Over the last couple of months, the WWE has released a lot of talent, most of it being from their developmental brand NXT, and they recently held a WWE Talent Tryout that’s led us to wonder if NXT has a salary cap.
These releases were reportedly done by Vince McMahon without input from Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
That got a lot of fans talking as NXT was Triple H’s creation and he built it into a brand that may have been developmental, but was considered superior to Raw and Smackdown by many fans and critics.
It’s also raised questions about the WWE really being for sale as their releasing highly priced talent to improve their bottom line and declaring NXT would return to its roots gave credence to those rumors.
I asked Triple H how many talents were signed from these tryouts. He told me there was 38 people, 1 injury, 1 went home and about 13 to 16 people got signed. That's his rough estimate on how many people got signed.
— Denise 'Hollywood' Salcedo (@_denisesalcedo) August 19, 2021
Successful tryouts
Lost in the news of the releases, the WWE held a tryout in Las Vegas and they signed a dozen or so young talent to developmental contracts.
As Denise Salcedo reported:
“I asked Triple H how many talents were signed from these tryouts. He told me there was 38 people, 1 injury, 1 went home and about 13 to 16 people got signed. That’s his rough estimate on how many people got signed.”
With others there like William Regal and Samoa Joe to help scout and Drew McIntyre and Nikki A.S.H. also in attendance, it looks like the WWE is rebuilding NXT.
As we mentioned above, Vince McMahon reportedly wants NXT to be what it was originally intended to be and that’s to develop WrestleMania main eventers.
So, given its glory days are behind it and they’re bringing in younger, cheaper talent, could it mean NXT now has a salary cap in place?
Pro sports oriented
While NXT having a salary cap is pure speculation, it would go hand in hand with them trying to improve their bottom line and have a set number so agents don’t go over it when talking to potential prospects.
It’ll simplify things for networks that already handle sports packages like NBC, FOX, etc as they’ll have others they can talk to about how to handle it.
It’s a streamlining that’s not as expected as we’d think a wrestling company would be as professional wrestling is often a mix of athletics, theater, and other areas that aren’t easily pinned down.
A salary cap would also help keep potential big names from signing with NXT and expecting to make a career there without moving to the main roster.
There’s plenty of possibilities out there, and these tryouts have given more legs to those rumors and we’ll have to wait and see what comes of it.
We do want to offer our congratulations to those that tried out and were signed. We hope to see you all in action before too long.
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