We looked at the first two WWE SmackDown shows, now let’s get into the first WCW Thunder January 8, 1998! This episode is one of the two major shows in the fallout of WCW Starrcade 1997.
Low-Tier
While the match was fine at best, Savage losing to Chris Adams by DQ was just an odd result when you read the result. Luger gave Adams the win following a nice chairshot.
This match served to advance the beef between Savage and Luger, so there’s that.
Remember when Rick Martel was in WCW? He was even TV champion for a moment. His match against Louie Spicolli wasn’t bad but like Savage vs. Adams, it doesn’t scream “This might be worth seeing” on paper. Adequate match.
Let’s just go ahead and drop Tenzan vs. Ohara, The Giant vs. Meng, Ray Traylor vs. Scott Hall, and Luger vs. Norton in this tier.
It’s lengthy show folks and some of these matches were throwaways quality-wise.
Mid-Tier
Flair defeating Jericho was a nice throwaway bout. It deserved more time because they did a lot in under five minutes. I really enjoyed this matchup.
Speaking of needing a little more time, Goldberg vs. McMichael was a super short battle between wrecking balls. I’ve been warming up to McMichael after he got a year of experience.
Mongo is still pretty green in the ring but I will say that a short match like this against a similar opponent just worked. It wasn’t the most technical or even a wild brawl but there was massive power brawling potential here.
In the Tag Team title match, the Steiner Brothers were expectedly rough. Bagwell got an “Oh!” from me for a very smooth counter hip toss to Scott Steiner.
It was another leg of the Steiner Destruction Tour with Scotty getting the win. There was some storyline development building up to the breakup of the Steiners with Scott deciding not to assist in the Steiner Bulldog.
The crowd was Japanese crowd quiet during Ultimo Dragon vs. Juventud Guerrera. I figure they’d seen the cruiserweights quite a bit over the years and were waiting to be wowed.
They popped a bit for Juvi’s 450 Splash and his victory at the end. For a brief match, this wasn’t bad at all. These two were fluid in the ring but you can see that the fans just weren’t that invested.
Exotic-Tier
WCW presented a pretty big title match to end the first WCW Thunder with Diamond Dallas Page defending against Kevin Nash. The action here was good, I liked Nash working DDP’s back and setting up for that Jackknife Powerbomb.
Also, DDP sold all of Nash’s offense as if he was in a constant state of injury. When he made a comeback or kicked out, the crowd responded. He’s one of Team WCW’s major hitters.
Nash was about to eat that Diamond Cutter when Hogan interfered. Following this, The Giant came out to brawl with Big Sexy before the show ended.
WCW Thunder #1 Verdict: Mid-Tier (5.5/10)
This was an average TV show and actually better if we factor in all the storyline development and promos. It was extremely eventful.
I know it was longer because it was a debut but it was a bit of a trek to get through. A couple of dope matches were necessary and there were really none here.
The main event wasn’t even dope but it was like the official debut of WWE SmackDown where you had that match that sizzled when the announcers mentioned it.
Decent debut for a second major show that even WCW felt was unnecessary.
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