A SMART STRATEGY AGAINST THE UNEXPECTED
From March 2020, the whole world adapted to this terrible pandemic. All sports events in the United States were suspended: basketball, hockey, baseball… All of them, except one: professional wrestling. Indeed, as early as March 13, 2020, WWE decided to centralize all its weekly televised shows at its training center in Orlando. This discipline must not stop. At first, the shows were behind closed doors, before the company later placed extras around the ring behind Plexiglas panes to simulate an atmosphere and make as much noise as possible. A delicate period, which would even see WrestleMania 36, the biggest show of the year, take place without an audience.
WWE innovated with cinematic matches such as the Boneyard Match or the Money in the Bank 2020. But in the summer, things had to evolve. WWE and Vince McMahon massively invested in a high-end technological infrastructure: the ThunderDome. Based in Florida, these arenas hosted nearly 1,000 screens surrounding the ring to broadcast in real time the faces of fans connected from home via their webcams. But that’s not all: the company also added a soundscape to pace the shows, and numerous visual effects were added as well such as pyrotechnics and state-of-the-art lasers.
Two years after the ThunderDome, Sami Zayn had voiced his opinion on this delicate period:
“I loved the ThunderDome era. It’s an unpopular opinion, I know, especially because I love the fans. […] The fact that there were no fans on-site at the ThunderDome opened the door to new, creative ways of doing things.”
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THE THUNDERDOME ERA UNDER TRIBAL DOMINATION?
The company made a bold move, and all eyes were on WWE on August 21, 2020. In Orlando that evening, it was a historic SmackDown episode. Vince McMahon opens the show by introducing the ThunderDome: only WWE could pull off something like this, in his view. Then the lights go out.
What better way to begin this era than with The Fiend’s entrance: in a terrifying atmosphere, fans realized how much the wrestlers’ entrances would be enhanced thanks to ThunderDome technology. At that time, Bray Wyatt’s alter ego was feuding with his former partner Braun Strowman. During the show, the two men confronted each other, before a gigantic brawl erupted between Retribution on one side, and The Monster Among Men as well as the SmackDown roster on the other.
In the main event of SummerSlam 2020 two days later, The Fiend and Braun Strowman waged a merciless war for the Universal Championship. Tables and barriers were broken: the two former members of the Wyatt Family did not spare each other. Bray and Braun even battled backstage in the ThunderDome. But after 12 minutes of combat, as The Fiend celebrated his victory, a familiar figure stepped into the arena to attack the two men: it was Roman Reigns. With a spear and deadly chair shots, the world champion made a strong impression that night, on the second night in the ThunderDome.
Having been away for many months due to Covid, the Big Dog returned to dominate this “ThunderDome Era.” He won the world title a week later, and began his legendary reign. Until July 12, 2021 (the date of the ThunderDome’s end), Roman Reigns would save the company without a crowd thanks to the incredible Bloodline storyline. And of course, his reign would continue for a long time with the return of fans on site.
And you? What memories do you have of this ThunderDome era?
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