But Will Animotion Still Provide The Theme Song?

Tonight should prove interesting in the wrestling world, as Saturday Night's Main Event makes its long-awaited return to television. Okay, long-awaited is probably a bit of a stretch. Perhaps, 'hardly noticed its absence' would be a better phrase.

Back in the day, SNME was the shit. Kids would get to stay up late to watch it, and instead of watching Hulk Hogan stomp Iron Mike Sharpe like a cockaroch, we were treated to great matchups of relatively equal superstars. The point of SNME, of course, was to create interest for PPVs/Supercards, but they presented big-time matchups on free tv, back when free tv was home to what are now affectionately referred to as 'jobbers'.

Of course today, free tv is home to big-time matchups on a weekly basis, and jobbers have gone the way of the steam engine and a strong Democratic party. Giving away big-time matchups reached the point of absurdity during the Monday Night Wars, with WCW giving away Hogan v Goldberg on television, rather than use that match to sell PPVs. Thankfully this has been reined in somewhat, with wrestling companies again realizing that selling the big money cards means saving the big money matches.

Despite this evolution, professional wrestling, much like an abused and neglected child, still desperately seeks the validation and acceptance of mainstream television, their overly judgemental father. And with that in mind, SNME returns to NBC, in prime-time no less, as WWE continues to stagger drunkenly down the road to Wrestlemania.

Tonight's card offers:

*HHH & John Cena vs. Rey Mysterio & Randy Orton & Kurt Angle

*Shawn Michaels vs. Shane McMahon in a street fight

*Mark Henry calling out the Undertaker

*JBL and Stone Cold in a beer drinking contest

*Boogeyman vs. Booker T

*Trish Stratus & Mickie James vs. Victoria & Candice Michelle

*Mick Foley on 'The Cutting Edge'

In other words, a pretty weak card. No Hogan v. Orndorff in a steel cage. No British Bulldogs v. Hart Foundation. In fact, it almost seems like nobody saw this card as an opportunity to showcase WWE to a wider audience by presenting a high-quality card. Instead, this version of SNME is more like a really lame Raw/Smackdown hybrid, with no matches guaranteed to blow away the crowd. The street fight is probably going to be the most disappointing, given that NBC will likely place some serious restrictions on the level of violence and bloodshed. Booker T v Boogeyman will probably really freak out anyone not familiar with the depths to which wrestling has sunk.

The best WWE can hope for with this mediocre offering is that basketball fans will surf over during commercials/halftime and be somewhat interested in what they're seeing. But this card will not draw in new fans. They'll be lucky if they don't drive away more old ones.

The other interesting part of this is that TNA's Impact! is on at 11 o'clock, like it is every Saturday. I can almost, almost, see their number going up as a result of SNME. Basketball fans do some channel surfing during the game, and see that wrestling is on. When the game ends, they do some more surfing, to see if anymore of that 'rasslin is on. They come across TNA. And hopefully, hopefully, they stop to watch. If they do, they'll be presented with this card.

*Matt Bentley vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Elix Skipper

*Abyss vs. Cassidy Riley

*Homicide & Machete vs. Norman Smiley & Shark Boy

*A.J. Styles & Christopher Daniels & Rhino & Ron Killings vs. Chris Harris & James Storm & Shannon Moore (Moore has since signed with WWE...good riddance to bad rubbish) & Alex Shelley

And that is a half-decent card. The bookend matches have the potential to be awesome, and the ones in the middle should provide some decent entertainment. So long as the rest of the show isn't just more of the JJJ show, it should be good. Hopefully TNA will be able to capitalize on the, albeit minimal, buzz about professional wrestling that SNME is creating, and boost their own brand image.