Dave Meltzer Addresses WWE's New Independent Development Program

Vastly different from the formula Vince McMahon had for building college athletes and or other green talents from the ground up, rather than relying on already established wrestlers from the independent scene, the landscape of professional wrestling recruitment will change in 2025. WWE's Chief Content Officer, Triple H, announced this week that WWE will join forces with five independent wrestling training schools across the United States to help develop the next pillar of stars through a new program called "WWE Independent Development" ("WWE ID" for short). With much information coming out since this statement, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has provided more details on the program

According to Dave Meltzer, five schools will be advertised as affiliated with WWE — Booker T's Reality of Wrestling, Cody Rhodes' Nightmare Factory, Seth Rollins' Black & Brave Academy, the Elite Pro Wrestling Training Center, and KnockX Pro Academy. This idea has been in the making since last year, with the important note that WWE will not financially support the five schools mentioned. 

Of those participating in these schools, several current students have already signed on the dotted line with this developmental program. Those signed are not restricted on where they can work, unlike the United Kingdom talent, who, after signing with "WWE NXT UK," were massively restricted on where they could take bookings between tapings unless they were affiliated with WWE. The goal is to right the wrongs from what happened overseas. Those names were not released as of yet. Talent is not restricted from taking dates, nor receiving contract offers from other promotions." However, WWE would retain the option to block the offer and sign them to a WWE contract. Regarding contracted talent from "WWE NXT," they might appear for independent shows hosted by these five schools, especially with reduced "NXT" house shows projected.

Of course, with the good comes the bad. With the idea of "WWE ID" on the verge of changing the U.S. independent landscape, some promotions, their schools, and their promoters/operators are not too keen on this decision.

It has been duly noted some independent promotions like Capital City Championship Combat, better known as C4, in Ottawa, are hesitant about how "WWE ID" could be the ruination of the indies and what it stood for, declaring that, "If you claim to be an independent but are bound to a billion dollar company, you're not an independent."

Another highly successful innovator of professional wrestling, Lance Storm, has gone on record stating that Triple H's concept is not something new. Around 11 or 12 years ago, the former Head of Talent Relations, John Laurinaitis, approached Storm with the idea of having Storm Wrestling Academy be the official WWE wrestling school in Canada, which Storm politely declined. Even on Storm's Wrestling Academy page, he wrote, "It is also important that you understand that Storm Wrestling Academy is not associated with World Wrestling Entertainment. This is my own venture and is not a WWE developmental school. I have a great working relationship with many people in WWE, but we are two very distinct and separate entities."