Mace looks back on WWE‘s ThunderDome era.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE introduced a brand new experience that would allow the WWE Universe to attend their events virtually and broadcast their live video feeds to a large LED screen. This unique environment was referred to as the WWE ThunderDome. And while WWE has been applauded for their innovation during this time period, the virtual setup caused a few difficulties for the on-air talents. During a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, former WWE Superstar Mace opened up about some of the challenges he faced during the ThunderDome era, in which he served as a member of WWE’s Retribution stable.
“The ThunderDome was wild … It was something else. It was my first time wrestling on TV. I had not wrestled on NXT TV at all in my entire developmental upbringing. So, for my first time on TV to be such like alien version of what TV is, where commercial breaks would happen and you could go and get some water, nobody’s there. The bumps all hurt way less because the only sound was the air conditioning fans. So it really felt like wrestling in front of nobody. It was something else. I’d rather never do it again,” Mace said.
An Alternate Universe
Mace’s creative experience in the Thunderdome era was marked by his involvement in the mysterious Retribution stable, who prided themselves on wreaking havoc in the WWE locker room. Unfortunately, the hype surrounding the group soon fizzled out, as they lost several of their televised matches. The group eventually disbanded in early 2021 when Mace, along with Reckoning, Slapjack, and T-Bar, walked out on their leader — Mustafa Ali.
Though he can’t go back and change the outcome, Mace speculated on what Retribution’s run might have looked like if they were given a live (in-person) audience to work in front of.
“I almost wonder what the alternate future looks like where we could hear crowd reaction and pivot accordingly,” Mace said.” [The ThunderDome era] is when they realized that they could press a button and then people would cheer and people would boo. That’s kind of the point where they were like ‘Oh yeah, we can actually be in charge of what the crowd likes and dislikes.’ So I almost wonder if, not that Retribution was this massive fumble, [but] it could have been great.”
“I wonder if we had a reaction of a crowd and see what organically hit with them, what organically missed with them, if we could have pivoted to like ‘oh these are Power Rangers villains’ or if we could have pivoted to something darker. The direction was all very much left up to the people in charge at the time. When you have an audience, you’re more beholden to them.”
