For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE is returning to a live tour. On Friday, the promotion announced a 25-city live tour that will begin in July.
The tour kicks off with a trio of shows from Texas. On July 16, SmackDown will be held from Houston’s Toyota Center. July 18 features the Money in the Bank pay-per-view from Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. And on July 19, Raw lands at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Tickets for those events go on sale May 26. Dates and venues beyond July 19 will be announced in the near future.
In mid-March 2020, WWE moved events to the empty WWE Performance Center in Orlando, continuing to hold their weekly television and monthly pay-per-view events without a crowd. WWE launched the ThunderDome that August, placing nearly 1,000 LED boards inside Orlando’s Amway Center to allow fans to attend events “virtually” and returning to high production values that were unavailable in the Performance Center.
In December, the ThunderDome was relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida before an April move to Yuengling Center in Tampa.
Since the start of the pandemic, the only WWE event to feature live fans was April’s two-day WrestleMania 37, which was held with limited fans in Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.
