The Main Event took place and aired live on Friday February 5, 1988 at 8pm ET from the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. The live broadcast drew a 15.2 Nielsen rating and 33 million viewers, both records for American televised wrestling.

The match between André the Giant and Hulk Hogan saw André receive the pinfall victory despite Hogan's shoulders not being down. It was revealed post-match that the referee was not the assigned referee, Dave Hebner, but rather his twin brother, Earl Hebner, who was hired by Ted DiBiase as part of a storyline screwjob. After the match, André attempted to surrender the title to DiBiase. Then-WWF President Jack Tunney said the title could only change hands by pin or submission, and said that by attempting to surrender the title, André had actually vacated it. Following the vacancy, a single elimination tournament was held at WrestleMania IV to crown the new champion.

The Main Event II took place and aired live on Friday February 3, 1989 at 8pm ET from the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The slowly building tension between Hulk Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage boiled over during the team's match against The Twin Towers, leading to the team's breakup upon Savage's heel turn when Savage contended that Hogan was lusting after his manager, Miss Elizabeth.

The Main Event III took place and aired live on February 23, 1990 at 10pm ET from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

Mike Tyson was originally scheduled to be the special guest referee, but this changed following Buster Douglas' knockout title win over Tyson just under two weeks before, on February 11. Tyson would eventually be the guest referee at WrestleMania XIV.

Tito Santana was a substitute for Jimmy Snuka.

The Main Event IV took place on October 30, 1990 from the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and aired on Friday November 23, 1990 at 10pm ET.

The WWF Tag Team Championship match between The Hart Foundation and The Rockers was supposed to be on the show. Retrospectively, the WWF explained that the title change had been revoked due to a ring rope malfunction during the second fall of the two-out-of-three falls match. Marty Jannetty pinned Bret Hart in the first fall with a sunset flip counter at 9:33. Hart pinned Shawn Michaels in the second fall with the Hart Attack at 19:23. Jannetty pinned Jim Neidhart in the third fall when Michaels dropkicked Jannetty onto Neidhart, who was setting up the Hart Attack at 25:41.

Nikolai Volkoff was scheduled to face Sgt. Slaughter on the show, but Slaughter attacked Nikolai before the opening bell rang and the match never took place.

The Main Event V took place on January 28, 1991 from the Macon Coliseum in Macon, Georgia, and aired on Friday February 1, 1991 at 8pm ET.

KNBC, the NBC-owned-and-operated station in Los Angeles, did not air this program when it was shown by the network on February 1. That day, a collision took place at Los Angeles International Airport between a US Airways passenger jet and a SkyWest Airlines commuter plane. The crash occurred in the late afternoon, and KNBC opted to air news bulletin coverage of this story throughout the night. The station did replay the program unadvertised on a later date.

This show drew a 6.7 rating, which was at the time the worst rating any WWF program had received on NBC despite the presence of Hulk Hogan. This has been blamed on the controversial Sgt. Slaughter Iraq storyline that was on going at the time.

WWF President Jack Tunney declared Hulk Hogan the number one contender for Sgt. Slaughter's WWF Championship at WrestleMania VII.