Kevin Owens has detailed how he got a feel for what was working in the ThunderDome era.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses were forced to adapt. WWE was no exception as full arenas were out of the question. WWE’s answer was the ThunderDome.

Since there were no fans in attendance, it was difficult for the performers to determine what worked. Kevin Owens told ESPN The Game 102.5 that it was the WWE staffers who helped him know what was hitting it off inside the ThunderDome.

“For me, I was lucky in a way because it took me 15 years wrestling on the Independents before I got to WWE. For those 15 years, I ended wrestling in front of very small crowds sometimes, as little as 20 people. When we got into that setting and we were wrestling in front of 15 or 20 crew members and that was about it, it wasn’t that foreign to me.

“What I did, I started using the camera crew, the tech guys, everyone, the announcers…I started using them as my audience because all of those guys have been with WWE for so long. I know that if I’m entertaining them in some way and they come up to me and say, ‘Hey, that’s good stuff,’ they’ve seen it all so I know that I’m putting out quality work and that the people at home are most likely enjoying it as well. That’s how I attacked it.”

WWE has returned to live crowds regularly. The company is gearing up for its biggest show since the pandemic era. While WrestleMania was held inside a stadium at limited capacity earlier this year, SummerSlam will have the higher attendance. The event is being held inside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Police are currently looking for a suspect who took several items from the WWE Thunderdome at the Yuengling Center recently. The University of South Florida Police Department took to Twitter to post images of the suspect. The police update noted that the person removed several items “belonging to WWE” from the premises.

The alleged robbery took place between the hours of 12:10 AM and 1:58 AM on May 22nd, 2021.

“On the above date and time, the unidentified suspect pictured below, removed several items from inside the Yuengling Center belonging to the WWE. The suspect below is seen wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers. He appears to be a HIM between the ages of 25-30 with brown hair, a mustache and light goatee. If information about the suspect is ascertained, please contact the USF Police Department at 813-974-2628.”

“USF Police needs your help in identifying the individual listed in this alert.”

WWE only has a little over one month left in the Thunderdome. The company has announced plans to go back on the road beginning in July. The first 3 shows will emanate from Texas.

• Friday, July 16: SmackDown– Toyota Center in Houston
• Sunday, July 18: Money In The Bank – Dickies Arena in Fort Worth
• Monday, July 19: Raw – American Airlines Center in Dallas

WWE has since advertised they will be visiting 25 cities for its summer tour. The company has since announced SummerSlam in Las Vegas on August 21st as well.

The WrestleMania 37 event will see the return of a live audience for WWE shows for the first time in more than a year and 25,000 fans are expected to attend each night of the Show Of Shows.

This news, combined with the fact that WWE is expected to leave the Tropicana Field after the PPV made many wonder if the company could be planning to return to touring after the event.

However, if reports from Sports Illustrated are to be believed then it won’t be the case and the site is reporting that the company does not plan to return to its touring schedule for the first half of 2021.

While venues are reopening around the country, the current plan is to keep the Thunderdome setup at the Yuengling Center while the officials gauge “whether it is prudent to return to a weekly live event model.”

• WWE ThunderDome Moving To Tampa’s Yuengling Center (4/12)

This strategy is opposed to the competitors of the company in AEW which has just announced its first non-televised event for WrestleMania weekend.

There is no word yet on what the company plans for the second half of the year and if they could be planning to go on road once again for the latter half of 2021.

WWE’s ThunderDome is on the move. Tonight’s edition of WWE Raw will be the final show at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.

The ThunderDome, WWE’s state-of-the-art wrestling arena featuring virtual fans, then moves to St. Petersburg, FL. It will establish residency at Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays. Friday’s SmackDown will be the first show ThunderDome show from the new host venue.

Reporter Jon Alba has been leading the charge with news developments related to the ThunderDome. Alba has received a “first look” photo of the production setup underway inside Tropicana Field.

As seen below, the larger venue will make for an impressive backdrop for WWE programming over the next several months.

The stadium is far larger than the Amway Center and accommodates well over 40,000 people for baseball games. No live fans will be permitted, however, as WWE has stated this will be a “closed set with only essential personnel in attendance.”

Jon Alba is a co-host of the popular Living the Gimmick podcast.

After several weeks of rumors, WWE has officially announced they are moving the Thunderdome to Tropicana Field. WWE’s first show from the indoor baseball venue will be Smackdown on Friday, December 11th, 2020. The venue is home to MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays.

No live fans will be permitted in the venue for the foreseeable future, however. WWE noted that events from Tropicana Field will be on “closed sets with only essential personnel in attendance”.

Tampa Bay Rays President, Matt Silverman and WWE’s Kevin Dunn were quoted in a press release.

“The Tampa Bay Rays are excited to welcome WWE to Tropicana Field for this residency and shine a spotlight on the Tampa Bay area for WWE fans around the world,” said Silverman. “The ballpark will be transformed to host the spectacle of WWE ThunderDome, allowing fans to enjoy this wildly popular experience virtually.”

“We are proud to have reimagined the in-arena atmosphere and provide an interactive experience like nothing else in sports and entertainment with the launch of WWE ThunderDome,” said Dunn. “Our fans’ response and industry-wide recognition are both humbling and further validation of the innovative spirit and passion that exist across the entire WWE organization.” 

