Saturday Night’s Main Event is back, and I’m so stoked I want to throw on polka dots and dance like an aging Dusty Rhodes or maybe have a snack of turnbuckle stuffing in honor of George The Animal Steele. I love The Golden Age Of Wrestling. There's something about it that makes me want to sprint to the ring Ultimate Warrior style and give a Hacksaw Jim Duggan thumbs up. Fortunately, now is the chance for all of us to relive those glory days alongside Jesse The Body Ventura.
That’s right. The beloved 80s commentator is back in the broadcasting booth (RIP Gorilla Monsoon), and he’s not the only thing about the show reportedly going retro. We’ve already seen throwback graphics, but rumors are swirling that we’ll also get retro entrances, appearances from 80s legends and maybe even a throwback ring. I can’t wait. So, hide your prized bulldog from Bobby Heenan, pull out your loudest Jimmy Hart megaphone and drop the elbow from the top ropes like Macho Man Randy Savage. We're in for some rockin' wrestling!
And what a night of wrestling it should be. WWE is giving fans a card worthy of a major PPV. Four championships are going to be on the line, and the fifth match features former WrestleMania main eventers. I have theories I want to Perfect Plex into your brains, but before I read from my scroll in the middle of the ring like a prime Genius, here’s a quick look at how my predictions have been going…
| Event | Wins | Losses |
| '24 SummerSlam | 5 | 2 |
| Bash In Berlin | 5 | 0 |
| Bad Blood | 2 | 3 |
| Crown Jewel | 5 | 1 |
| Survivor Series | 3 | 2 |
| Overall | 157 | 53 |
Not exactly a 15 year undefeated streak like Andre The Giant, but I'll still take it. Hopefully I can use Main Event to put a few more wins onto the board this weekend and emerge as ripped as Ravishing Rick Rude or as glowed up as Miss Elizabeth.
Sami Zayn Vs Drew McIntyre
It’s a good thing I decided to party Ric Flair style this past weekend and put off my predictions til Tuesday because this match was a last second addition to the card. I’m here for it though. McIntyre is ready for his first in-ring action since his match with CM Punk at Hell In A Cell ended that feud, which was so good Rowdy Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan would have been proud. Now he’s ready to take out that anger on poor Sami Zayn, who is stepping up here to defend the honor of his fallen comrade Jey Uso, who McIntyre attacked.
Zayn is obviously super over with the crowd and continues to be involved in huge storylines. It’s a testament to his popularity that he continually gets booked for major shows like this, but he’s almost certainly going to lose here. McIntyre needs to reassert himself as a main event player after his loss to Punk, and by declaring war on The Bloodline, he’s promising a series of interactions and potentially matches against different players. If he loses here, the feud is over. He’s not going to advance to Jey Uso if he already lost to Sami Zayn. So, yeah, I expect Drew to win here in pretty dominating fashion, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll ask for a King Kong Bundy style 5 count.
Predicted Winner: Drew McIntyre
Liv Morgan (Champion) Vs Iyo Sky For The Women’s World Championship
I hope WWE is paying attention to these crowd reactions Iyo Sky is getting because she’s one of the most over women on the entire roster. Crowds are erupting like she's a lost member of The Bushwhackers, and it’s easy to see why. She’s fantastic in the ring. Her personality is really vibrant and fun, and she’s got her own pace and style that feel different from what we get from everyone else. I would love to see her win The Women’s World Championship again.
But is this the moment where she gets pushed back to the top? That all depends on what WWE wants to do with Rhea Ripley. Like a mid-to-late-80s Hulk Hogan during the height of Hulkamania, Ripley is by a large margin the most popular woman on WWE’s roster. She is going to win the title back at some point because the biggest star should hold the belt most of the time, but she also has a lot of unfinished business with Morgan, who stole her mustached man candy Dirty Dom Mysterio and now holds her gold.
WWE probably wants Ripley to win her feud with Morgan and get her Women’s World Championship back at the same time, but there’s also a possibility that Triple H and company will want to split her objectives. If Morgan loses the title here, Ripley can finish her business with Morgan over the next month or two and then set her eyes on winning a World Championship back at WrestleMania. My guess is WWE keeps the title on Liv Morgan for now and has her beat Iyo Sky here, but I’m not 100% sure.
