WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle is cautioning WWE on dismissing signing independent wrestlers.
Wrestling Inc’s Nick Hausman interviewed Angle on August 31st to promote Angle’s new sneakers. During the interview, Hausman asked him about WWE focusing more on signing athletes than independent wrestlers. He also noted that most applicants had never been in a wrestling ring at the latest WWE tryout. Angle responded by warning WWE not to ignore independent wrestlers as potential employees.
“…I would tread very lightly on that because there are a lot of incredible independent wrestlers and wrestlers that never did any real sport, but very good at their craft,” said Angle.
WWE Developmental Changing
The WWE developmental program NXT is going through a change. WWE is promoting that the change will start as soon as September 14th. The announcement came with the introduction of the new NXT logo.
WWE President Nick Khan has shared in an interview with BT Sports’ Ariel Helwani that NXT will change his views on new talent. “In terms of an NXT rebrand, look for it in the upcoming weeks, it’s going to have a whole new look, it’s going to have a whole new feel, and we believe because of a lot of the ‘indie wrestlers’ if you will, have come through our system, and are in our system with SmackDown and RAW now. We don’t want to keep doing that same thing; we want to look elsewhere for great young talent,” said Khan.
NXT History with Independent Wrestlers
The WWE has had a successful history of acquiring famous independent wrestlers to NXT. Wrestlers like Matt Riddle, Johnny Gargano, and Asuka came from independent promotions and had successful careers in WWE. However, the success of All Elite Wrestling and other independent promotions has created more options for wrestlers. WWE’s decision to focus on younger athletes with no professional wrestling background seems to be their response.
In August, WWE released several former independent wrestlers from NXT. With the new era of NXT coming next week, it’s still unclear if WWE’s new direction in talent scouting will be a success.
