WWE recently introduced the WWE ID program, which will help find young wrestlers and get them a path toward potentially joining the company. According to former WWE Head of Talent Relations Jim Ross, a program like this has been discussed as a possibility before.
Speaking during the latest episode of the Grilling JR podcast, Ross said that it was “about time” that WWE implemented a program like WWE ID. He noted that, prior to the new regime, Vince McMahon was not very motivated to invest in the independent scene.
“Yes, and I think it’s about time,” Jim Ross said. “Vince was never very motivated to invest time and money in supporting the indies. It was just — I remember the conversation we had. It was simply, ‘Well Vince, where do you think we got all these other guys?’ We had some college guys as you know, but we had a lot of diversity. You get diversity via selection. It’s just a crazy deal, you want different personalities, you want different body types, you want different ethnicities.”
Jim Ross: WWE ID Is Good For The Talent
Ross went on to comment on the concerns about the way(s) that WWE ID could negatively impact the independent scene. He said that the program was good for the talent.
“Well, you’re not really eliminating it because if you don’t sign a contract and you got a maybe a letter of agreement or something casual, I can see that being a good recruiting tool because then guys build their confidence, they build their self-esteem, they got a WWE deal in the works,” Ross said. “They’d be stupid to sign a contract that prohibits them from wrestling for another company.
“Don’t do that, that don’t make any sense. But having that WWE offer or agreement, that’s good for those guys. It’s good for the talent.” (H/t Skylar Russell of Fightful for the transcription)
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