Thirty-six years and two days ago (Feb. 23, 1990), the WWE aired its third episode of “The Main Event,” a spin-off of “Saturday Night’s Main Event” that aired once a year between 1988 and 1991, with the exception of 1990, when The Main Event was aired twice.
The third episode featured three major headliners: Hulk Hogan defending his world title against “Macho Man” Randy Savage (who back then was portraying a “Macho King” gimmick after winning the crown from “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan in the fall of 1989). The third headliner? James “Buster” Douglas, who just days earlier scored a dramatic upset of Mike Tyson in Japan to win the undisputed heavyweight boxing championship. Douglas was the special guest referee for the Hogan-Savage matchup.
Here are five things you might not know about this match:
1: Tyson was originally scheduled to be the special guest referee for the match. However, after Tyson lost to Douglas in Tokyo, Tyson backed out of the deal and was replaced by Douglas.
2: Around this time, Tyson’s promoter Don King had held several meetings with WWE owner Vince McMahon discussing a possible PPV “superhero” showdown between Tyson and Hogan, with $100 million being the number thrown about to get the deal done. The match would take place following Tyson’s planned title defense against Evander Holyfield later that June. But after Tyson lost to Douglas, those negotiations collapsed.
3: Hogan and Savage headlined Wrestlemania 5, which brought in a then-WWE record buyrate of 767,000 pay-per-view buys. They then went on a successful house show run that ran for nearly the rest of 1989, and they also main evented two more PPVs that year: tag team matches at Summerslam 1989 and the one-off “No Holds Barred” steel cage tag team match later that December. And yet despite this success, you wouldn’t see Hogan face Savage one-on-one on TV or PPV until Feb. 23, 1990. It also marked the last time the two had a singles match against each other on TV or PPV while they were in WWE.
4. This match would prove to be Savage’s last world title match on TV or PPV until he wrestled “Nature Boy” Ric Flair at Wrestlemania 8, winning the match and beginning his second reign as champion.
5. The broadcast featured the second-most viewers of any “The Main Event” broadcasts, drawing a 12.8 rating and 20.9 million viewers. Only the first “Main Event,” which featured the Wrestlemania 3 rematch between Hogan and Andre the Giant, drew larger numbers.
Nevin Barich is the Combat Sports Writer for The Sporting Tribune.