• Zelina Vega & SAG-AFTRA Reveal They Had “Powerful Conversation” Recently

WWE has been criticized by many for gathering people and running shows during the coronavirus pandemic but it appears that their troubles might just be getting started. Latest reports have confirmed that The Orange County, Florida Department of Health is investigating several of the WWE arenas as potential locations where the coronavirus might be spreading.

The health department has asked their Strike Team to look into a total of 17 business locations as potential coronavirus hotspots including a number of bars and fitness centers. The list of places also includes several sites associated with WWE and the locations include the NXT arena at Full Sail University campus, WWE Performance Center, and the WWE ThunderDome at the Amway Arena.

A WWE spokesperson issued the following response to the story explaining that their arenas are not open to the public and they are producing shows with only the essential personnel in attendance:

“WWE is not open to the public, but rather operating on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance. As part of on-going weekly testing protocols, Aventus Labs have administered more than 10,000 PCR tests to WWE performers, employees, production staff and crew resulting in only 1.5 percent positive cases as compared to the current national average of more than 5%. Additionally, extensive contact tracing takes place and impacted individuals are placed in 14-day quarantine and then only cleared after they test negative.”

There is no word yet on what kind of action the health department could take against the company. We will keep you updated on any development in the story.

• Also Read: Gallows And Anderson On If They Are Planning To Retire Anytime Soon

It was reported earlier today that WWE had decided to extend its deal with the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida to hold ThunderDome shows through November as the original deal was slated to expire on October 31st. 

Aside from that, there had been no update until now as to what WWE has planned for December and going further. It’s looking like WWE will extend its deal with the arena for the remainder of 2020. 

Bryan Alvarez noted on today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Live that he’s been told that WWE’s deal with the arena is probably going until at least January. He stated that the original agreement was for no fans to be allowed to attend. 

However, he speculated that WWE might be able to adjust the deal and have it where fans can slowly be able to attend the events just like they’ve been doing with the Performance Center for weekly NXT shows. He added that WWE is going to be in the ThunderDome for a while. 

WWE transformed the training facility and turned it into the Capitol Wrestling Center where it’s like a mini version of the ThunderDome The only difference is that there are a few fans and family members allowed to attend while being in pods and going by the social distancing guidelines with masks. 

WWE ThunderDome Residency Extended Through End Of November

WWE debuted the Thunderdome last Friday on Smackdown. Orlando’s Amway Center has been transformed into a new set complete with LED boards featuring images of fans watching the show. According to comments made on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE had a production team giving instructions to virtual fans throughout the show.

“The basic gist is the Thunderdome is WCW, those Orlando tapings, same city even, from Disney World from the mid-90s where they would hold up signs that say ‘cheer’ ‘boo’ and all this,” said Dave Meltzer. “What they do is there is a coordinator, fan coordinator, on a headset and all the people can hear him. And he says like ‘everyone put your thumb down’ and that’s why when I watch on the screen and you see all the fans at the same time put their thumb down, it’s like this is so fake.”

“No one does this in real life as a real crowd, in synchronized,” he continued.

He would continue to say that there would be points throughout the show where the coordinator would tell fans to clap, give a thumbs down, or make similar gestures.

“Most of the time the people just sit there and don’t do anything and it’s all the pumped in crowd noise but every now and then you would have something where everybody would boo or everybody would cheer but it wasn’t the whole match, it would just be in certain spots. What it would be is when the coordinators says ‘everybody cheer,’ ‘everybody boo,’ if there was a chant, that’s what they would tell them to do.”

“In some ways this is better for (WWE) because they can control the fans, which they could never do before,” Meltzer continued.

• Stephanie McMahon Opens Up About WWE ThunderDome, Virtual Fans

WWE has announced a groundbreaking new viewing experience for fans that will premiere this Friday on SmackDown, WWE ThunderDome.

WWE sent out a press release Monday morning detailing ThunderDome as a “state-of-the-art viewing experience featuring video boards, pyrotechnics, lasers, cutting-edge graphics, and drone cameras. “

Thunderdome will also involve fans being virtually projected into Orlando’s Amway Center via massive LED boards. Fans who would like to participate in this aspect of ThunderDome can sign up at WWEThunderDome.com.

The launch of ThunderDome coincides with WWE moving regular television production to the Amway Center arena in Orlando, FL. Both SummerSlam and TakeOver XXX will take place from the venue this weekend.

WWE ThunderDome

The company sent out a press release today to announce the news.

“WWE has a long history of producing the greatest live spectacles in sports and entertainment, yet nothing compares to what we are creating with WWE ThunderDome,” said Kevin Dunn. “This structure will enable us to deliver an immersive atmosphere and generate more excitement amongst the millions of fans watching our programming around the world.”

“As WWE takes residency at the world-class Amway Center, we have reimagined our live event experience for today’s environment,” said Brian Flinn, WWE Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. “In partnership with The Famous Group, we will virtually bring our fans back into the show and recreate the interactive in-arena atmosphere that has been a staple of WWE events for decades.”

For more on the WWE ThunderDome, visit WWE.com.

WWE ThunderDome First Look

Here is a first look inside the Amway Center of the WWE ThunderDome production setup underway:

Photos are also circulating on social media of the setup: