More on WWE’s New ID Program for Indie Wrestlers Development

As noted before, WWE recently announced that they will be launching a new indie wrestler development program called WWE ID and have affiliated with several wrestling schools to specifically develop indie wrestlers for potential careers in the company.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE’s new indie wrestler-based program was something that the company had been working on developing for years off and on.

Johnson reported that former Ring of Honor and EVOLVE booker Gabe Saplosky will be part of those overseeing the new ID program. Saplosky has been doing talent scouting-related work for WWE in recent years.

Johnson also reported that the main idea is by having official relationships with these schools, WWE officials can point potential recruits to the places they can train and learn the “right way” to wrestle as soon as they seek to get into the wrestling business, a place to prepare for eventual tryouts or a place to be hired from and be brought into the Performance Center via a developmental deal. Johnson also reported that WWE would also have outside places to send their existing signed developmental talents to go and learn from others as a way to get different perspectives and reps that they might not get outside the NXT system. The general idea reportedly being WWE having outside affiliated schools being in alignment with what the company is seeking in potential talents.

Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that a big part of WWE’s plans for this new program is making sure that they are continuously enriching and preparing for the future and having a different stream beyond just scouting indie talents and the WWE NIL program.

In regards to potential plans of WWE holding events with these schools, Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that WWE officials currently do not have any plans to do so nor anything of that nature and instead this new program is more of a “nuts and bolts” deal to try and add to the overall WWE recruitment and training process.

Johnson also reported that several indie promoters spoken to are currently worried that this new program could be the American equivalent of what WWE did to the British indies scene in regards to signing all the British talents ahead of the launch of their NXT UK brand a few years ago. These issues also revolved around NXT UK talent had issues doing jobs for their outside bookings and even had situations where they were pulled from indie booking dates at WWE’s behest.