WWE Saturday Night's Main Event helped fund early run of 'Seinfeld'

Thanks to WWE Saturday Night's Main Event, comedian Jerry Seinfeld said he was able to keep the first season of his eventual hit show going on NBC.

Making an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show Thursday, the star and co-creator of the iconic "Seinfeld" TV show said that the network didn't really care for the 1989 pilot when they saw it, then called "The Seinfeld Chronicles."

However, it did have a believer in then-NBC vice president Rick Ludwin.

"And Rick Ludwin said, 'I'm gonna take some money from Saturday night wrestling.' In those days, professional wrestling replaced Saturday Night Live once a month. And he took the money from one of those and it was enough money for us to make four episodes. We made four episodes and they still didn't like it," Seinfeld said.

"Saturday night wrestling" was a reference to Saturday Night's Main Event. Four episodes of the then-WWF product aired that same year.

A 2017 book revealed that Ludwin later canceled a Bob Hope special in order to finance the rest of the first season. The show eventually become a major hit for the network and has made Seinfeld more than $1 billion thanks to syndication and a Netflix streaming deal for the entire series.

Conversely, Saturday Night's Main Event met its initial end in 1992 before returning for five episodes from 2006 through 2008.