It's been a long time since a wrestling was last reviewed on here but it's been even longer since a WCW show was last reviewed on here. With the last WCW show that was covered on here was almost three years ago and well then I thought that it was about time to put that to an end as after years of trying to find I finally found the episode of WCW Thunder that I personally attended the taping of and so then join me as I review the episode of the show that marks the only time that WCW came over to England with the show in question being called simply just "WCW Thunder" enjoy.
There really isn't a plot running through this show which is the first thing that's wrong with the show as all it does is make this show feel alot less special and not really worth watching. As while the show does have some small stories running through it none of them are important and none of them add anything to any of the storylines that were going on in WCW at this point in time which is a huge issue as this show should have been WCW's answer to Smackdown and it should have been treated as such and yet it's being treated as a show that's lesser then the already bad Nitro which at this point in time was going down the drain anyways and it's because of shows like this that have no stories to the episodes as it doesn't give your audience to continue to watch the show and as a result of that is the fact that all this episode does is feel alot more like a filler episode of the show when it should be continuing the build to Mayhem in a more meaningful way instead of just mentioning some of the matches that are happening on that show which would have the add on effect of making that show not really worth watching either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
The set for this show is really just one giant screen and that's really it and as a result of that is the fact that it makes the show looks cheap. Which does make sense as the company that owned WCW really didn't like professional wrestling and so would keep on slashing at there budget and give it to other parts of there company and this is something that really does shine through in the shows set as it's not really all that impressive with it also being the exact same set that was being used for Nitro at this point in time as well this is made even worse when you take into account that both of those shows just a few shorts years ago had some very unique sets that set each of the shows apart from each other and by giving the shows the exact same visually boring and dull set all it does is make both of the shows feel the same as well with the only thing different about them is what name of the show appears on the titantron and that's really it and it's not really enough either heck if they wanted to make each set feel different then they really could have done by making this one the default Thunder set and then having a more bigger set for there main show.
Set wise there's not really all that much to this set with the set having alot of dead space on both of it's sides. Which very easily could have been filled up with anything just to make it feel alot more complete as as things stand the set just looks rather incomplete and unfinished like they wanted to do more to the set but for some strange reason they just didn't do it and as a result of that is the fact that the set for this show really does suffer because of it as it looks visually dull and boring and it looks like the kind of set that you'd expect to see at a live show and not at a TV taping for what is basically your second biggest show compare with WWE who with Smackdown gave us a unique looking set that looked just as good if not better then the set that they were using for Raw at the time where as with set due to the fact that WCW was basically being made on a hope and prayer at this point in time and different have as big of a budget it makes the set for this show just look rather cheap looking and unfinished at best.
For a show that's being taped in England you certainly wouldn't know it as apart from having English flags on the show graphics and the country being named twice there's nothing on this show that tells you that it's coming from England. Which does make this show feel alot less special as usually when a big wrestling does a show in the UK they go all out with letting you know that it's in England be it by including things that are in England on the set and having the union jack flag be apart of the set in some way shape or form and they usually go all out by making it a top notch show and that's just something that this show really doesn't do with them just using the same set with nothing added to it whatsoever which oddly makes the show feel alot less special then what it really should have been but at the same time this is also something that does work well enough in the shows favor as it's treated as just another episode of the show and not a special episode of the show either with the episode coming across as just another bad WCW show with them not even trying to fix all of the companies issues that are in the company at this point in time.
One thing that was really annoying during this episode was the fact that alot if not all of the matches either ended with or had run ins in them. Having a run in happen during is match is fine for like one or two matches but when it happens all of the time in alot of the matches during the same episode it start to gets boring and predictable real fast as you can see how each match will end before it even happens and this sadly a running thing during the Vince Russo era of WCW and it's something that should have been stopped as it does more harm to his product then it does good and while yes alot of the run ins in this episode do make some sort of sense from a storyline point of view alot of them are just there just for the sake having a run in when having a clean finish either way would help the show out in the long run and would also help the company out as well but this is what happens when you give someone unlimited power and not have someone there to tell him no with that sadly being a very common thing with alot of things during the Vince Russo era of WCW.
To give this episode it was a really well put together show with alot of the surprises being genuinely quite surprising. However tho a few decent things don't make up for all of the bad things that are in this very episode as there really just so much wrong not only with WCW during this time period but this episode as a whole as the episode really does feel like that it was thrown together at the last minuet with alot of the things that are in this episode not adding to anything and are there just for the sake of being there where as if this show was well put together alot of the things that are in this episode would either be setting up things for Nitro , setting up things for Mayhem or paying of things from Nitro and not just do it's own thing which has the add on effect of making this show feel like a house show that just so happend to be produced for TV and not something that you could only see on TV with Kronik showing up up during a match for no reason other then to cost The Filthy Animals the match and that's really all there was to it.
Again to try and say something positive about this episode it doesn't really have that many pointless backstage segments. With all of the segments in this episode serving some kind of purpose be it setting up matches for the episode or be it hyping up matches for the episode they do at least have some kind of purpose and aren't just there for the sake of being which they very easily could have been and it would have been very easy for them to do so as all they'd have to do is just feature wrestlers that aren't going to be on the episode and that's really it but nope they don't do that as alot of the backstage segments do have some kind of point to them which while it doesn't make them worth watching and it doesn't improve the episode in anyway shape or form what it does do is show that whoever the producers where for those segments at least knew what they were doing and at least knew that they had to get some of the audience to watch the other shows and they do that by trying to create some good segments that could have the possibility to lead to future storylines should they choose to go down that route with them that is.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty two minuets and seventeen seconds. Which is a tad bit on the long side for this episode as this episode really isn't telling any kind of stories and it isn't really advancing any kind of stories and as result of that id the fact that this episode really could have come in at around an hour maybe even less then that and you really wouldn't have to loose all that much as not that many of the matches are important matches and none of the backstage segments are furthering storylines and as a result of that is the fact that there's no reason for this episode to be as long as it was and as a result of that is the fact that it just feels like that this episode was only that long because of the fact that all of the other episodes of Thunder are around that same running time as well and not because of the fact that the episode really needed to be that long as it really didn't need to be that long as there really was no reason for this episode to be as long as it was but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a wrestling show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual wrestling that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual wrestling that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As there are some decent matches in this episode but at the same time tho given who is appearing in this episode the wrestling in this episode isn't as good as it really good have with the best match being Sting Vs Scott Steiner and even then it's not due to the quality of the match it self as it's more due to the fact that both Sting and Scott Steiner have had some decent matches in the past and seeing them wrestle each other does seem like idea but then we get to matches like the six way match for a cruiserweight championship match which should be good but because they don;t explain the rules of the match just comes across as being confusing in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this is an episode that despite being so close to my heart because of the fact that it was first TV taping that I went to really hasn't aged all that well and is a really good example of just how bad of a shape that WCW really was in at the time thanks to various groups of people in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does ern itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all pf the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I person ally used in this very review from the official Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website that I personally preferred to use to get the images that I personally used in this very review being the wonderful the official Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page since all of the images that are currently up and and featured / presented to us on freaking the official Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page are all fairly freaking high in freaking quality and as well as being very fairly freaking high in definition.