WWE hosted the latest rounds of tryouts during WrestleMania 38 week to bring in talents on WWE Raw/Smackdown/NXT. Fresh talents from all around the United States arrived in Dallas, Texas to take an attempt to make it to the biggest professional wrestling league. The recruiting process was exclusive to current and recently graduated college athletes rather than wrestlers as the company is looking forward to importing more mainstream athletes.
WWE’s senior vice president of global talent, strategy, and development James Kimball, and WWE executive Triple H spoke to The Athletic, regarding the bygone tryouts. These two have profiled the tryouts at ‘Mania week and they opened up about what the company could possibly be looking for, in the next generation of talents on WWE Raw/Smackdown.
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It was noted that the top wrestlers on WWE Raw/Smackdown brand earn over a million dollars annually. Triple H also said that wrestlers on the main roster for either the red or blue brand earn at least $250,000, annually.
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The Game also explained WWE’s current approach of explicitly targeting college athletes. WWE is specifically gunning for younger as they remain very much flexible to pick up new things. This makes the collegiate athletes, very promising recruits for their future job be it on WWE Raw/Smackdown.
“You change the direction of their intensity and their focus, that becomes this massive ocean of talent for us, not a tiny pond. In the beginning, it was a puddle. Now it opens up massively, and we’re getting there,” Hunter noted on how they conduct recruiting future WWE Raw/Smackdown superstars.
“You look at all the kids in college football that didn’t get to the NFL, what’s the difference between the ones that made it and the ones that didn’t? Not much. You go past that, you look at a hammer thrower. After college, what are the job opportunities for a hammer thrower? Or a woman that is an amazing track star? Coaching?”
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Previous reports claimed that top WWE Raw Superstar AJ Styles signed a new deal with the company that gets him $3 million a year. Being a money name, he can definitely expect that kind of money while the emerging talents also receive a handsome sum, making professional wrestling an attractive business.
