WWE executives have already been planning for the day when stars such as John Cena, The Rock, and CM Punk are no longer leading the company.
Speaking with Sports Business Journal, WWE President Nick Khan revealed that he, WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H, NXT head Shawn Michaels, and executive Chris Legentil held discussions last year about accelerating the development of WWE’s next generation of main-event talent. Khan explained that the conversation was prompted by the reality that many of WWE’s biggest stars are now in the latter stages of their careers.
“A year ago, we got together, Triple H, Legentil, myself, a guy named Shawn Michaels, who runs our developmental system and is a Hall of Fame wrestler, and we said, ‘Hey, look, we have John Cena on his retirement tour. The Rock came back, and now he’s going to be filming Jumanji and The Smashing Machine. Our other big stars, CM Punk, is 46. We have a number of men who are 40 years or older, and they’re performing at a high level. We have to accelerate the next generation of talent.'”
Nick Khan Said Shawn Michaels Presented The Idea Of Running WWE NXT House Shows To Develop Future Stars
According to Nick Khan, Shawn Michaels played a key role in shaping WWE’s strategy for developing future stars. Rather than confining prospects to the Performance Center, Michaels pushed for more opportunities to put young wrestlers in front of live audiences at house shows.
“Shawn Michaels said, ‘We need to take them on the road so they get the crowd response of a live crowd,'” Khan recalled. “If you’re getting cheered, great. If you’re getting booed, great. If there’s no response, that’s terrible.”
That philosophy has become an important part of WWE’s talent development process, with NXT stars increasingly appearing at larger venues and before bigger crowds in NXT Live events.
Khan pointed to Oba Femi as an example of the type of talent WWE hopes to develop into a future headline attraction. By exposing younger wrestlers to live audiences earlier in their careers, the company believes it can accelerate the development of the next generation of top stars.
