Report: WWE No Longer Scouting Talent From Indie Promotions

[JerseyBoy23]

REPORT: WWE is no longer scouting independent talent

There have been various reports about the changes coming to WWE NXT and even WWE President Nick Khan confirmed the changes in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani.

WWE is making changes to the production and look of the show. WWE is also going away from using smaller and older wrestlers in favor of taller and younger wrestlers.

Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE will no longer be scouting talent from independent wrestling promotions.

Meltzer wrote, “several in the company have told us that the word from the top is no more independent talent as far as scouting and such.” It was added that the mindset in WWE is “AEW can have all the independent talent to itself.”

WWE is back to scouting talent by looks instead of whether they can work or what they’ve done in other promotions. WWE did this with their recent tryout in Las Vegas this past weekend as most of the people who were there are pure athletes.

Seems dumb to cut-off every indie talent, especially when there's still guys under 30 and tall in the indies.

 

[HoldThisL]

This is great, WWE is finding new and fresh talent instead of old washed up people like CM "Not a Needle Mover" Punk

 

[RammerJammer]

Gonna be a lot of growing pains…you either have a bunch of Romans and Bianca Belairs on the way or a bunch of Nathan Jones and Kelly Kelly’s on the way.

 

[The Rainmaker]

Makes sense. If they want people to fit their style, may as well doing it from a blank slate.

 

[Mook]

REPORT: WWE is no longer scouting independent talent



Seems dumb to cut-off every indie talent, especially when there's still guys under 30 and tall in the indies.

They're all legit Mark nerds that are just happy to be there. Vince has the right mindset here. He's trying to get stars and throwing work rate in the bushes. Work rate is super overrated. Vince should be hiring anyone over 6 feet tall with charisma though.

 

[CBoz]

Nick said you can't rely on indy darlings alone.

 

[krazykid18]

Vince is going to still grab independent talent that has a good look like he always has but still start getting the performance center a better turnout

 

[Kidd Dibiase]

Who has Johnny Ace signed that became a star or has a HOF career?

serious question

 

[RammerJammer]

They're all legit Mark nerds that are just happy to be there. Vince has the right mindset here. He's trying to get stars and throwing work rate in the bushes. Work rate is super overrated. Vince should be hiring anyone over 6 feet tall with charisma though.

You can’t completely throw work rate in the bushes…

 

[Jmare007]

I mean, it makes sense. Nowadays the "indy talent" is already working NWA, ROH, Impact or AEW.

There aren't new people with big momentum in small companies so no point in scouting there if they can just do tryputs that fit their needs.

The one thing they should change is IF an indy guy makes a name for him or herself, they could sign them and just put them on the main Foster. No more "teach him at the PC" for people that don't need it.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

They're all legit Mark nerds that are just happy to be there. Vince has the right mindset here. He's trying to get stars and throwing work rate in the bushes. Work rate is super overrated. Vince should be hiring anyone over 6 feet tall with charisma though.

All of their top talent right now were well known/established Indy/TNA stars. The only guys they've developed from scratch recently were Roman and Big E. Their track record is pretty poor, and this honestly sounds like a pretty stupid idea. But maybe they'll get lucky and get another 02/03 OVW class

 

[puppetmaster]

Football was always a good feeder system for wrestling, catching those guys that barely missed playing in the NFL or washed out early for whatever reason. Football players tend to have natural charisma / shyt talking ability.

They’ve gotta be mindful tho, those same guys didn’t have MMA also as an option like they do now.

 

[Jesus H. Christ]

Tony made the old boomer take his ball and go home

Vince don't like wrestling so this move makes sense.

 

[Metal Face]

I'm all for getting larger than life talent but this shyt is dumb

just get a mix of talent

 

[PlayerNinety_Nine]

Who has Johnny Ace signed that became a star or has a HOF career?

serious question

The Bellas

Not who everyone would think of first, but they got a reality TV show out of the company and are both in the Hall Of Fame. By the company's current metrics they're stars

I still think he's super fukked up for the way he treated Lio Rush, but Mark Henry discovered Bianca Bel Air, Jade Cargill and Braun Strowman. He might have been their best bet as a scout if they were going all the way in the 'non-worker' direction.