WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash has made a critical comparison between AEW programming and WCW Thunder, branding the former as “dated”.
‘Big Daddy Cool’ has discussed AEW’s programming style, linking it World Championship Wrestling’s B-show due to certain wrestlers’ working an “older school style”.
Speaking on his Kliq This podcast with Sean Oliver, Kevin Nash, who spent half a decade with the Ted Turner-helmed promotion before its closure, called AEW a “dated” product:
“It just seems dated. It has a very WCW Thunder feel when I watch it. I watched Jericho on that and I’ve always thought Chris was a great performer. I thought when they brought Punk in, I really liked the fact that every guy Phil worked with, Phil gave 80% of the match to. Phil made everybody before he beat them. He was very professional. I like his style. They both work an older school style.”
Kevin Nash is hardly the first to lambast AEW’s presentation style, with Road Dogg claiming that their production style looks like an “indie show”. Nash did, however, give praise to AEW; Orange Cassidy, in particular:
“But I’ll tell you right now, Orange Cassidy, that’s my boy. I know that Corny and other guys like that sh*t on it. Wardlow is a good-looking guy. Good body. He had a match with Orange Cassidy to start off the show. I’m like, ‘Wow, this guy is going to eat Orange Cassidy alive.’ Low and behold, that big dude gets it.
He let him do the kicks to the shin. They ended up having a really good, competitive match. He beat him, and he should have. I know the Kevin Nash/Cornette in me wants to f*cking slit my wrists, but the Shawn Michaels nowadays realises that it’s not your dad’s f*cking wrestling anymore.”
Kevin Nash’s final WCW outing came at February 2001’s SuperBrawl Revenge pay-per-view, failing to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from Scott Steiner. He last wrestled on Thunder on its’ 7 February 2001 broadcast, however, defeating Steiner and Jeff Jarrett.
WCW Thunder was the secondary programme for the company, having 156 episodes broadcast between January 1998 and March 2001. Although Thunder is branded “the beginning of the end”, it has its place in wrestling history books, as the final wrestling broadcast on TBS until AEW Dynamite premiered on the Network.