Is the PC actually producing stars?

[sek69]

joeg made a good point in the "Comments that don't require a thread" thread:

Most of the guys you listed are FCW, DSW, or OVW guys. That’s the thing The performance center doesn’t seem to be having the same track record so far  as either OVW or FCW was my point. Honestly I think this could start its own thread. They built the performance center with the goal of bringing in better quality of athletes and starting them from scratch. Yet the NXT / performance center model has proven less successful at doing this than its predecessors despite the significant investment and cost of the venture. There is no doubt that there are more elite athletes going into the developmental system now, yet fewer seem to be making it out to the main roster. The guys who do make it to the main roster now seem to be guys who weren’t necessarily elite athletes starting from scratch but guys with plenty of experience prior to being signed to WWE.

 

It seems that the Performance Center is functioning more as a finishing school for guys who wrestled elsewere to get the needed polishing to go to the main WWE roster. Yet WWE itself claims that the PC is where all this homegrown talent is coming from, something that really hasn't borne fruit as of yet. 

[SirEdger]

Alexa Bliss and Braun Strowman are pretty much PC-produced stars. It's a very small sample but given their current status on the totem pole, it's a start.

[Mad Dog]

Strowman kind of learned on the job though.

[SPS]

I think they're needs to be a smaller tier below NXT for straight out  of the gate new workers like an OVW. If they do decide to go full territory and have smaller NXT territories around the world that they can send folks around to for seasoning then use the PC and main NXT program and the finishing school like others mentioned then you'd probably see more homegrown stars come out of it instead of just the notable exceptions like Alexa, Braun or Bianca Belair being another one coming up.

 

[joeg]

So at any time the performance center has between 60 and 75 former professional and D1 athletes training to be professional wrestlers. By my count 5 have started in the performance center (Strowman, Bliss, Gable, Akam, Razar) and made it to the main roster since it opened 5 years ago. There are others who started in FCW then moved on to the performance center like Baron Corbin who made it onto the main roster.  That is a low batting percentage anyway you look at it. It is almost as if they are trying to run people off. At one point they had Shawne Marriman down there and he didn't make it onto TV for christ sake. It seems like every time they make an announcement of the new signees there is at least one of two guys whose athletic career I'm familiar with. And that announcement is the last time I ever see that person again. With the facility and the pool of athletes they have down there, I was sort of expecting more Akam and Razar types and fewer Steen and Generico types to be making the main roster. That hasn't been the case. 

[Rah]

Even then Gable was wrestling before hitting up WWE, though I'm unsure for how long.

Wasn't there a former footballer (?) A couple years back that seemed to be doing well? I remember watching some form of NXT behind the curtain type show and it followed him around his day. He was well dressed, had the height/look and spoke eloquently. Wonder where he got to.

 

[SirEdger]

Brennan Williams?

[KawadaSmile]

There was this one Demetrius Bronson guy who by all accounts was actually on his way to be a success story but he had some nasty injuries, IIRC.

[Hawkeye12]

Big E, Nia Jax and Carmella are all homegrown without previous experience.  Enzo isn't there anymore, but he's another guy.

[Loss]

Velveteen Dream is probably going to be a big star and even if he wrestled a little outside the system, it's hard to see him as anything but a WWE creation.

[sek69]

It seems a little disingenious to include Strowman since it seems all he did in the PC was work out in the gym and be a Rosebud. 

Big E would probably be the biggest star so far of the NXT/PC era. 

[Tim Evans]

If big e counts than so should Enzo and Cass. Sure they had a bad exit but no doubt they were stars as a team for a short time. Big e was in fcw during the final days. How are we defining "stars" from the PC anyways?

[sek69]

I would say stars in someone who was given a chance to get over and not get cut off at the knees. Enzo and Cass definately count, and Enzo was probably going to be the biggest star of all until he had to go all CONSENTUAL PENIS on everyone. 

[joeg]

I saw Patrick Clark wrestle for Maryland Championship Wrestling, he was really fucking good before going to WWE. Big Cass was trained by Johnny Rodz and worked the New York indies for two years before going to WWE then spend time in FCW. Big E was an FCW guy, I'm pretty sure he was on main roster before the PC even opened.  I wouldn't consider any of them PC products. Clark is the closest thing to a PC product of those mentioned because he wasn't in developmental prior to the reorganization of the developmental system and construction of the PC the way Cass and Enzo were. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

Anyone who comes through should count as that's the point of the PC. It doesn't matter if someone had worked before for along time, a short time, or never before. 

Shit, it's only been AJ and The Club that haven't gone through it, right?

[El Boricua]

I don't think it's so much the PC that has to produce stars, they just have to make sure everyone gets the tools they need in order to be competent at the craft and help identify potential. I'd say it's the bookers job to help make stars out of the ones with potential. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

The idea that it's "unsuccessful " cause  only a few folks have come through who never wrestled before have made it , is insane. The point of the PC is to produce talent , period. No matter where they came from.

[joeg]

I don't think anybody would call it a failure, I wouldn't call it a success either though. The PC/NXT system has been around 5 years.

In the first 5 years OVW started Lesnar, the Bashams, Randy Orton, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Dolf Ziggler, and Matt Morgan all from scratch. Batista, Jon Cena, Ron Waterman, Lance Cade, Rennee Dupree, CM Punk, Ken Doane, all started elsewhere but went through OVW in those first 5 years.  

Deep South was only around for 3 years or so. In those 3 years The Miz, Ryback, Kenny Omega, Heath Slater, MVP, all went through Deep South. 

FCW was only open 5 years. Over half the current roster either started in FCW or spent a considerable amount of time there. 

So when you look at track record, the Performance Center doesn't seem to have the same sort of success as any of the previous developmental territories. 

[El-P]

As of now, the Performance Center is less effective than the Power Plant in producing stars/workers. I mean, Enzo, Cass, Nia Jaxx, Carmella ? That's a pretty rotten records thus far. Braun sucked big time when he debuted, he learned on the road/TV. 

NXT is an indy/foreign workers recycling machine, has been for years now.

Call it window dressing for the stock holders, really. WWE ain't producing shit themselves at this time, they are just buying the best talent around. 

(and yeah, one day, Corny's work will get the credit it deserves for developing the stars of the 00's/early 10's in OVW)

[Robert S]

On 7/26/2018 at 1:48 AM, SPS said:

I think they're needs to be a smaller tier below NXT for straight out  of the gate new workers like an OVW.

This. The main reason for not having more PC guys on the main roster is that NXT is not a development league but rather a TV show that has its main focus in producing great wrestling and is hiring the best talent on the market to reach that goal. So the development guys barely get any TV time and I suppose not enough ring time in front of a crowd.

[Log]

Don’t discount the work Danny Davis did in OVW. Cornette May have been running the shows, but Davis was instrumental in a lot of the “little things” psychology-wise, etc.