I don’t want to force anyone to have to go back 2020 and relive what live entertainment was back then, especially pro-wrestling, but I have to.
This Hardy performance is worth it.
AEW and Impact Wrestling chose to keep empty stadiums with only other wrestlers or silence to fill the space.
WWE had more . . . elaborate approach. Of course…
Enter the ThunderDome, which gave us some of the weirdest and most wonderful visual performances in all of quarantine. This Hardy performance during WWE’s yearly Tribute to the Troops show was no different.
Tribute to the Troops is one of the main shows in which WWE honors soldiers and entertains soldiers during December and around Christmas.
Most years, the wrestlers will travel to one of the bases overseas to perform for the soldiers similar to an event put on by the USO. Well, of course, 2020 was a little different.
Instead, WWE stayed housed in Tampa and welcomed soldiers and their families from everywhere to be one of the faces on the giant screens that curved around the arena and acted as the audience.
Along with a handful of matches, Hardy performed his song “Give Heaven Some Hell,” which was the perfect song to honor fallen soldiers. Honestly, this performance gave the song a whole new meaning to me and tugged on the heartstrings.
The performance was paired with some WWE-level theatrics with flashing and waving lights, a slideshow of soldiers with their families and the wrestlers, and lots and lots of pyro.
I’m sure Hardy and his band were burning up on that stage (and not just because of their talent) because if you’re within a mile radius of that pyro, you’re gonna feel that heat. Trust me.
Now, I don’t want to take away from the performance, but it also included those . . . interesting canned applause that WWE added to all of their shows during the ThunderDome era. Once you know they’re there, it’s a little rough to ignore, but the audience looked like they were having a blast. That made it a lot easier to just pretend that the noise was coming from them.
The performance is great because Hardy is great, but it’s always nice to see a show supporting out troops. Also, he sang “Rednecker” as a YouTube exclusive, and it’s pretty great too.
“Give Heaven Some Hell”
“Rednecker”
