WWE is booking a colossal match at the Nassau Coliseum for its long-anticipated return to NBC.
The Undisputed WWE championship will be on the line, the pro wrestling promotion confirmed exclusively to The Post.
“Saturday Night’s Main Event. Its return to NBC, this time in primetime for a live national audience. It’s the perfect vehicle for two of our biggest stars — WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens — and signals our level of ambition for this show,” WWE’s Chief Creative Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque said.
“Saturday Night’s Main Event” aired on NBC on special occasions from 1985-92, and is coming back on Dec. 14.
This match getting booked for the debut sends a strong signal that these shows will get treated almost on the level of Premium Live Events — the reimagined name for pay-per-views since they air for all subscribers of NBC’s Peacock streaming platform — when they run four times a year now.
“Saturday Night’s Main Event” was brought back as part of the five-year media rights deal WWE signed with NBC Universal for SmackDown that was announced last September. The deal is said to be worth $1.4 billion, according to Variety.
The viewership numbers for these shows figure to be high because of the combination of the reach of NBC’s broadcast network and the events being booked as special attractions.
Rhodes and Owens have been building a simmering story for months, with the conflict escalating in a viciously personal promo on “SmackDown” this past Friday.
Rhodes won their Undisputed WWE championship match at Bash in Berlin in August, when Owens in storyline didn’t go to the lengths he needed to win the match. Owens attacked Rhodes in the parking lot after Bad Blood in October after the champion teamed with the challenger’s long-time rival Roman Reigns. Owens would use the banned piledriver on Randy Orton — his tag team partner and mentor to Rhodes — two weeks ago, leading to a storyline injury that put the legend out of commission.
Owens has been blaming Rhodes for their on-screen friendship ending.
“For four years, I fought the Bloodline. Every week. Blood sweat and tears. I fought them all,” Owens said on SmackDown last week. “And they tried to end my career.”
The segment was fascinating because it blurred the lines of who the audience is supposed to think is good and bad — Owens entered the promo as the heel, but he made logical points of why he felt betrayed by Rhodes and had no choice but to react.
“More specifically, the guy who led the group, Roman Reigns, tried to end my career more times than I could count. And he never could, and he never will!” Owens continued.
“And I kept fighting, before you were even back, and then when you came back, what happened? I stood by you, I fought alongside you. I fought them alongside you. I was in the ring at WrestleMania 39 trying to help you win the WWE title. I was in the ring at WrestleMania 40 after you won the title to celebrate with you, as happy as I could be, because you finished your story.
“And then what happened? A few months after that, Roman Reigns needs a partner, because he’s pissed off everyone around him. And who says yes? You. You teamed with the guy who tried to end my career, who tried to take away the one thing that I’ve loved since I was 11 years old. He tried to take my livelihood, and you teamed with him, so yeah everything that’s happened is YOUR FAULT!”
Rhodes, in the storyline, was visibly shaken and eventually said that Owens’ problem was not that he is in conflict with Rhodes but that he hates himself. The frustrated champ even pushed Carmelo Hayes backstage after the young star commented to him about Owens.
It all sets a very different tone going into Rhodes and Owens’ second title clash this year at “Saturday Night’s Main Event.”