WWE Performance Center
[1] The Performance Center in Orlando temporarily became the home arena for WWE's Raw and SmackDown brands in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with its television programs Monday Night Raw, Friday Night Smackdown, 205 Live, and Main Event, as well as WWE pay-per-view events (including WrestleMania 36) being recorded in a studio at the Performance Center with no audience.[6] Other trainers include Sara Amato, Robbie Brookside, Norman Smiley, Adam Pearce, Mike Quackenbush, Ace Steel, Scotty 2 Hotty[7] and Sarah Stock.[10][11][12] In addition to training contracted performers, the Performance Center is also regularly used for tryouts which operate on an invite-only basis and include athletes from a wide variety of backgrounds, including established domestic and international professional wrestlers, amateur wrestlers, NFL and NCAA American football players, and individuals from a range of other sporting and non-sporting backgrounds.[19] The Performance Center continued to host episodes of Raw, SmackDown, 205 Live, and Main Event, as well as the pay-per-views Money in the Bank (which was also held at Titan Towers in Stanford, Connecticut), Backlash, and The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, before the shows and pay-per-views moved to the new, larger-scale "ThunderDome" staging (under similar restrictions, but with a virtual audience on ribbon displays) at Orlando's Amway Center, beginning with the August 21 SmackDown and that weekend's SummerSlam.In December, the ThunderDome relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida before moving to Yuengling Center in Tampa in April 2021, and being discontinued entirely in July 2021 with the resumption of touring shows.It was designed to reflect the look and feel of NXT programming, with a virtual audience similar to the ThunderDome on an LED screen in the studio, and areas for limited outside spectators divided by plexiglass walls decorated with chain-link fencing.[37] On April 19, 2018, WWE filed an emergency restraining order against Montalvo after he returned to the Performance Center the previous month and harassed the employees.