WWE’s Saturday Night Major Match returns to primetime television. The Professional Wrestling Order, which has aired intermittently since 1985, returns to air for primary age since 2008 on December 14 at 8 pm ET.
WWE announced on Tuesday the revival of Saturday night’s Major Match. It is the first quarterly primetime special to air on NBC and Peacock. The professional wrestling promotion will air four primetime specials each year as part of WWE’s new five-year national media rights partnership with NBCUniversal, which began last Friday. when SmackDown aired in the US community..
The December 14 card will take place at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island, New York, the site of Saturday night’s inaugural Major Match.
Saturday Night’s Major Match first aired on NBC from 1985 to 1991 before moving to Fox in 1992. It was revived from 2006 to 2008 on NBC, and was latterly deteriorated for non-televised space presentations on Saturdays.
The March 14, 1987 episode of Saturday Night’s Major Match on NBC left the highest possible rating of any show ever achieved in that age segment. A real fight with Hulk Hogan and Andre the Immense, before their legendary encounter at WrestleMania III, earned a score of 11.6. Saturday night’s 1985 Major Match opener was headlined by Hogan vs. “Cowboy” Bob Orton, Randy Orton’s father, for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Hogan topped the first 10 Major Event cards on Saturday night.
The streak from 2006 to 2008 had ups and downs. The first two cards of the first revival were headlined by Shane McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels in a street fight and Edge vs. John Cena for the WWE call-up, respectively. The 2007 cards bizarrely featured Doink the Clown in a six-man tag team match and a 44-second boxing match between Evander Holyfield and Matt Hardy.