The WWE ThunderDome played host to a number of current and past superstars, including several WWE Hall of Fame members, during last night’s season premiere episode of SmackDown.
In the show’s opening bout between Lars Sullivan and Jeff Hardy, Jeff Jarrett was the first notable name to make an appearance in the ThunderDome. He was followed by Brie Bella and her daughter Birdie during Daniel Bryan’s ThunderDome debut segment, who were directly mentioned by Bryan himself during his promo.
Later, during the SmackDown Tag Team Championship showdown between the Street Profits and Bobby Roode & Dolph Ziggler, ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair was pointed out in the ThunderDome crowd by Michael Cole. Flair has appeared alongside the Street Profits multiple times since their in-ring debut just under a year ago, most recently in a commercial for Skittles, which would explain his ThunderDome cameo during their match.
The Universal Championship match in the main event had, by far, the most WWE ThunderDome appearances with four big names being shown! The first two appeared as a duo: WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry, alongside FOX Sports contributor Rob Stone. The two other names are perhaps the most interesting of all, however, as RAW Superstar Keith Lee could be seen scouting Strowman ahead of their match on RAW’s season premiere on Monday (though he was not directly shown or pointed out by commentary) alongside former Universal Champion Bill Goldberg.
Goldberg had teased an appearance within the ThunderDome earlier in the day, saying he had “INTEREST” in the match. This marks Goldberg’s first WWE appearance since losing the Universal Championship to Braun Strowman at WrestleMania 36 in March. He was originally set to defend the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns at the event, but Reigns went on-hiatus due to COVID-19 concerns and was replaced by Strowman in the main event of the second night of the pay-per-view.
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