The WWE Performance Center is the most high-tech wrestling training center in the World. The New Japan Dojo and other wrestling schools may have a higher success rate, but WWE has a ton of talent down there, but only a few will reach stardom.
On top of the WWE’s attempt to sign inexperience athletes they can mold into ‘sports entertainers’, they have been signing nearly every available indie wrestling star. Their latest coup was signing indie darlings Matt Riddle and Keith Lee.
NXT television was once a place where young, inexperienced talents could get some exposure and learn on the job, since character development is a huge part of WWE today. Now, NXT television consists of talents who have hundreds of matches under their belt and experience wrestling in front of thousands of fans.
What will happen to all the homegrown talent down at the Performance Center? WWE has a limited amount of television time. Most recruits will never be ‘WWE Superstars’ and will be released after spending years training at the Performance Center. Will the castaway talent help replenish the indies?
In 2019, the WWE will have more money than it can spend. They will have hundreds of millions of new money per year from their television deals. They could easily make Godfather offers to every major Ring of Honor, Impact and New Japan talent, just to stash them away and kill off their competition. I doubt this will happen as even Vince McMahon realizes that having competition has helped present-day WWE.
The WWE Performance Center opened in 2013 and was a risky venture for the company. They already announced they were starting the WWE Network in 2014, so the extra expense hurt the bottom line. Triple H was credited with the vision and it has no doubt helped recruit some major talent to NXT.
The focus on raiding top indie talent really started when Triple H signed El Generico (Sami Zayn), then Prince Devitt (Finn Balor), KENTA (Hideo Itami) and Kevin Steen (Kevin Owens) soon followed. It now seems like they are signing about five (or more) major indie talents every year since.
Has the Performance Center been a developmental success? This is a tricky question due to all the recent signings of experienced indie wrestlers. There haven’t been many pure homegrown talents that have went on to become stars. It has been easier on the female side since the ‘Divas division’ wasn’t killing it in the ring. They were able to take Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss and Carmella (who all didn’t have any wrestling experience before being signed), and turn them into capable in-ring competitors. The homegrown talent may just be Chad Gable, Baron Corbin and Velveteen Dream. Gable is floundering a bit on the main roster, but there’s something there. Baron Corbin has a major role on RAW, but he’s missing what Gable has in charisma. Dream had limited experience in Maryland Championship Wrestling, but he is becoming a superstar in NXT. One could argue that Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman are homegrown…but Roman was down in developmental long before the Performance Center and Strowman was plucked from developmental very early and learned on the job on the main roster. Also, Enzo Amore and Big Cass were once success stories, but outside-the-ring issue cost both their jobs. Amore says he isn’t going to wrestle again and Big Cass is just starting his post-WWE indie dates.
There has only been one former Performance Center-era wrestler who found a lot of success elsewhere. CJ Parker was signed by WWE in 2011 and found himself losing every match on the early days of NXT television. He realized he may have reached his peak in the company and asked for his release. He joined the New Japan Dojo and in just a few years time, he’s one of the biggest babyfaces in New Japan as Juice Robinson. He could be the next top gaijin talent when Kenny Omega leaves.
There are always going to be a few that get away from WWE. Kenny Omega was once in WWE developmental years ago, but found himself in a similar situation as CJ Parker. He asked for his release as his main goal was to wrestle in Japan. He has now become one of the best wrestlers in the world.
Now, to answer the first question I asked, will the WWE Performance Center’s castaway talent help stock the independent wrestling scene? There’s a chance of that happening, but they will need to have the desire. Many homegrown WWE talent were signed after careers in collegiate wrestling, bodybuilding or even rugby. Did they love wrestling before WWE came a’calling? You will need to love wrestling to make a name for yourself on your own, without the WWE machine behind you.
This is a bit of tangent, but you know who loves pro wrestling? PCO.
Not aware of PCO? He is Carl Ouellet who was once in the WWF tag team The Quebecers in the 90’s. He last wrestled for WWE in 2000, but has kept his wrestling career alive. He flirted with retirement for periods of time, but he is in the midst of a career resurrection. He appeared on ‘Joey Janela’s Spring Break 2’ against WALTER and stole the show. He’s now 50 years old and can still work with the best guys on the indies. If you want to succeed in wrestling post-WWE, you need a little PCO in your blood.
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About the Author…
Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.