Did Roman need the Thunderdome to morph into the The Chief?

[The Rick Jericho]

When he first turned heel, it seemed a little rough and awkward at first. He fine tuned the act in front of video monitors, so the fans never got to heckle him at the first chance they got. Who knows what the live crowd could have done at the beginning of the run. They could've hijacked the Jey/Jimmy feud in the fall of 2020 and perhaps cheer him in that feud thus already ruining the heel turn.

By doing his thing and improving his heel work until Wrestlemania 37 when the crowds returned. Did the Thunderdome crowd benefit Roman at the beginning of his heel run because he could practice and tinker his character without the fans potentially rejecting or hijacking it? By Wrestlemania 37, he character was finally perfected when he stacked Bryan/Edge and he never looked back with this character.

[Fade]

I heard cena say he believes that..I dunno. I think he had the character down and planned even had he come back to crowds..but then again, quarantine was a huge reason that prbly even happened with Roman putting his foot down.

The one benefit is it allowed for more exposure in an intimate format compared to with crowds and Roman excels at the subtle stuff. At least once he turned heel.

[Chiral]

I realize this is about like the Thunderdome set being good to help Roman get his legs as a heel, but it'd be funny if in canon the Thunderdome was a malevolent entity and actually turned Roman evil via its cursed influence, since I don't think they ever gave an explanation for Roman's heel turn, he just came back at Summerslam, then next week met with Heyman on SD, then that weekend won the title lol.

[sarkerpolseng]

Yes. A lot of his first matches were done so verbally. You can't do that in a packed house.

[Mozenrath]

He benefited from it, sure, though I think it'd have eventually gotten there.

I have issues with the storyline and character, particularly the length and WWE's singular focus on it, but I do think it will be remembered strongly and will highlight real damn well.

[Rudy Gobert Fadeaway]

Everyone being indoors when The Last Dance came out was probably more crucial to The Tribal Chief coming to be than his big beautiful teeth 

[Cvslfc123]

Without the pandemic he would have won the title at WrestleMania. It does make you wonder when the heel turn would have happened.

[agent817]

Nov 3, 2023 23:11:00 GMT -5 sarkerpolseng said:

Yes. A lot of his first matches were done so verbally. You can't do that in a packed house.

I will say that on the Clash of Champions 2020 live thread, I wrote that Roman's match with Jey reminded me of the sub-boss fights in "Street Fighter IV" because you would hear dialogue during the fight.

[xxshoyuweeniexx]

Nov 4, 2023 2:43:10 GMT -5 Rudy Gobert Fadeaway said:

Everyone being indoors when The Last Dance came out was probably more crucial to The Tribal Chief coming to be than his big beautiful teeth 

Roman is a Michael Jordan like sociopath with Jey Uso being his Scottie Pippen and I guess that make Cody idk Charles Barkley

[Jindrak Mark]

It definitely helped. Being able to hear all the trash talk and stuff during those Jey matches was great.

Also a lot of people were so desperate for him to turn heel that if there were fans at the time they may have immediately cheered the early turn which wouldn't have been ideal for the story.

[UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm]

100%. for me what made him was all that trash talk that you could hear clear as day in the initial jey feud