WWE announces new program for finding and training talent
 

WWE is definitely not interested in hiring people who've trained to be wrestlers or come from the independents, so it would seem


https://www.wwe.com/article/wwe-nil-...n-line-program

I like the idea. I just wish it wasn’t WWE executing it. I don’t have faith in them to take a prototype and mould it into a star.

I'm not sure a lot of Gen Z college athletes would choose WWE over say the NBA or NFL or MLB...signing the rights to their name and likeness away in their 20s while also giving them the exciting options of paying for their own rental cars and hotel as 'independent contractors'.

i'd imagine this is more for athletes that know they don't really have a shot in any of those pro leagues or play sports that don't have pro leagues on that level otherwise yeah it'd be silly to go the pro wrestling route.

I REALLY like this change in direction. NXT should have stayed full developmental, with experienced wrestlers sprinkled in. Kinda like OVW. You had your young talent like Brock, Shelton, but you had experienced guys like Flash Flanagan, Nick Dinsmore etc.

This "Super Indie" shit they were doing was fun for those funs but counterproductive,.

John Laurentitus going to spend a lot of time at women's volleyball games to recruit future blondes.

I'm guessing they'll mainly go after powerlifters or amateur wrestlers.

Great idea if they stick to it, but they do not have a track record of sticking to a plan. Ill believe it when I see it.

I don't like it.

I might change my mind over time but I'm not crazy about the idea. I like the idea of people WANTING to become wrestlers and then TRAINING to become wrestlers. This just seems like looking for people they hope eventually learn to enjoy doing it.

some of the biggest stars in wrestling history had no intention of becoming wrestlers, though. obviously not to say there's gonna be any guaranteed success here, but it's a smart avenue to explore for sure.

If it doesn't work and leads to the decline of rasslin I'm ok with that too.

They often have to (or feel that they have to) teach new signees the "WWE style" of rasslin, don't they? This seems like a logical step to take so they can avoid that period of re-training.

I agree. Pretty much the majority of 1980's stars were bodybuilders who got told they could make big money in wrestling. If anything at least their rookies will be 22 or 23 years old.

It’s not a bad idea at all. If you just chose people who chose pro-wrestling, you’d miss out on Kurt Angle, The Rock, Brock Lesnar and so many other big stars in even the modern era. Steve Austin got to college on a football scholarship. Even Bryan Danielson played sports in high school.

It’s not the only path to getting noticed. But it does cast a net to some pretty amazing and driven people to segue their athletic success into a different area.

Plus the wrestlers getting called up won't have all the wear and tear from diving off the top rope to the floor in front of 20 people for the past 10 years.

this is excellent. the indy pool is completely incapable of producing consistently marketable talent and far less able to produce stars. failed athletes are a great resource.

The NIL program is a good idea.

NIL can also represent a lot of things:

-Name, Image, and Likeness
-Next In Line
-How much WWE cares about its employees

Or the bad habits or the ethos that doing indy shit is truly rock and roll.

So they're eventually going to go and crank out the same wrestlers over and over again with this. Cookie cutter.

They'll recruit from colleges/universities with big time Wrestling programs (Penn State I think is the big one with Cael Sanderson running the program) and then train them the WWE way. Perhaps grab a football player who didn't get drafted too.

You won't be seeing any more high flyers, submission artists, MMA fighters, etc.

Where did you get this from? It doesn’t state this is the only way to get into the WWE. And the IWC tries to collectively whinge about MMA fighters in WWE anyway. But they could still make it in. This just provides a gateway for guys like Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, The Rock, Shelton Benjamin, Chad Gable, Parker Bourdreaux and guys like that. I don’t see how that line-up is cookie cutter. Athletes like that are probably more in-touch with what makes them unique, honestly. If you want cookie cutter, look at the indies and see everyone structure matches with the same beats.

You mean how every indie work does these absurd dives, regardless of their size?

I’ll take one Kurt Angle over the entire indy scene in a heartbeat.

the danger in clockshots scenario isnt the recruitment phase its not having a diverse training staff

the NIL program coupled with 3 separate training facilities with unique motives operandi is a recipe for success

Absolutely. And the current WWE model isn’t the most diverse. But at least if they’re sending training out to people, it at least implies the potential for variance. Unless they send drones out each and every which way.

But the type of athlete they seem to recruit is probably much better suited to picking up the psychology of wrestling, which could at least circumvent some of the problems with the factory line.

I’ve been saying for the longest time that the WWE should focus on domestic training facilities, and should work out something with Kane and Tom Prichard’s school (if it’s still around).

id rather train a complete novice who has rhythm and spatial awareness than to attempt to correct a decade worth of bad habits that have been positively reinforced by a legion of fat slobs and pencil necked geeks on twitter. there's no fixing that.

AND YOU CAN'T TEACH THAT

And we will get folks whose top goal is "Get myself rich" instead of "Get 5 stars from some guy who is needlessly seen as the be-all end-all."

and boy do we ever need guys who are trying to make money instead of guys trying to avoid work

There really does need to be a shift.

Damn. Guy’s actual name is A.J. Ferrari.

I bet they bring him in as Alex Benz or something.

The Blonde Twins will be for sure be favorites of Kevin Dunn and Johnny Ace.

They'da probably picked an Esport person if their last game didn't suck balls

I've been thinking about this all evening. I hate it.

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Because they're really going to produce Rocks, Gillbergs, Angles, Stings, Warriors, etc. out of this? Goodbye Flairs, Dusty, Kevin Steen, Milenkos, Benoits, etc. I stan for the small wrestling schools and the former territories.

My dumbass shouldn't have said Sting and Warrior because they at least went up the ranks. I just don't like the idea...it'd be WWE's mo to just use these raw athletes as their only talent going forward.

how many of them are going to be pro sports or Olympic gold medalists

We're gonna lose fans like KWFRick that think they have an ounce of any chance after their trampoline rasslin to have a career if they don't have an NIL in tennis at some large university.