News: WWE Introducing New State-of-the-Art Viewing Experience With WWE ThunderDome (Begins on Smackdown)

The following was released by WWE today. It is confirmation of the report from last week that WWE was going to be moving their main TV shows to the Amway Center in Orlando. Moving forward, starting with Smackdown on Friday, WWE will run live shows for Smackdown, Raw and their pay-per-view events. The NXT shows, like the TV show and Takeover, will continue to take place at Full Sail Live in Orlando. Below the press release, I have added comments from WWE’s Executive Producer Kevin Dunn as well.

WWE BRINGS THE THUNDER

STAMFORD, Conn., – August 17, 2020 – WWE ThunderDome™, featuring a state-of-the-art set, video boards, pyrotechnics, lasers, cutting-edge graphics and drone cameras, will take WWE fans’ viewing experience to an unprecedented level starting this Friday, August 21 on FOX, kicking off SummerSlam® Weekend.

“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, WWE Executive Vice President, Television Production. “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.”

With the debut of WWE ThunderDome, WWE will take residency at Amway Center in Orlando and virtually bring fans into the arena via live video on massive LED boards, in conjunction with The Famous Group and its proprietary technology, for every Monday Night Raw®, Friday Night SmackDown® and WWE pay-per-view event. Starting tonight, fans can register for their virtual seat to be part of upcoming shows via www.WWEThunderDome.com or at WWE’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages.

“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.”

WWE Event Schedule for August:

• Friday, August 21 – Friday Night SmackDown®, Amway Center, 8 pm ET on FOX
• Saturday, August 22 – NXT TakeOver® XXX, Full Sail Live, 7 pm ET on WWE Network
• Sunday, August 23 – SummerSlam, Amway Center, 7 pm ET on WWE Network
• Monday, August 24 – Monday Night Raw®, Amway Center, 8 pm ET on USA Network
• Wednesday, August 26 – NXT®, Full Sail Live, 8 pm ET on USA Network
• Friday, August 28 – Friday Night SmackDown, Amway Center, 8 pm ET on FOX
• Sunday, August 30 – Payback®, Amway Center, 7 pm ET on WWE Network
• Monday, August 31 – Monday Night Raw, Amway Center, 8 pm ET on USA Network

WWE’s Amway Center residency will continue for the foreseeable future and Raw, SmackDown and pay-per-view programming will be produced on closed sets with only essential personnel in attendance. WWE will continue to administer its health and safety protocols for talent, crew and employees in conjunction with each production, including PCR testing for COVID-19, social distancing and wearing masks.

About The Famous Group

The Famous Group (TFG) is a full-service fan experience company located in Culver City, Calif. For more than 20 years, TFG has helped the biggest brands, venues, and events in the world connect with fans, both physically and virtually, through creating immersive fan experiences utilizing award-winning creative, rock-solid production and proprietary technology. TFG has delivered on the biggest stages for Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams and leagues, Esports, concerts, festivals and retail environments. The company has serviced 15 Super Bowls and clients like Nike, Live Nation, NBA, NHL, NCAA Final Four, Ubisoft, Pepsi, AT&T and more than 90 professional sports teams and venues.

About WWE
WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms. WWE’s TV-PG, family-friendly programming can be seen in more than 800 million homes worldwide in 28 languages. WWE Network, the first-ever 24/7 over-the-top premium network that includes all live pay-per-views, scheduled programming and a massive video-on-demand library, is currently available in more than 180 countries. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, Munich and Tokyo.

Additional information on WWE (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com.

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In addition to that, WWE’s Executive Producer Kevin Dunn talked about the ThunderDome concept with Sports Illustrated. Here are some highlights.

“Like the NBA, we’re doing virtual fans, but we’re also creating an arena-type atmosphere. We won’t have a flat board, we’ll have rows and rows and rows of fans. We’ll have almost 1,000 LED boards, and it will recreate the arena experience you’re used to seeing with WWE. The atmosphere will be night and day from the Performance Center. This is going to let us have a WrestleMania-level production value, and that’s what our audience expects from us. We are also going to put arena audio into the broadcast, similar to baseball, but our audio will be mixed with the virtual fans. So when fans start chants, we’ll hear them.”

“We start on Friday on SmackDown, and it will be a learning experience. We have two days of testing, and we’re going to practice like hell, then we’re off to the races. We may have fans for certain entrances, standing up and cheering for the typical babyfaces. But someone like Bray Wyatt, who is so character-driven, the entire Amway Arena will be one big Fiend-dom. That’s our opportunity to be different from sports, where we can present these larger-than-life characters uniquely. This will be great for people watching at home across the globe, as well as the ones participating.”

Dunn expressed optimism about the ThunderDome idea working well.

“We’re grateful and so appreciate the fans are hanging with us. It’s been tough. The shows haven’t been what we’d like them to be, and we’d be dishonest saying anything else. We miss our fans. Our fans make our shows. Without them, it’s been really challenging. I can’t wait to see the ThunderDome full of 1,000 people, giving us the energy we need to make this as entertaining as possible. I think people watching and participating are really going to enjoy this, and it’s going to make people say, ‘Wow, WWE, it’s back.’”

Check out more of Dunn’s interview with Sports Illustrated right here as well.