The Impact of Pro Wrestling on Saturdays

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Perhaps the hottest day of the week pro wrestling was never Monday night afterall, but the hot bed of pro wrestling television history on Saturdays. Not every wrestling program was a ratings success but both World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) and World Championship Wrestling tried to market on Saturdays in thirty years on television.

The most famous and successful wrestling program was put on by the WWF called Saturday Night Main Event, debuting on May 10, 1985 on mainstream television, NBC. The hour and a half broadcast was hosted mainly by Vince McMahon and Jesse “The Body” Ventura. The program stayed with NBC until 1991 when ratings were eventually low and twice in 1992 as FOX specials. Saturday Night Main Event featured the stars of the WWF such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, “Cowboy” Bob Orton and The Ultimate Warrior, instead of just midcarders and enhancement talent. Another strong point of the program was it didn’t depend on a studio, each show took place in a different location. WWE will be bringing back Saturday Night Main Event on NBC in 2006 and will feature the WWE RAW roster.

WCW Saturday Night was a nine year program on TBS, from 1991 through 2000, and was considered a flagship program for the company. The program was taped at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia in front of a studio audience and hosted by Tony Schiavone and Dusty Rhodes. WCW Saturday Night became a program for up and comers such as Steve Austin, Diamond Dallas Page, Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, Buff Bagwell and Steve Regal and other midcarders and tag teams. WCWSN eventually became a recap show before it was phased out of TBS programming.

WWF also strongly pushed for Saturday wrestling programming, when WWF Mania ran from 1993 through 1995 on the USA Network, hosted by radio personality Todd Pettingil, and eventually Todd was paired with Stephanie Wiand. WWF Mania was a recap show and benefited families who didn’t want their children to watch late night Monday programming and could get a edited version of the highlights of the storylines of the WWF. Sunny also hosted the recap wrestling shows one weekend, hosting WWF Mania and WWF Action Zone on Sunday morning WWF television on USA.

WWF Livewire was a breakthrough show for the WWF in the beginning of it’s creation because it was live on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. from 1997 through 2000 from WWF studios in Stamford, CT and hosted by Todd Pettengil, Dok Hendrix (aka Michael Hayes) and Sunny. WWF Livewire started off on USA but was moved to TNN (which became Spike) when WWF and USA parted ways. Fans were encouraged to call in to ask questions for the special guest on the show, and WWF even opened it’s chat room to talk to Sunny during the show. Everything was done in a effort to push the current storylines however, it still had a shoot feel, especially when Vince Russo appeared. Later versions of Livewire when it abandoned it’s interactive feel, were hosted by Michael Cole and Marissa Mazzola (Shane McMahon’s real life wife) and finally by Jonathan Coachman and became a highlights of the past week of WWF programing show.

The closest show to Saturday Night Main Event to date was WWF Shotgun Saturday Night airing in syndication. It ran from January 5, 1997 through September 1999, when it was phased into WWF Jakked. WWF Shotgun Saturday Night was hosted by Sunny and Vince McMahon and it ran at various night clubs across the country and aired late at night. I think this show could have been a rating success if more affiliates had picked it up, I was only able to see highlights for that very reason.

In 2001, WWF Excess hit the airwaves on TNN from 10 to midnight, live and ran from August 25, 2001 through May 18, 2002. Excess went through two different pairings of host, Terri Runnels and Jonathan “Coach” Coachman and Trish Stratus and Coach but kept the same format throughout: highlights of the WWE storylines, behind the scenes footage of WWE superstars, WWE superstars as special guests, interaction with fans via email and phone calls and WWE Inside the Vault, where a classic WWE/WWF match was selected that was usually a personal favorite match of the special guest of the show.

WWE Confidential, which aired on TNN on Saturday nights at 11 p.m., was hosted in the WWE studios by WWF Legend “Mean” Gene Oakland was a one hour behind the scenes look at WWE Superstars either on location or their life and homes in general from 2001 through 2004. One of the highly most watched episodes of WWE Confidential were the in depth look into the death of WWF former employee and WWF legend Miss Elizabeth and her connection to Lex Luger, with perspectives of WWF legends and current WWE superstars and WWE CEO Vince McMahon.

WWE Velocity, a one hour program which ran Saturday nights at 10 p.m. on Spike TV and moved to Saturday mornings on WWE.com from 2002 through 2004, featured the WWE Smackdown brand, which filmed during the day of WWE Smackdown tapings on Tuesdays. Hosted by many pairings over the years such as Michael Cole and Tazz; Ernest Miller and Josh Matthews; Tazz and Josh Matthews; Bill DeMott and Josh Matthews and finally, Josh Matthews and Steve Romero.

Currently, Total Nonstop Action is debuting on Spike TV for one hour on Saturday nights at 11 p.m. This is the biggest spot for TNA to date, before airing on Fox Sports Net on Fridays. TNA is at a advantage since it is following UFC, in a hope to draw UFC fans or viewers who are burnt out on WWE current state of programming. Time will tell if it will be a success or if Spike will move it to oppose RAW or phase it out. Loyalists to TNA who have kept up with the product via their website, will follow them to Spike TV. The real key for TNA is to have WWE viewers give them a try for the first time and see if there is any improvement in their pay per view buy rate since the launch this past weekend. TNA booked on their show former WWE talent in Jeff Hardy, Rhyno, Jeff Jarrett, Raven, B.G. James (formerly the Road Dogg in the WWE) and a “surprise” appearance by Kevin Nash and Team 3D as well as showcasing TNA’s own Monty Brown, AJ Styles, Petey Williams, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin. We will see in the next few weeks how TNA runs with their new slot on historic Saturday with the heavy promotion Spike gave them during the commercials of WWE programming.