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WWE Starting Residency At Amway Center For Upcoming Events

WWE this morning announced plans to take up residency at Orlando's Amway Center to produce its upcoming shows, billing it as the WWE ThunderDome, complete with a state-of-the-art set, video boards, pyrotechnics, lasers and drone cameras. To further build out the viewing experience, WWE is working with California-based The Famous Group to virtually bring fans into the arena via live video on large LED boards. The shift will begin Friday for "SmackDown" on Fox, which will serve as a lead-in to WWE's SummerSlam PPV on Sunday.

In the early phases of the pandemic, WWE was one of the few sports and entertainment companies still providing fresh content. But it has been forced to tape shows primarily at its Orlando Performance Center and at nearby Full Sail Univ. WWE's lease with the city-owned Amway Center will give the company room to elevate its productions in a larger, more familiar setting.

The virtual technology from The Famous Group will be used for every "Monday Night Raw," "Friday Night SmackDown" and WWE PPV event. Starting tonight, fans can register for free for their virtual seat to be part of the shows via www.WWEThunderDome.com or at WWE’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages. Over the course of one show, WWE expects thousands of fans to be integrated; video boards will be able to show up to 1,000 fans at any one time.

WWE will mix the virtual fan audio with audio from past WWE arena shows to further enhance the environment. “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," said WWE Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Brian Flinn.

The Amway Center residency will continue for at least several weeks, and programming will be produced on closed sets with only essential personnel under the company's COVID-19 safety protocols. WWE's NXT programming will continue to be produced from Full Sail. The Famous Group has been active in sports and entertainment. Recent projects include the virtual presentation by Fox at this year's Super Bowl that highlighted the NFL 100 All-Time Team. It also provided the mixed-reality raven that wowed the crowd at M&T Bank Stadium last season.

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