Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s second-ever review of “WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event,” the show where titles don’t change hands, but monsters sometimes get slain! The WINC staff has plenty to say about both those subjects — particularly that second one, as we find ourselves a house divided on Jacob Fatu vs. Braun Strowman! We’ll also provide our thoughts on Sheamus once again coming up short in an Intercontinental title challenge, Shawn Michaels getting physically involved in the contract signing segment, and Jey Uso putting on a show with GUNTHER in the main event.
The only match getting short shrift here is Rhea Ripley vs. Nia Jax, which was good, but more in a “read about it on the SNME results page” kind of way and less in an “analyze this in an opinion column” kind of way. As always, we’re here to do the latter. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 1/25/25 episode of “WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event.”
Until WWE gets their booking bearings under control, you can expect this same topic to appear in each of these columns for Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but the point still stands. While no match or segment on the most recent Saturday Night’s Main Event card really flopped for me, I would be lying if I said that was a good show. The matches were good, but the “why” behind this show was lost on me. The soul behind this show was lost on me. Both of those things were lost on me the first time we did this dance, it was lost on me during tonight’s reprisal of that dance, and it will be lost on me until WWE can figure out just how to make this probably-contractually-obligated special actually feel special.
Have you ever walked out a meeting where absolutely nothing got done? Sure, it might have been nice to get spoken clarification on some work- or school-related question, but surely, we all have walked out of a meeting just to think to ourselves, “that could have been an email.” This whole episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event could have been an episode of “WWE Raw” or “WWE SmackDown.” If you really wanted to stretch out these storylines, like the ones between Jey Uso and GUNTHER or Sheamus and Bron Breakker, some aspects of tonight’s show could have been matches slated for the upcoming Royal Rumble card, which is currently scant. When all of these matches to occur as they did — all decent enough, but without the grit and length of typical premium live event matches — they could have easily been slotted into WWE’s various other television programs to be received just as well, if not better. Your pointless meeting could have been an email, and this pointless episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event could have been an episode of “Raw” or “SmackDown” (it certainly should have been the latter, considering how disastrously boring Friday’s episode was)
There are criticisms from those in the industry that push back against the categorization of Saturday Night’s Main Event as a “glorified house show,” but I’ve yet to see one that thoroughly convinces me that this event is anything but. Whether you want to call it an infomercial or Saturday Night’s Missable Event, the sentiment remains the same — there is no point in making these separate shows if nothing is to happen at them. I get that WWE may be contractually obligated to NBC to produce a channel-specific program, but if that is the case, why not just make it a show worth watching? If the broadcast already has to happen at the beckoning of the contract gods, then why not make it a show that will draw in viewers (you know, the goal of any broadcasting network)?
I don’t know why WWE likes to waste our Saturdays like this. In my opinion, more happened on the other promotion’s Saturday show than Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Written by Angeline Phu
Shawn Michaels is my favorite wrestler of all time, so of course I was super excited to see him in his hometown of San Antonio, especially during a segment that seemed pretty well fit for him. He “moderated” the contract signing between Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and winged eagle title holder Kevin Owens, and made sure he got both of their signatures to hand in to “SmackDown” General Manager Nick Aldis before their bout at the Royal Rumble. Michaels is one of the all-time singles ladder match greats, so he fit in well here, especially when it came to the other two characters. Rhodes plays up to WWE legends as a babyface extremely well, and Owens is the perfect heel for the opposite end of things.
I did initially think that Owens would be going after “The Heatbreak Kid” and he’d be eating a package piledriver like Rhodes, and we’d go through the whole dramatic stretcher spot again, but I was really glad that wasn’t the case. Of course, the D-Generation X member had to take a slight shot at Owens, calling him jealous, but I was expect nothing less from my favorite. Owens just went for a cheap shot on Rhodes, then attempted to get Michaels in to the move before Rhodes interfered, and Michaels tuned up the band and hit Owens with Sweet Chin Music to end the segment. Easy, clean, pretty much what I expected, and thankfully, Michaels didn’t take a huge bump and Owens got some comeuppance without looking too weak.
I also liked that this segment wasn’t the main event, which I feel like a lot of fans thought might happen. It didn’t take up too much time on the show or slow things down too much. It served its purpose, got both belts off Rhodes and Owens, and now, things are ready to go for their ladder match at the Royal Rumble. I don’t foresee anything exciting happening between them on “Raw” or “SmackDown” next week, but for now, I’ll be happy with what I’ve got tonight.
Written by Daisy Ruth
I am going to preface this point with the following before we get underway: I really enjoy Bron Breakker and genuinely believe he is already worthy of the main event, I also understand why WWE wouldn’t want to take the Intercontinental title from Breakker at this stage, and I even found the match between he and Sheamus at SNME to be very enjoyable. My issue is purely with the story and direction of Sheamus, seemingly locked in an eternally unfavorable relationship with the powers that preside over the IC title with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel.
The story that his latest match told, and to be honest his entire Intercontinental saga over the past few years, was that Sheamus simply wasn’t good enough to win the title from Breakker. But as mentioned he went through the same cycle while Gunther was the champion, which in itself never resulted in any redemption for the “Celtic Warrior,” and it’s starting to become the running theme of his quest for the Grand Slam. At this stage, it’s hard to envision Sheamus as a part of any other angle outside of the IC title, given that he has made it abundantly clear that it’s his sole goal. But it’s also now hard to picture where he goes from here to that end. The way I feel towards Sheamus’ latest defeat will largely come down to how the story ends. I was a massive fan of Gunther and Sheamus’ series of matches, but retrospectively feel sour that it never really got the desired pay off, so the second time around it’s starting to feel too familiar for my liking. My hope is that Sheamus will win the title by WrestleMania, but even then it’ll be way overdue.
