10 Pandemic-Era WWE Moments You Already Forgot About

The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyday life in major ways, including how fans would tune into WWE TV. Instead of an arena filled with fans, everyone sitting on their sofas at home was initially greeted by an arena initially filled with empty seats, then NXT talents, then your own faces from a webcam in the ThunderDome. 

WWE forged ahead in this format, though, and it was largely rubbish and almost the very bottom of Vince McMahon’s WWE creative tenure. Most have tried their best to forget about the pandemic era of WWE TV but we at Cultaholic certainly haven’t.

These are 10 Pandemic-Era WWE Moments You Already Forgot About. 

10. 3:16 Day

The weirdness of pandemic era WWE began from the first episode of Raw on March 16, 2020, AKA 3:16 Day, which led to an appearance from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. 

Austin was originally supposed to appear in front of fans and WWE pushed through with the appearance, as Austin poked fun at the situation, asking the empty seats to give him a “Hell Yeah!”

Austin expected silence, but received a reply from Byron Saxton, a reply which only angered Stone Cold. Byron Saxton then proceeded to give Austin’s promo a rating as the segment progressed before the irritated Austin invited Saxton to the ring for a “beer.” Austin toasted Byron, calling him a “100 per cent unadulterated jackass”, before he smashed the beer cans together and gave Saxton a swift Stone Cold Stunner. 

With Saxton down, Becky Lynch arrived to drink some steveweisers with Austin as Raw came to an end. 

An appearance by Steve Austin is usually something special and worth savouring as they become ever rarer, but this was a whole lot of nothing and has rightly been forgotten about.

9. Randy Orton The Night Vision Janitor

One wrestler who benefited greatly from WWE’s weekly TV continuing in 2020 was Randy Orton, who had a career resurgence and became WWE’s top heel as he called back to his Legend Killer and 2009 days, becoming an absolute menace on WWE TV to anyone who dared stand up to him. 

This included Shawn Michaels, The Big Show, a yet-to-be-cleared Christian, and Orton’s former on-screen manager Ric Flair, who all received punts from The Legend Killer. The four legends secured a measure of revenge at Clash of Champions 2020 as they attacked Orton and helped Drew McIntyre win the Ambulance Match for the WWE Championship. 

It was Orton who would have the last laugh, though, as he had spent the night disguised as a janitor and in the final moments of the Raw after Clash of Champions, Orton entered the Legends Lounge where Shawn Michaels, Big Show, Christian, and Ric Flair were playing poker. Orton then put on his night vision goggles and turned out the lights, with fans only getting to see the aftermath of all four legends on the floor after Orton had beaten them down. 

In any other era, one man brutally laying waste to four former world champions in such a seemingly brutal manner would have been talked about ad nauseum, but this was the pandemic era and much of it has been forgotten about. 

8. Karaoke Showdown

Vince McMahon was already scraping the barrel for creative ideas by 2020 but WWE creative only worsened in the pandemic and karaoke contests were being booked on SmackDown by the time July 2020 rolled around. 

Hosted by Jey Uso, the Karaoke Showdown from the July 10, 2020, episode saw Lacey Evans, Dana Brooke, Tamina and Naomi do their best renditions of some famous WWE themes. Their best, unfortunately, was the absolute worst. 

Bruce Prichard’s fingerprints were all over the segment as three of the songs were Jeff Jarrett’s ‘With My Baby Tonight’, The Honky Tonk Man’s theme, and Dusty Rhodes' 'Common Man'. The segment was called out after airing for being an unwanted throwback to the Divas era of WWE programming. 

7. Shayna Baszler Brawls With Lilly The Doll

The brainchild of Triple H, Alexa’s Playground was an offshoot of Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Funhouse. It saw Alexa Bliss in her supernatural phase (having stolen The Fiend’s powers at WrestleMania 37), sitting on a swing while talking to her doll Lilly and, often, other WWE stars who stopped by. 

On June 7, 2021, Shayna Blaszer stopped by and ended up getting into a scuffle with Bliss, who freaked the former NXT Women’s Champion out by controlling the pyro with her mind. 

Later on, Shayna – a legitimate ex-MMA fighter – was shown running from Lilly backstage, barricading herself in a room when the doll appeared in the reflection of a mirror, causing Baszler to attack the doll before giving her best bad 1980s horror movie scream. 

Unfortunately, all this segment did was remind people of that awful mirror spot between Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior from 1998 WCW. 

6. Akira Tozawa Attacked By A Shark

At Backlash 2020, Akira Tozawa debuted a new gimmick as a ninja, who commanded his own gang of ninjas, one of which was Omos. 

Ninja Tozawa soon feuded with perennial 24/7 Champion R-Truth which led to a scene on the September 21 edition of Raw where Tozawa attempted to ambush Truth at the beach, hiding in the water in order to launch his surprise attack. 

