Former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is returning to the WWE.
WWE announced today that Ventura is joining commentary for Saturday Night’s Main Event. The massive event returns for the first time in over 16 years on December 14th from the Nassau Coliseum. That’s the same building that WWE held the very first Saturday Night’s Main Event.
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Ventura joined WWE in the early 1980s but his career was cut short and he was pretty much forced to retire. He continued as an on-screen presence in his heel persona, hosting “The Body Shop” in the style of Roddy Piper’s “Piper’s Pit.” He eventually moved to do commentary with Vince McMahon on Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Jesse Ventura Back for Saturday Night’s Main Event
Saturday Night’s Main Event began in the 80s and became a huge ratings hit for NBC. At its peak, it drew in over 11 million viewers in the prime-time slot and still holds the record. The idea was for WWE and NBC to collaborate on a series of “specials” yearly. The initial run on NBC began in 1985 and remained until 1991. From there, FOX picked it up briefly in 1992. There was an attempt at a revival in the 2000s on NBC, but that only lasted for two years.
With WWE SmackDown moving to USA Network again for the first time since 2019, the company inked a deal with NBC to produce four prime-time specials a year. The deal is in remains in effect for the five-year agreement with NBCUniversal. WWE Raw is heading to Netflix in the new year in a massive $5 billion 10-year deal while Peacock is nearing the end of theirs. If Netflix secures domestic rights to other WWE programming, NBC has another chance to capitalize on wrestling. After all, it’s at one of the hottest points ever and, of course, it’s more money in WWE’s pockets.
