Bryan Danielson Reveals If He Liked Wrestling In WWE ThunderDome
Bryan Danielson is looking back fondly on his time wrestling in the WWE ThunderDome with no fans in attendance.
During the “Covid Era” of pro wrestling from March 2020 until around July 2021 when the fans started coming back to WWE shows, the company ran television shows and PLE events without any fans.
For the first several months, WWE shows took place inside an empty Performance Center in Orlando. To present their shows differently, WWE decided to run events from the ThunderDome setting from the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium Tropicana Field, and the Orlando Magic’s Amalie Arena. Instead of fans in the crowd, there were fans shown on video screens in the background.
Since pro wrestling is all about performing in front of a crowd, it was a unique setup for WWE. Some wrestlers liked it, but most people prefer being in front of actual fans.
Bryan Danielson’s final WWE run as Daniel Bryan took place during that Covid Era since his last match took place on the April 30, 2021 edition of Smackdown. Bryan challenged Roman Reigns for the Universal Title in a match that ended with Reigns picking up the win after nearly 30 minutes. The loss meant that Bryan was “banished” from Smackdown. In reality, Bryan’s WWE contract was up and he would eventually sign with AEW a few months later.
In an interview with Gorilla Position, Bryan Danielson made it clear that he loved wrestling in the ThunderDome because it was a different experience for him as a pro wrestler.
“Oh, I loved it. I loved it. Because it was different, right? It’s so different. And it wasn’t the idea that I’m doing it in front of no one. It’s the idea that the medium has changed, right? So for example, you guys are doing a podcast. The medium changes a little bit once you incorporate video, right? So if people are only exclusively listening to this, that’s a different animal than if they’re just watching it and watching us talk.”
“Likewise, I liken it to the difference between theater and cinema, right? What we traditionally do in pro wrestling is more like theater. But what we had to do during the pandemic is cinema.
“And my realization was that not many people are changing — not many people are realizing that there needs to be this change here, this change in adaptation. And I really thought — I was very proud, and I thought that I was one of the best people at adapting to that.”
“You have to keep in mind, Roman Reigns was out during that time. When Roman came back, I was like, ‘He got it!’ He understood the benefits. Because there are, it’s a trade-off. You lose some things, but you gain some things. He understood the trade-off, and the direction he went was genius.”
Bryan Danielson Tapped Into British Wrestling Inside The ThunderDome
As he continued, Danielson spoke about how he got to focus on a different style of wrestling while competing in the ThunderDome.
“I actually focused on — I actually leaned into some of the old British wrestling. Because one of the things that they don’t get a lot of credit for; a lot of people realize that old British wrestling is very technical and that sort of thing. But the sound and the physicality of it, because the crowds weren’t going necessarily wild, and the announcer was very subdued.”
“But you’d hear, like you would actually physically hear when they grab and like all that kind of stuff. And I thought like, ‘Oh, there’s a real opportunity to do that.’”
Up next for Bryan Danielson is the AEW All In PPV in London, England. Danielson will be in the main event of the show as he challenges Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Title. If Bryan loses, he will retire because he’s putting his career on the line.