WCW Thunder was a professional wrestling show produced by World Championship Wrestling which aired on TBS from 1998 until early 2001. The huge popularity of WCW in 1996 and 1997 allowed for the creation of a new show, which became WCW Thunder. Thunder was taped on Tuesday nights and then aired on Thursday, a change for WCW as then-WCW President Eric Bischoff was very keen on its primary show WCW Monday Nitro being aired live every week (as opposed to rival WWF Raw is War, which, at the time, was live every other week). Being able to launch a new show served as an example of WCW's popularity at the time.

Thunder switched from Thursday evenings to Wednesday evenings in the summer of 1999 when the WWF's SmackDown! show debuted on UPN. By now the tables had turned and WCW was trailing behind the WWF in the ratings. Like Thunder, the primary color of SmackDown! was blue (i.e. the color of production graphics and ring designs), while the primary color of the Monday night shows, RAW and Nitro, was red. Thunder remained on Wednesday nights until the purchase of WCW by the WWF in early 2001. Unlike Nitro, Thunder has been largely "forgotten" from WCW's history, despite its initial popularity.