However, Truth spotted a shark and ran back to the beach, leaving his title belt behind. Tozawa, meanwhile, heard the cries and for some reason swam out to sea. 

Truth returned later with some scuba gear and, though he didn’t have a showdown with the deep-sea predator, lucked out when the title belt washed up into his arms along with the tattered remnants of what looked like Tozawa’s gi.

R-Truth instantly expressed his sadness at Tozawa’s death, but the former Cruiserweight Champion ended up living and remains on WWE TV as of 2025.

5. Gillberg Returns

Considering the gimmick started off as a one-note way to poke fun at WCW’s Goldberg during the Monday Night Wars, Duane Gil has done very well out of Gillberg. 

After being featured during the Attitude Era, Gillberg has been brought back on numerous occasions, including by The Rock in 2003, for a battle royal in 2007, and for the Festival of Friendship in 2017.

Just a few months after suffering a heart attack, Duane Gill was once again called into action by WWE in January 2021. John Morrison and The Miz were hosting The Dirt Sheet when they called out Goldberg, who was set to clash with WWE Champion Drew McIntyre at the upcoming Royal Rumble. ‘Goldberg’ was of course Gillberg, while McIntyre was portrayed by David Krumholtz in a kilt. 

The point of the segment was that Miz would cash in his Money in the Bank contract at the Rumble, so Da’ Man and The Scottish Warrior would both be losers. Everyone was a loser for having to watch this segment, except for Gillberg, of course, who hopefully received a payday for his appearance. 

4. Brendan Vink's Brief Main Roster Run

Having spent a year doing NXT live events, Brendan Vink received his main roster call-up and made his debut on the March 23, 2020, episode of Raw. Tagging with fellow Aussie Shane Thorne, Vink was not victorious as the team fell to The Street Profits. 

Vink then lost to Humberto Carrillo two weeks later and he and Thorne were jobbed out to Cedric Alexander and Ricochet two weeks after that. Vink and Thorne’s fortunes looked to be turning around as MVP became their manager, which led to a win over Ricochet and Alexander, before the Aussies lost the rubber match in what would be Vink’s final main roster appearance. 

Reports at the time noted that Vince McMahon was high on Brendan Vink but the future Duke Hudson wouldn’t resurface on Raw and he spent the rest of his WWE run in NXT, finding some measure of success as part of Chase U until his release in January 2025. 

3. Heath Slater Appears On WWE Raw After His Release

The COVID-19 pandemic was not just a nightmare to navigate as far as day-to-day life was concerned, but it spelled disaster for many who were either furloughed or fired as a result of businesses shutting down. 

WWE didn’t shut down, but they did look to offset some of their financial losses by letting go of a large chunk of their roster across several rounds of cuts. Heath Slater was one of those who was wished well in his future endeavours during the first round of cuts in April 2020, but it didn’t take long for him to come back. 

Due to being on a 90-day non-compete clause, WWE made the offer and Heath Slater accepted to return to Monday Night Raw for one night on the July 6, 2020 episode. Slater – wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Free Agent’ on the front – interrupted the opening segment between his old 3MB teammate Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. 

Slater lambasted and then attacked the WWE Champion for not helping him get his job back, before putting over Irn Dru after a Claymore in a thirty-second squash. Dolph then attacked Heath, who was saved by Drew, with McIntyre and Slater embracing to bring closure to that particular chapter of their careers.

2. The Fiend Faces Off With Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon was a key factor of WWE TV during the pandemic era, including popping up in the Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match to stop AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan from brawling in his office at Titan Towers. Fans may have forgotten his face-to-face with The Fiend, however. 

Appearing on the go-home edition of SmackDown before SummerSlam, McMahon introduced fans to the ThunderDome and hyped up SummerSlam when the then-WWE Chairman was interrupted by Bray Wyatt’s alter ego.  

The two faced off for a moment, but before The Fiend could attack McMahon, Universal Champion Braun Strowman interrupted and McMahon managed to escape. It was an interesting tease and the only time Bray and McMahon shared the screen proper during the Eater of World’s WWE career. 

1. WWE Debut Of Abyss

WWE debuts were few and far between during the COVID-19 pandemic but one talent who did appear for the first time on a WWE programme was Christopher Park - AKA former TNA star Abyss, who signed with WWE as a producer in January 2019. 

AJ Styles, who was featured in the Intercontinental Title picture at the time, drafted in his fellow TNA alumni as the statistician for the Phenomenal Intercontinental Statistics System.

Very much a cameo for a cameo’s sake, Park didn’t do much of anything besides clap for Styles as Michael Cole wondered what he was doing in the ring in the first place. 

It wasn’t the last time we would see the former Abyss, however, as he cropped up a week later to get scolded by a ranting AJ after The Phenomenal One had dropped the IC Title to Jeff Hardy.