Bio-secure bubble for professional wrestling events
WWE ThunderDome
The WWE ThunderDome logo
Type
Bio-secure bubble
Location
Various (see venues and events)
Owner
WWE
Established
August 21, 2020; 3 years ago (2020-08-21)
Closed
July 12, 2021; 2 years ago (2021-07-12)
Current status
Closed
Website
wwethunderdome.com (Redirects to WWE.com)
The WWE ThunderDome was a bio-secure bubble created by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, in partnership with the full-service fan experience company, The Famous Group. It was launched in August 2020 as a way for professional wrestling fans to attend WWE events virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bubble was a videoconferencing crowd system and arena staging utilized for broadcasts of television shows and pay-per-views of the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It worked by users signing up days before an event, logging in and joining at their allocated call time to be seen on a screen at the event in real time. It was free of charge to spectate an event.
In its 11-month usage, the ThunderDome was hosted at three arenas, all in Florida, United States. Its first residency was at the Amway Center in Orlando from August 21 – December 7, 2020. Due to the start of the 2020–21 ECHL and NBA seasons, WWE relocated the ThunderDome to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, which began on December 11. Due to the start of the 2021 Tampa Bay Rays season, the ThunderDome was then relocated to its final location of the Yuengling Center in Tampa, which began on April 12, 2021. The final ThunderDome-based broadcast aired on July 15, 2021, due to the company's resumption of live touring for Raw and SmackDown, which began on July 16. The period of time that WWE produced shows from the ThunderDome has been referred to as the "ThunderDome Era".
During the first three months, there were over 130,000 entry requests to access the ThunderDome website, with over 650,000 by March 2021. The WWE ThunderDome earned the "Virtual Fan Experience" award at the 2020 SPORTEL Awards, the award for "Best Tech Innovation During the COVID-19 Pandemic" at the 2021 Cynopsis Sports Media Awards, and the award for "New Product or Launch" at the 2021 Cablefax FAXIES Awards. A similar setup called the Capitol Wrestling Center was utilized for WWE's NXT brand from October 2020 to September 2021.
The WWEThunderDome was a bio-secure bubble created by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, in partnership with the full-service fan experience...
December 7, 2020. During this residency, WWE aired its shows from a behind closed doors set called the WWEThunderDome. The promotion relocated to Tropicana...
WWE.com Staff (August 17, 2020). "WWE introducing new state-of-the-art viewing experience with WWEThunderDome". WWE. Archived from the original on August...
2020 onward. In August 2020, WWE moved Raw and SmackDown's closed productions to an arena setting as the WWEThunderDome—which used a larger-scale production...
in-person spectators using WWE's "ThunderDome" bubble. Reports prior to the taping suggested the special would be filmed at the WWE Performance Center's "Capitol...
held twice in WWE's bio-secure bubble called the ThunderDome; the 2021 event was also the final PPV to be held in the ThunderDome before WWE resumed live...
held in WWE's bio-secure bubble called the WWEThunderDome, which at the time was hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. WWE resumed live...
metal band Primal Fear Excision Presents Thunderdome, an EDM concert held in Tacoma, Washington. ThunderDome (St. Petersburg, Florida), the former name...
pandemic in 2020, that year's SummerSlam was WWE's first PPV produced from their bio-secure bubble, the WWEThunderDome. After the promotion resumed live touring...
as the Florida Suncoast Dome. In 1993, the Tampa Bay Lightning moved to the facility and its name was changed to the ThunderDome until the team moved to...
bubble, the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at Orlando's Amway Center. The 2020 Survivor Series was in turn produced from the ThunderDome and was WWE's final PPV to...
broadcast from the WWEThunderDome, hosted at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, with SmackDown airing on FOX and Raw on USA. The WWE Draft is an annual...
On August 17, WWE announced that SmackDown, Raw, and pay-per-views would move out of the Performance Center to the "WWEThunderDome" at Orlando's Amway...
was moved to the new, state-of-the-art WWEThunderDome inside of the Amway Center in Orlando. On May 21, 2021, WWE announced that they will return in front...
virtual crowd and arena staging, a bio-secure bubble called the WWEThunderDome. The ThunderDome allowed fans to attend events virtually for free and be seen...
maternity leave. In August 2020, WWE began holding Raw and SmackDown's shows in a bio-secure bubble called the WWEThunderDome. In May 2021, the company announced...
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