WCW Thunder
| WCW Thunder | |
|---|---|
 The WCW Thunder logo from 1999 to 2001. |
|
| Format | Professional wrestling |
| Created by | Ted Turner |
| Starring | See World Championship Wrestling alumni |
| Opening theme | Thunder (January 15, 1998-February 9, 2000), "Here Comes the Pain" by Slayer (February 16, 2000-March 21, 2001) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 156 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multicamera setup |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | TBS |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original run | January 8, 1998 – March 21, 2001 |
WCW Thunder was a professional wrestling show produced by World Championship Wrestling which aired on TBS from January 8, 1998 to March 21, 2001. The rights to WCW Thunder now belong to WWE.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Creation
The success 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.[1]
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[2] 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.[3] Third, according to Bischoff, TBS refused to pay the cost of producing Thunder which was between $12 million and $15 million a year.[3]
Bischoff eventually decided that he could make the new show work and help pay for it by expanding revenue from increased house show business.[4] Bischoff was also given permission to sign Bret Hart, specifically as a high-profile talent to perform on Thunder.[5][6]
The first match to take place on Thunder featured former World Class Championship Wrestling star Chris Adams against Randy Savage. Adams pinned Savage after a chairshot from Lex Luger. The match decision was reversed by James J. Dillon.
[edit] Advertisements
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!" However, neither Hogan nor Giant would frequently appear on what was considered by fans to be a second rate show. Furthermore, unlike TNT's Monday Nitro, TBS often featured commercials briefing the events of the latest edition of Thunder during its other programs.
[edit] 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 required to view the program). Little was gained by the move, however.
On October 9, 2000, WCW moved the Thunder tapings to Mondays. From then on until March 19, 2001 (with the exception of the January 3, 2001 show), WCW aired its live Nitro broadcast at the beginning of the night and began the Thunder taping following the Nitro show.
[edit] Commentators
At the beginning, Thunder was broadcast by Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Lee Marshall. In Fall 1998, Mike Tenay from Nitro replaced Lee Marshall. During the April 1, 1999 broadcast of Thunder, Schiavone and Tenay had a worked argument, and starting with the following week, Tenay was moved to play-by-play, with Larry Zbyszko replacing Bobby Heenan on color commentary. In December 1999, Scott Hudson replaced Zbyszko and Schiavone returned as the second color man, the role that Tenay had in previous years. Stevie Ray, late of Harlem Heat also briefly did color commentary on Thunder.
[edit] Color scheme
Thunder utilized a primarily blue color scheme for its production graphics and ring designs, a design which was later emulated by SmackDown!, as compared to the primarily red designs of the Monday night shows, Raw and Nitro.
[edit] References
- ^ Bischoff, Eric (2006). Controversy Creates Cash. Pocket Books. pp. 255–256. ISBN 978-1-4165-2729-9.
- ^ Bischoff, Eric (2006). Controversy Creates Cash. Pocket Books. p. 255. ISBN 978-1-4165-2729-9.
- ^ a b Bischoff, Eric (2006). Controversy Creates Cash. Pocket Books. p. 257. ISBN 978-1-4165-2729-9.
- ^ Bischoff, Eric (2006). Controversy Creates Cash. Pocket Books. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-4165-2729-9.
- ^ Bischoff, Eric (2006). Controversy Creates Cash. Pocket Books. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-4165-2729-9.
- ^ Bischoff, Eric (2006). Controversy Creates Cash. Pocket Books. p. 271. ISBN 978-1-4165-2729-9.
[edit] External links
- WCW Thunder at the Internet Movie Database
- WCW Thunder at TV.com
- The Importance Of… 06.19.09: Thunder
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