers.^[13]

The slowly building tension betweenHulk Hogan and"Macho Man" Randy Savage boiled over during the team's match againstThe Twin Towers, leading to the team's breakup upon Savage's heel turn when Savage contended that Hogan was lusting after his manager,Miss Elizabeth.^{[citation needed]}

The Main Event III took place and aired live on February 23, 1990, at 10pm ET from theJoe Louis Arena inDetroit, Michigan.^[14][15] The live broadcast drew a 12.8 rating and 20.9 million viewers.^[16]

Mike Tyson was originally scheduled to be thespecial guest referee, but this changed followingBuster Douglas' knockout title win over Tyson just undertwo weeks before, on February 11. Tyson would eventually be the guest referee atWrestleMania XIV.

Tito Santana was a substitute forJimmy Snuka.^{[citation needed]}

The Main Event IV took place on October 30, 1990, from theAllen County War Memorial Coliseum inFort Wayne, Indiana, and aired on Friday November 23, 1990 at 10pm ET.^[17][18] The broadcast drew an 8.6 rating and 15 million viewers.^[19]

TheWWF Tag Team Championship match betweenThe Hart Foundation andThe Rockers was supposed to be on the show. The Rockers defended their newly won titles a few times before the WWF rehiredJim Neidhart, pairing him withBret Hart once more, and quietly handing the belts back to The Hart Foundation, erasing The Rockers' reign from the history books. Retrospectively, the WWF explained that the title change had been revoked due to a ring rope malfunction during the second fall of thetwo-out-of-three falls match. The match can be seen unedited on the DVDThe Shawn Michaels Story: Heartbreak & Triumph.Marty Jannetty pinnedBret Hart in the first fall with a sunset flip counter at 9:33. Hart pinnedShawn Michaels in the second fall with the Hart Attack at 19:23. Jannetty pinnedJim Neidhart in the third fall when Michaels dropkicked Jannetty onto Neidhart, who was setting up the Hart Attack at 25:41.

Nikolai Volkoff was scheduled to faceSgt. Slaughter on the show, but Slaughter attacked Nikolai before the opening bell rang and the match never took place.

The Main Event V took place on January 28, 1991, from theMacon Coliseum inMacon, Georgia, and aired on Friday February 1, 1991 at 8pm ET.^[20][21]

KNBC, the NBC-owned-and-operated station inLos Angeles, did not air this program when it was shown by the network on February 1. That day, a collision took place atLos Angeles International Airport between aUS Airways passenger jet and aSkyWest Airlines commuter plane. The crash occurred in the late afternoon, and KNBC opted to airnews bulletin coverage of this story throughout the night. The station did replay the program unadvertised on a later date.^{[citation needed]}

The broadcast drew 10.6 million viewers and a 6.7 rating,^[22] which was at the time the worst rating any WWF program had received on NBC despite the presence ofHulk Hogan. This has been blamed on the controversial and exploitativeSgt. Slaughter Iraqi sympathizer storyline that was on going at the time.^[23]

WWF PresidentJack Tunney declaredHulk Hogan the number one contender forSgt. Slaughter'sWWF Championship atWrestleMania VII.

• WWF The Main Event atIMDb

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• 1991 American television series endings
• NBC original programming
• Television series by WWE

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