Published: Mar 30, 2022 by Sanchez Taylor | Last Updated: Mar 30, 2022 by Sanchez Taylor
Sanchez has over six years of pro-wrestling news writing experience, covering the biggest news stories in WWE, NXT, AEW, TNA Wrestling and more. He has personally interviewed a number of top stars, producing exclusive content with the likes of AEW's Swerve Strickland and WWE's Nick Aldis.
WWE
WWE Senior Vice President for Global Talent Strategy & Development James Kimball has commented on WWE’s goals for recruitment, and the NIL program.
WWE announced the NIL collegiate athletes program in late 2021, with the aim of recruiting and developing future performers through collaborative partnerships with college athletes.
Speaking with ESPN.com, Kimball confirmed that the company wants the age of developmental recruits to drop, as WWE wants stars to be around the age of 25 by the time they reach the main roster.
Hopeful that the new strategy will remove chance from the equation when creating future stars, Kimball said:
“We would like that (age) number to come down, especially on the developmental standpoint. The second you enter our developmental program and then potentially end up on NXT TV and then onto SmackDown or Raw, you want that number to be 25, not 30 or 35.”
“We’re able to develop them in an accelerated manner. Get them to WrestleMania or Raw, do media training, do community events. All those initial exposures to the business, those have been done while you’re still in school. And then you come down to Orlando and off you go,”
“The story typically is that you knew someone who knew someone, you had a chance opportunity, you got ahold of an individual who had a line to the company. Our goal here is to eliminate chance from the equation and just improve the likelihood of college athletes having an opportunity.”
Check out the full cards for WrestleMania Saturday (April 2) here, and WrestleMania Sunday (April 3) here.
To make sure you stay updated with all the latest wrestling news, add WrestleTalk.com to your Google Discover feed and follow us on Twitter!
Trending
- Roman Reigns WWE Contract Not Set To Expire Right After WrestleMania 42
- Former WWE Star Matt Morgan Reacts To Accidental WrestleMania 42 Mention By Wade Barrett
- WWE Champion Cody Rhodes Not Medically Cleared After ‘Severe’ WrestleMania 42 Injury, Eye ‘Still Completely Shut’
- Brock Lesnar Seemingly Retires After Emphatic Loss To Oba Femi At WWE WrestleMania 42
- Planned Match Order For WWE WrestleMania 42 Night Two
- Commentary Team For WWE WrestleMania 42 Night Two
- “This Is Not Goodbye” – AJ Lee Addresses WWE Future After WrestleMania 42 Championship Loss
- “Welcome Home”- Triple H Addresses Paige’s WWE Return At WrestleMania 42
- Roman Reigns Wins WWE World Heavyweight Championship From CM Punk At WrestleMania 42
- Jade Cargill Addresses Whether She’s ‘Lived Up To The Hype’ Since Signing With WWE, ‘Is This A Question?’
mailing list