Saturday Night’s Main Event has been part of WWE history for more than 40 years.
The show first premiered on NBC in 1985, giving fans marquee matches featuring names like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Andre the Giant and many of WWE’s biggest stars on free network television.
It quickly became a huge part of WWE’s boom period before its original run came to an end in 1992. WWE brought it back for a handful of specials between 2006 and 2008, but it disappeared again for more than 15 years.
That finally changed in 2024. WWE revived Saturday Night’s Main Event as part of its new media rights agreement with NBCUniversal, bringing the historic special back to NBC while also making it available on Peacock in the United States.
Since returning, WWE has already produced eight editions of the event, turning it back into a regular part of the company’s premium calendar. Their next event’s going down on September 6, and it’s called Sunday Night’s Main Event this time.
Even with WWE’s landmark partnership with Netflix, Saturday Night’s Main Event has remained outside of that deal.
In the United States, RAW streams live on Netflix, while Saturday Night’s Main Event continues to stream on Peacock. Internationally, Netflix carries RAW, SmackDown, NXT, Premium Live Events and much of WWE’s programming, but Saturday Night’s Main Event isn’t currently part of Netflix’s lineup.
That could eventually change. According to The New York Times, the streaming business is starting to shift away from companies simply fighting for subscribers. Instead, the biggest platforms are trying to become the one place where people watch everything.
As the report says, YouTube has already struck a deal that will bring Peacock content, including shows like The Traitors and Sunday Night Football, to YouTube Premium. Roku has also been expanding its own marketplace by selling subscriptions to other streaming services.
Netflix now looks to be thinking the same way.
The report says Netflix executives, who “for years have blanched at the idea of collaborating with direct competitors,” now seem much more open to the idea.
Earlier this year, Netflix integrated French broadcaster TF1 into its platform, marking the company’s first move of that kind. It also revealed that Netflix has “had recent discussions about making other streaming services available as well, including Peacock and Fox One,” though there is no imminent deal to announce.
Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters also suggested the company is open to doing more deals if they make sense for everyone involved.
“If we see additional deals that similarly serve our members, that work for our partner, that work for us, we’ll certainly consider them.”
Exactly what a Peacock partnership would look like isn’t known. According to the report, Netflix could either integrate Peacock’s content directly into its service or simply offer Peacock as a subscription option through the Netflix app, similar to how Amazon Prime Video lets users subscribe to other streaming platforms.
If Netflix and NBCUniversal eventually reach an agreement, it could naturally have major implications for WWE fans.
Since Saturday Night’s Main Event currently streams on Peacock, the long-running WWE special could eventually become available through Netflix as part of a broader Peacock partnership.
So, if those talks eventually lead to a deal, Saturday Night’s Main Event would be one of the biggest WWE properties that could make the jump alongside Peacock’s other programming.
For now, it’s just something to keep an eye on.
But for the first time, we can definitely say there’s at least a realistic scenario where one of WWE’s oldest and most iconic television specials could eventually end up on the same streaming platform as much of the company’s other programming.
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