On the recent episode of the Developmentally Speaking podcast, former long-time WWE Head Coach and WCW star Bill DeMott discussed the issues with independent wrestling stars coming into the early developmental system and later NXT.
Former WWE Head Coach Bill DeMott Goes Into Indie Veterans Struggling in Developmental Pre-NXT
Of interest is the progression from the OVW, Deep South, HWA, and FCW days of developmental into NXT. The change came in the form of a large, dedicated Performance Center which feeds into NXT. This is because—as DeMott explains—they had three kinds of talents to cater to:
“What we implemented was: There was new talent, there’s talent that had been there, and there’s talent that we needed TV-ready. ‘TV-ready’ meaning not just for Full Sail, to go up to the main roster, because it was a developmental system.”
Remembering the old developmental territories, it catered mainly to talent that needed to be TV-ready and those who had been on TV but still needed polishing or to knock off some ring rust. That first group of talent was mostly non-existent but often trained however WWE could arrange it.
The Performance Center caters to all three groups but shares the work with NXT when it comes to getting talent TV-ready. Apparently, hopefuls who were in developmental for some time didn’t care for the scheduling change that came with the system change.
From DeMott’s recollection, training might have been a couple of hours daily and the wrestler had the rest of the day. With the restructuring, WWE wanted the talent to really work on their skills, and the former two-time U.S Champion believes that some static came from that.
Bill DeMott also discussed indie wrestlers being frustrated with the system progression from training to the developmental camp—especially if they had experience. They got their early fans while not signed to anyone and controlling their time.
He summed the experience up to these wrestlers by saying WWE wasn’t the place for them if they enjoyed their flexibility and freedom of their careers prior to being signed. DeMott said that he’d add that WWE was for indie talents who wanted to see how far they could go and what they could become.
What do you think of Bill DeMott’s statements on WWE developmental and indie wrestlers going through that system? Let us know down below.
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