WWE SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT #38
JANUARY 25, 2025
FROST BANK CENTER
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Watch: NBC/Peacock
MEET YOUR PREVIEWER:
Suit Williams: You can read Suit’s long-form previews and reviews of wrestling from around the world here at Voices of Wrestling. You can also find his weekly reviews of AEW Collision over at F4WOnline. Check out his brand-new wrestling blog Williams Watches Wrestling, where he’ll engage in watch projects and review requests like Williams Watches WrestleMania every Wednesday. This past week, he reviewed Wrestlemania 25, featuring Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker in what still holds up as one of the best matches in WWE history. Follow Suit on all social media platforms @SuitWilliams.
Saturday Night’s Main Event returns after a highly publicized return to NBC in December. In the review of that show, I openly wondered what the audience for an 80’s WWE nostalgia show was in 2024. Whatever that audience was, it didn’t go to great lengths to find the show, as the return of SNME on NBC had an audience of 1.59 million viewers and a 0.42 in the all-important 18-49 demographic. The final episode of Smackdown on FOX in September 2024 had more viewers and a higher demo number. I bring this up to ask if the massively advertised return edition of this show didn’t draw any type of blowaway audience, how successful will the subsequent editions be? And how will that affect the effort WWE puts into these shows?
WWE understands the opportunity, so they are bringing out the big guns. They’re doing the Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens ladder match…contract signing on this show. Shawn Michaels will be there to watch them sign the papers, I suppose. Also on this show will be Hulk Hogan, hoping that he won’t get booed on this show as he did on the Raw on Netflix debut despite *checks notes* still being a massive, unapologetic, self-admitted racist.
WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH
RHEA RIPLEY (C) VS. NIA JAX
Nia Jax won the WWE Women’s Title – the Smackdown Women’s Title – at SummerSlam with the help of Money In The Bank winner and fellow heel Tiffany Stratton. For months, Stratton teased cashing in her briefcase on her friend Jax. (I still don’t know why they were friends to begin with.) Jax would always catch her trying to cash in, with Stratton explaining that she was just trying to help Jax win whatever match she was in at the time. On the first Smackdown of 2025, Stratton finally cashed in the briefcase after a Jax title defense against Naomi and won the title to a big pop. Since then, Stratton has still been a heel as champion, Jax has still been a heel and has yet to wrestle Stratton, and now Jax is just challenging Rhea Ripley for her title after jumping her on Raw for another unexplained reason.
What was the purpose of the months-long Jax/Stratton piece of business if both were going to remain heels? Why isn’t this Jax vs. Stratton? Why does Nia get a title shot when she hasn’t won a match since getting cashed in on? WWE really couldn’t find a different woman for Rhea to beat on this show? A baffling match on paper, highlighting the crappy booking of WWE’s women’s division. Prediction: Rhea Ripley
JACOB FATU VS. BRAUN STROWMAN
After Roman Reigns won the Samoan World Title – the ula fala necklace – the focus shifted from Solo Sikoa to Jacob Fatu. Fatu has been by far the most impressive member of the Bloodline Wolfpac, and he’s going to get some spotlight here as he beats the giant job guy Strowman. Prediction: Jacob Fatu
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH
BRON BREAKKER (C) VS. SHEAMUS
Sheamus has settled into the role of “hard-hitting midcarder,” with his goal being to win the Intercontinental Title ever since the excellent series of matches he had with Gunther a few years back. He’s come up short on multiple tries, but he’ll try again here as he takes on Bron Breakker. I don’t have a great read on the Raw midcard, but I don’t think they’re gonna pay this Sheamus/IC Title deal off here. Maybe he wins it and loses it back to Breakker before WrestleMania, but I have a feeling there’s gonna be some everybody-in-the-pool ladder match deal for the title either way. Prediction: Bron Breakker
WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
GUNTHER (C) VS. JEY USO
Gunther’s title reign has been greatly disappointing to this point, as nothing has exceeded past “perfectly fine.” You would expect more from him considering how he has been able to excel even with this promotion’s limitations, but he hasn’t been given anything resembling interesting challengers. He’s very much been an Autumn Champion, where WWE sticks the belt on them around SummerSlam to hold until it’s time for the real stars to fight for it around WrestleMania season.
Speaking of not being given interesting challengers, his challenger for this show is “Main Event” Jey Uso. This company has tried very hard to make Jey Uso “a thing,” pushing him as a solo act for about eighteen months. His entrance is over, with the fans raising the roof for him like he was the fourth Man on a Mission. The problem comes when the bell rings, especially in these big situations. Uso doesn’t just come up short, he actively shits the bed when he’s put in a big-time main event. The SummerSlam 2023 main event against Roman Reigns was one of the worst main event matches I’ve ever watched, and the WrestleMania 40 match against his brother Midcard Jimmy was a pathetic, thoughtless slog that sank below my ground-level expectations.
We’ll see if Gunther can work a miracle here, but I hope that he can’t so this company will be forced to stop putting this substandard worker in these big singles spots. Gunther retains. Prediction: Gunther
