Tony Schiavone Comments On The Differences Between WCW Thunder & AEW Rampage
Tony Schiavone has the distinction of being a commentator for both WCW and AEW. He was also there as both companies grew to the point that they created secondary shows birthed from the respective success of Nitro and Dynamite. Though both WCW Thunder and AEW Rampage are B shows, Schiavone says they are different creations who shouldn't be compared.
Speaking to Conrad Thompson on What Happened When, Schiavone said, "Thunder we didn't want to do, Rampage we do want to do... Rampage is important for us because we have such a big roster and not everybody gets TV time. Back then, we didn't need it. We had a three-hour show. It's just too much. Right now we're doing three hours of TV and two of it live." (h/t Wrestling Inc.)
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Do WCW Thunder And AEW Rampage Have The Same Flaws?
WCW Thunder did indeed suffer from just repeating itself. What you saw Monday nights on Nitro you saw again on Thunder. It quickly didn't feel important and ratings dropped significantly. While Schiavone says that Rampage was created to give everyone more TV time, that doesn't really seem to be the case. Sure, some wrestlers get exposure they might not normally get, but more often than not it's stars like Jon Moxley, The Young Bucks, Orange Cassidy, etc. gracing Rampage, just like on Dynamite.
Worse, it feels like a dumping ground for wrestlers that Tony Khan has gotten bored of. It has led to Rampage itself coming off like a repeat, and a rushed one at that, where even entrances sometimes aren't televised. Between this and it's horrible time slot late on Friday nights, Rampage's ratings have plummeted. While WCW Thunder and AEW Rampage may have been created for different reasons, they appear to be making the same mistakes.
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