10 WWE Moments 2020 Will Be Fondly Remembered For
6. The Thunderdome
When WWE first started talking about carrying on through the initial restrictions of COVID, no one really knew what the hell it was going to look like. We weren't talking some one-off empty arena match, we were talking full on RAW, SmackDown, NXT, and PPVs. Would wrestling, which counts so much on crowd response and feedback, even work without audiences?
After a few months of hit and miss, enter the Thunderdome.
Thunderdome was a concept rolled out at the last SmackDown before SummerSlam. It was, for lack of an easier explanation, like WWE took all the toys they'd had in storage since March and threw them into a sandbox - lasers, pyro, LED screens, more cameras, and, most importantly, a virtual audience drawn from online entries.
Was an Amway Center with a ring circled with thousands of LED screens showing various fans like live wrestling? No, it wasn't, but it was a damn sight better than an empty arena - now you could hear feedback from fans, see reactions on faces, and have something to look at aside from NXT members and a few WWE employees pounding on plexiglass.
Aside from a few instances of questionable fan behaviour, and WWE obviously 'sweetening' the sound, Thunderdome was an example of a crapshoot that paid off.