Count Sami Zayn among those who loved the ThunderDome Era.
With fans unable to attend events during the pandemic era, WWE held shows inside an empty Performance Center before moving to the ThunderDome, which was an arena filled with giant screens and presented similar to how WWE would present the show with fans.
Sami Zayn loved the ThunderDome era and wished WWE did more with it.
"I love the ThunderDome Era, it's an unpopular opinion, I know, especially because I love the fans. I'm not going to say that all the time, but I do. I know how lucky we are to all be sharing this time together. It's a miracle we're all here, it really is. I don't take that lightly," he said on Out of Character with Ryan Satin.
"However, not having (fans) there for the ThunderDome opened the door for some new, creative ways to do things, which I personally, in my opinion, I don't think we as a company took full advantage of. We still tried to present the show as if fans were there, but they weren't there, especially before the ThunderDome when it was `at the empty PC. That's why some of it felt so weird. Part of the reason why I'm such a fan of y match with Daniel Bryan, I know it's not exactly what you expect when you see on paper 'Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania,' you're expecting one thing and I know it wasn't that, and I would have loved to have that, but the thing I'm so proud about that match is, when you watch that match back, it never feels weird in an empty arena. If you watch the rest of WrestleMania, a lot of matches feel really weird in the empty arena. That's part of, in my opinion, a missed opportunity to present the show in a slightly different way, a different context, now that the biggest piece of the set, which is the fans, the most interactive and most unique part of our show aren't there, it really could have put us in a position to change the way we present the product. I personally don't think we took full advantage of it, but for me and my character, I think it gave me room to do more things," said Zayn.
Zayn continued by wondering how fans would have reacted when he was doing the "conspiracy against Sami Zayn" angle. He closed by saying that he and Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) talked about changing up the presentation.
"We talked about that and he was all about, 'we need to change the presentation here, this could be an opportunity,'" he recalled.
Following the ThunderDome Era, Zayn has done what he considers some of his best work during his feud with Johnny Knoxville leading up to WrestleMania 38.
Zayn also re-signed with WWE in 2022, saying he's been happy with his role. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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