Written by Max Everett
Can you believe this was the match I was least excited for on the card?
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Braun Strowman. I’m not the biggest fan of his character, and while the Strowman Express is cool, I don’t really see how Strowman stands out beyond just being 6’8″ and Raquel Rodriguez’s ex-boyfriend. I’m not saying that this match made me a Strowman fan, but I can appreciate how willing Strowman was at putting Fatu over. You gotta give respect where respect is due.
Fatu and Strowman’s match was good, considering I was so uninterested in the match-up going into it. Strowman dominated most of the match, which surprised me, as Fatu is arguably the more relevant star here, if not the bigger one entirely. It was nice to see that Fatu is able to take what he dishes out for The Bloodline on a weekly basis — when a wrestler is able to take a beating but still come out on top with a vengeance, it speaks so much more loudly to the quality of their performance, as opposed to a wrestler who isn’t willing to get beat down at all. Strowman looked great, which is crucial in making the next segment work as well as it did.
The match was cute, but the finish and the post-match assault is what took this from a cute match to a certifiable show highlight. I’m always down for a good referee bump. When you think about it reminds us that the actions taken inside the ring impact people other than the wrestlers, and if you’re just a simple wrestling fan, they tend to be pretty entertaining. Fatu slid that referee out of the ring (see? entertaining) and continued his brutal assault onto Strowman, and while he didn’t use the steel chair he introduced into the ring as much as I would have liked him to, you cannot deny that Fatu did an absolute number on Strowman. Blood gushed from Strowman’s mouth and spread over his features like a gory work of art, and Fatu landed not one, not two, but three whole Moonsaults onto Strowman before Tama Tonga appeared to whisk him away.
I understand that this is basically a one-for-one recreation of Bronson Reed’s attacks onto Strowman, and while people may shirk at this segment for the copy/paste nature of it, I am instead choosing to focus on how great everyone looked coming out of both segments. Is the replication a bit lazy? Sure. After all, the segments only had one distinction: the name of the finisher. Whether it was a Moonsault or a Tsunami that took Strowman out, however, almost feels irrelevant. Fatu and Reed are both absolutely phenomenal performers, and Strowman deserves his flowers for performing well while simultaneously putting over both of them as much as he did. Everyone played their part just so well.
Fatu is Moonsaulting his way to WWE infamy, and I’m so here for it.
Written by Angeline Phu
While I wanted the absolute powerhouse that is Jacob Fatu to come out of this match looking strong and formidable, there was just something about the ending that didn’t work for me. I think it might have been the multiple hip attacks that seemingly took Strowman out, not the Samoan Drop on the announce table, and that definitely threw me off and had me feeling like I missed something in the match. It wasn’t some big, crazy move from Fatu that took out “The Monster Among Men,” it was a few hip attacks, what looked like a blood capsule in Strowman’s mouth, and a push to the referee to cause a disqualification.
Fatu hit a moonsault to Strowman after taking out some officials who tried to interfere. I guess that also threw me off, because Strowman seemed just so helpless after those hip attacks. While I can’t imagine they feel good to take, this is a guy who I’ve seen take multiple Tsunamis from Bronson Reed, so it just didn’t feel right to me. He took the moonsault well, and I certainly hope he wasn’t bleeding the hard way, but I feel like a guy like Strowman could have taken a lot more punishment from Fatu.
While Fatu did look strong in the beat-down angle following the match, it just wasn’t enough for me to solidify the “Samoan Werewolf” as something huge on his own now that the new Bloodline has seemingly dissolved. While I much rather would have preferred a clean victory, I’m glad at least Solo Sikoa wasn’t the one to interfere or cause a disqualification. There wasn’t much to hate on this show, because it was just a harmless showcase of matches on a Saturday night, but there was just something about this that I didn’t like. I expected to come out of this match more excited than I am, but thankfully, I at least haven’t lost any faith in Fatu. I just hope his next match is a hardcore beatdown of some other big man on the roster to really prove a point.
Written by Daisy Ruth
By this stage it would take a Hall of Famer to stand against him for Gunther to ever be considered the B-side in a wrestling match, with the WWE World Heavyweight Champion legitimately one of, if not the, most dominant performers on the roster. You could look far and wide across the roster, pick out anyone worthy to hold the main event slot, and they would have likely already fallen to the “Ring General.” So it was really up to Jey Uso to cultivate a genuine belief that he could win the title, beyond the infectious investment into the “Yeet Man,” and continue to cement himself as a top level performer. That much he did, with his perseverance and ability to rally the crowd behind him there was a genuine Rocky tale being told in the main event of SNME.
The story that Uso had something to prove, with Gunther hammering home the idea that he was simply a really good tag team wrestler, was weaved into the action in the match and it unlocked a new gear for him to shift into – much like we’ve seen previously against Bron Breakker and Roman Reigns. There was very little chance, looking at the way things are set going into WrestleMania season, that he was ever going to win the title. Yet by the end of the bout it appeared for a moment like he had upset the odds, Gunther kicking out of two spears and an Uso Splash at the last fraction of a second, and going on to snuff out that flame of hope with consecutive, winding powerbombs. The very least you can expect from the rebooted SNME specials are great if inconsequential title matches, and this was certainly amongst the best of them, but it would be unfair to say it was inconsequential too; for me at least, it felt like another roaring example in the campaign for Uso to finally win a world title, and it also served to maintain the air of infallibility in the World Heavyweight Champion.
Written by Max Everett