Predicted Winner: Liv Morgan
Gunther (Champion) Vs Damian Priest Vs Finn Bálor For The World Heavyweight Championship
The most famous Saturday Night’s Main Event episode is definitely Hulk Hogan vs Andre The Giant II, but the sneaky truth is, a lot of the time, the Hulkster wasn’t exactly defending his title against people with a compelling shot of winning. A lot of times he was wrestling superstars like Big Boss Man or Harley Race. Now, both of those guys are Hall of Famers, but they were not beating Hogan on network TV. Likewise, Finn Bálor was not beating Gunther in a 1v1 scenario. He hasn’t won a singles match on PPV since he beat Edge at Extreme Rules in October of 2022.
But it’s not just Finn Bálor vs Gunther anymore. Damian Priest was added to the match after some shenanigans on Monday, and now, all possibilities are in play. Gunther could lose his World Heavyweight Championship without even getting pinned, and while both Priest and Bálor would be underdogs in a match with Gunther, each has been a World Champion before and would be a credible World Champion again.
I think the decision here comes down to what WWE wants to do the World Heavyweight Championship. There’s a scenario in which they simply keep it on Gunther all the way to WrestleMania. Perhaps John Cena tries to win another Championship, and the unstoppable Gunther is in his way. That sounds like a possible ‘Mania Main Event to me. Or there’s a chance they want the belt off Gunther and will perhaps give it to CM Punk or Seth Rollins to make their upcoming feud even more exciting. If that’s the case, maybe Finn or Damian will be a transitional champion. Or there’s a chance they just want to go back to Priest as World Champion. He’s getting the best crowd reactions of his career and gave us an all-time WrestleMania moment last year when he cashed in to win the same belt.
There are so many options in play, but there are none I like better than Gunther continuing to look dominant and beating the hell out of both guys like he's Haku in a bar fight. So, I say he gets the win here, and in classic 80s style, he'll do it via Brutus The Barber Beefcake’s finishing move: The Sleeper.
Predicted Winner: Gunther
Chelsea Green Vs Michin For The Women's United States Championship
It's Saturday morning, and I'm jumping back into these predictions to give my final take on The Women's United States Championship match. We now know the finalists are Chelsea Green and Michin, and while I was confident Green was going to win before, I'm even more confident now that I know her opponent.
With all due respect to Michin, who is good in the ring and could build into something down the line, she's not very over with the crowd right now. Green, on the other hand, is super over with the crowd in an off-beat midcard kind of way. She's aspirationaly compared herself to The Miz in the past, and while I think that's a great goal for her, since we're talking about 80s wrestling, I'll compare her to The Honky Tonk Man. She's an attraction unto herself, and her goofy presence helps the show hit different emotional notes.
Green has surpassed every expectation fans had for her when she returned at The 2013 Royal Rumble. Her good work has been rewarded with consistent screentime. Now it's time to reward it with a championship.
Predicted Winner: Chelsea Green
Cody Rhodes (Champion) Vs Kevin Owens For The WWE Championship
Look: Kevin Owens has been fantastic in this program with Cody Rhodes. I went from thinking he was a throwaway opponent to fill some time for Cody to thinking this needs to go on a lot longer because this feud rules. We sometimes take KO for granted and forget how good he is. He’s got a Ted Dibiase-like quality where whatever he’s doing feels relevant, and he’s able to step up to a main event program when needed and feel like he belongs there.
The Internet has been arguing pretty relentlessly that it would be a good move for WWE to let Owens win here. It would add an element of surprise to the card, and it would give Owens a chance to hold The WWE Championship, which he’s never done before. I agree. I’d absolutely love to see Triple H get bold and put the title on Owens, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s going to happen because I don’t.
WWE has given us the occasional shock over the last few years (see Shinsuke Nakamura beating LA Knight at Survivor Series), but in general, the bookers have valued stability and common sense over chaos. That’s mostly been a good thing. That allowed Roman Reigns to have an all-time fantastic title run, and it has allowed Gunther to look like a nearly unbeatable menace for years. In general, it’s a good thing to keep the top guys on top, and Cody has been the top pure babyface for awhile. So, as much as I hear all the arguments for Owens and would love to see it myself, I have to predict what I think is most likely to happen and that’s Cody winning.
Predicted Winner: Cody Rhodes
Saturday Night’s Main Event will air on NBC on Saturday evening. You can watch it there or on Peacock or via other streaming options. Wind back the clock and check it out. You won’t be disappointed!
