Saturday Night’s Main Event comes to Madison Square Garden this week for the first time ever, and it features a marquee showdown as Undisputed WWE Champion CM Punk and Cody Rhodes team up against Gunther and Sami Zayn.
It’s an appropriate matchup given the Garden’s history of big names coming together to settle a score.
At the first WrestleMania in 1985, Hulk Hogan joined forces with TV and movie star Mr. T to take on “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in a grudge match built around Piper’s resentment of celebrities coming into his business.
Three years later, Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage headlined the inaugural SummerSlam against Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase, the culmination of a pair of feuds that dominated 1988.
In 2011, The Rock wrestled for the first time in over seven years, teaming with John Cena, the man he would face the following year at WrestleMania XXVIII. As tense as their alliance was, they put aside their differences long enough to overcome The Miz and R-Truth at Survivor Series.
Continuing this tradition are Rhodes and Punk, who, despite their friendship, meet at SummerSlam for the Undisputed title. Across from them are Zayn, who beat Rhodes and Gunther at Night of Champions to win WWE’s richest prize, and Gunther, who took Rhodes out of his rematch with Zayn.
That led to Punk winning the championship, undoing Gunther’s dismissive “gift” to Zayn, the man who also ended Gunther’s historic Intercontinental Championship reign at WrestleMania XL.
Saturday Night’s Main Event doesn’t carry the prestige of WrestleMania, SummerSlam, or Survivor Series. On paper, the match leans on the old “can they coexist?” trope and resembles the kind of TV main event WWE often presents.
Still, it’s New York and “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” and the personal stakes between all four superstars could make this a compelling stop on the road to SummerSlam.
Barring late additions on Raw or SmackDown, three matches, including one title bout, make up WWE’s next Peacock live event.
WWE’s Saturday Night’s Main Event takes place Saturday, July 18, at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. The show streams on Peacock beginning at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
