WWE Executive Comments On If ThunderDome Elements Will Remain Even After Live Fans Return

In an interview with SportBusiness, Duncan Leslie, WWE senior vice-president of event technical operations, discussed how elements of the ThunderDome can enhance WWE’s live events even after fans return, and also compared the ThunderDome setup to a min-WrestleMania setup. His comments are below.

On how much of the ThunderDome will stay after live fans resume coming to shows: “I think we’re going to have a proven design that is still amenable to change. As we go forward, whatever happens, we’re still going to have a lot of technical firepower to enhance both the in-venue and at-home viewer experience.”

On how ThunderDome is like a mini-WrestleMania setup: “We’re looking to use our technical and design prowess to creatively enrich the experience for the fans. To me, having been here a while now, this almost feels like a mini-WrestleMania setup. We’ve used so much of the available space to us because there are no physical fans here, and we’ve replaced them with artistic elements. The videoboards surround the ring almost in the same way the fans did when they were here in person. But to answer your question, we didn’t want to go down the road of cardboard [cutouts] in empty seats. We wanted to fill our arena, as ‘normally’ as we could.”