7 /10 1 Votes
7.5/10 TV No. of episodes 146 Final episode date 21 March 2001 Number of episodes 146 | 6.6/10 IMDb Country of origin United States First episode date 8 January 1998 Network TBS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Opening theme "Thunder" (January 8, 1998-February 9, 2000)"Here Comes the Pain" by Slayer (February 16, 2000-March 21, 2001) Cast Sting, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Booker T Similar WWE SmackDown, WWE Raw, Impact Wrestling, TNA Reaction, Arliss | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WCW Thunder was a professional wrestling show produced by World Championship Wrestling which aired on TBS from January 8, 1998 to March 21, 2001.
Contents
Creation
The popularity of World Championship Wrestling's primary show, WCW Monday Nitro on TNT, led Ted Turner to create a new show, which would eventually be named Thunder, that would air Thursdays on TBS.
WCW Executive Vice-President Eric Bischoff was originally reluctant to produce another two-hour weekly television show for a variety of reasons. First, Time Warner (WCW's parent company) was under a hiring freeze which prevented Bischoff from bringing in additional production people to run the show. Second, he felt WCW did not have enough talent to produce another show and risked overexposing them and making storylines less significant. Third, according to Bischoff, TBS refused to pay the cost of producing Thunder which was between $12 million and $15 million per year.
Bischoff eventually decided that he could make the new show work and help pay for it by expanding revenue from increased house show business. Bischoff was also given permission to sign Bret Hart, specifically as a high-profile talent to perform on Thunder.
The first match to take place in Thunder featured Chris Adams against Randy Savage. Adams pinned Savage after a chairshot from Lex Luger. The match decision was reversed by WCW Commissioner/Chairman of Executive Committee James J. Dillon.
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TV commercials for Thunder featured top ring talents such as Hulk Hogan saying "I'll show you some thunder, brotha!" and The Giant with "This forecast definitely calls for pain!"
Final broadcast
In an attempt to save WCW, Bischoff attempted to purchase the company with a group of investors. However, although Bischoff's offer had been accepted, recently appointed Turner Broadcasting executive Jamie Kellner announced shortly after his arrival that Thunder and all WCW programming was immediately canceled on TBS. Bischoff's group then withdrew their offer, as it was contingent on keeping WCW programming on some outlet. WCW's trademarks and certain assets (such as its video library and the contracts of 24 wrestlers), though not the company itself (which still exists as a Time Warner-owned legal entity under the name Universal Wrestling Corporation), were bought by the WWF, its long-time competitor.
2000–2001
Thunder switched from Thursday evenings to Wednesday evenings on January 12, 2000. Since WWF SmackDown! debuted on UPN in the same timeslot as Thunder, WCW had been trailing the WWF in the ratings on Thursdays as well as on Mondays, as this was during the time WCW's ratings began their steady decline that would eventually lead to the company's demise. (The WWF also had a slight advantage as SmackDown! was available over broadcast signals and cable was not needed to view the program). Little was gained by the move, however.
On October 9, 2000, WCW moved the Thunder tapings to Monday nights, the same night as Nitro. After the live Nitro broadcast ended, the Thunder taping would commence. This practice continued until March 19, 2001, when Thunder taped its last episode. It was said that the reasoning behind the tapings was that attendance at Thunder tapings had dropped considerably over the previous twenty-one months.
Color scheme
Thunder utilized a primarily blue color scheme for its production graphics and ring designs, a design which was later emulated by SmackDown! and Impact Wrestling, as compared to the primarily red designs of the Monday Night shows, Raw and Nitro.