''WWE Main Event'' is an American

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

produced by

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

. Premiering on October 3, 2012, the hour-long program features mid-to-low-card talent from WWE's Raw brand as well as talents from NXT. ''Main Event'' is taped on Monday nights prior to ''

WWE Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television show, television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET on the USA Networ ...

''. In the United States, ''Main Event'' streams new episodes on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

on Thursdays; it was initially carried by

Ion Television Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented enter ...

as well until April 2014. It is also carried by WWE's international television partners.

History

The series first aired in the United States on

, originally premiering October 3, 2012 and airing on Wednesday nights. WWE considered the show to be a spiritual replacement for ''

WWE Superstars ''WWE Superstars'', or simply ''Superstars'', is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by WWE that originally aired on WGN America in the United States and later broadcast on the WWE Network. It debuted on and ...

'' (which previously aired on

WGN America WGN America was an American subscription television network that was owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and was the company's only wholly owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel in its final form under the WGN branding ra ...

until 2011, and transitioned to WWE's digital platforms in the U.S. afterward).

acquired rights to the series as well, as part of a larger pact that included video on-demand rights for WWE's main weekly programs. Ion Television dropped the series in April 2014; following the cancellation, WWE

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

ed a live episode of ''Main Event'' from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

on its then-new subscription service

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television network owned by the American entertainment company WWE. It primarily distributes original professional wrestling events, films, television and ...

. It was reported to be a stress test for live events on the service in preparation for

WrestleMania XXX WrestleMania XXX was the 30th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming List of WWE pay-per-view and WWE Network events, event produced by WWE. It took place on April 6, 2014, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome ...

. ''Main Event'' was initially positioned as a non-branded show, featuring performers from both the

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

and

SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes sim ...

rosters. Following the 2016 WWE Draft, the program became exclusive to SmackDown. After the cancellation of ''WWE Superstars'', ''Main Event'' became exclusive to Raw. Prior to November 28, 2016, ''Main Event'' was taped prior to ''

.'' It was then moved to ''Raw'' after the premiere of

's '' 205 Live'', which was broadcast live after ''SmackDown'' from the same venue. WWE commentators Kevin Patrick and

Byron Saxton Bryan Jesús Kelly (born August 20, 1981) is an American professional wrestling commentator, ring announcer, and former professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a backstage interviewer on ''Raw'' and color commentat ...

are the broadcast team, while Mike Rome is the ring announcer. From October 3, 2012, to January 22, 2014, "

Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom) "Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)" is a digital single by Shinedown, written for the 2010 film '' The Expendables''. The song was released on iTunes on June 15, 2010, and to online retailers on June 21, 2010. It is the nineteenth track on th ...

" by

Shinedown Shinedown is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida, formed by singer Brent Smith in 2001 after the dissolution of Dreve, his previous band. Smith, still under contract with record label Atlantic Records, recruited the band's original l ...

served as the official theme for ''Main Event''.

Commentators

Ring announcers

Notes

References

External links

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Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

WWE webcasts American non-fiction web series