12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2021

7. Live Fans Return

WWE SummerSlam 2021 Crowd
WWE

It’s safe to say that no one will miss the empty arenas and ThunderDome of the Pandemic Era… save for maybe the WWE brass that enjoyed controlling the reaction of the “crowd” with the push of a button.

But those empty arenas, despite WWE’s best efforts, felt undeniably hollow. The artificial crowd noise was obvious, and the LED screens of the ThunderDome, while revolutionary, were a poor substitute.

The energy that a live audience can bring to a televised wrestling show is undeniable, as evidenced at big shows like WrestleMania 37 and SummerSlam. Try to imagine Brock Lesnar’s return this summer in front of LED screens with canned heat. It wouldn’t have been the same.

Of course, fans have also sat on their hands for some of the lackluster stuff WWE has put out there, but that’s not their fault.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.