Gable Steveson Thread: Signed to the Buffalo Bills…and cut before the season started

[Trips]

i have no doubt in my mind that some people just wont take to pro wrestling.

that being said at some point when are we gonna talk about how the performance center barely turns out anyone

send his ass to new japan dojo, he having 4 star matches by 2025.

might not mean shyt if he can't cut a promo tho, but an athlete of his level should at least be able to be taught to be decent in the ring.

I think the PC is going to end up being the pipeline that creates a class of girls that are going to exceed the 4 Horsewomen and give them their OVW era of next level girls. Like OVW did for that Ruthless aggression era male superstar.

The guys are likely always going to be better served getting some looks outside the PC. I guess Bron, Julius, for sure seem to be fully PC.

Are Trick, Tony D full PC?

Melo, and Waller already had experience coming in right?

 

[SpacelySprockets]

all this dumb discourse started by meltzer babble when it was already confirmed he had heart surgery back in the fall and had just reported to the pc a few months ago

 

[TOAD99]

To be honest, he doesn’t seem all that charismatic

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

He's lost all of his mainstream buzz at this point.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

that being said at some point when are we gonna talk about how the performance center barely turns out anyone

Well that's what happens when all the focus is just on getting athletes with potential or TikTok/YouTube stars.

One of the biggest stars they've ever had and the biggest of the 21st century has been John Cena. The height of his athletic accomplishments prior to wrestling was being a D3 football player. They likely wouldn't even recruit a guy like him now.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

i have no doubt in my mind that some people just wont take to pro wrestling.

that being said at some point when are we gonna talk about how the performance center barely turns out anyone

send his ass to new japan dojo, he having 4 star matches by 2025.

might not mean shyt if he can't cut a promo tho, but an athlete of his level should at least be able to be taught to be decent in the ring.

Other than Bianca and the Street Profits, who has the PC turned out that became a star/champion? Most of the main players in the WWE were established Indy stars before signing & not athletes turned pro wrestlers which is what the PC is trying to turn out. WWE's development has been pretty bad for over a decade now. The only real homegrown stars they've made are Roman, Big E and Bianca.

 

[SpacelySprockets]

Other than Bianca and the Street Profits, who has the PC turned out that became a star/champion? Most of the main players in the WWE were established Indy stars before signing & not athletes turned pro wrestlers which is what the PC is trying to turn out. WWE's development has been pretty bad for over a decade now. The only real homegrown stars they've made are Roman, Big E and Bianca.

Charlotte
Alexa Bliss
Liv Morgan
Raquel Rodriguez
Carmella
Mandy

And thats not counting the ones who havent become champions yet. The only reason I didn't include the males is because most of the main roster guys have prior indy experience and the ones who started in the PC are mostly midcarders BUT that's only because Triple H spent 2013-2021 poaching the indies instead of focusing on homegrown male talent because he was more focused on NXT getting smark clout than actually building younger guys from the ground up.

That is why they rebranded NXT and changed up their recruiting practices in the first place. The zeroing in on college athletes recruiting practice is too early to determine if its a failure or not. NXT is filled with college athletes who have 0 prior wrestling experience and are showing a lot of promise in the next few years youll see them on the main roster. The obvious ones are people like Sol Ruca, Tiffany Stratton, Bron Breakker, and The Creed Brothers but there's hella people who are just starting off on Lvl Up or are enhancement talent right now who will be factors in coming years.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

Other than Bianca and the Street Profits, who has the PC turned out that became a star/champion? Most of the main players in the WWE were established Indy stars before signing & not athletes turned pro wrestlers which is what the PC is trying to turn out. WWE's development has been pretty bad for over a decade now. The only real homegrown stars they've made are Roman, Big E and Bianca.

Roman Reigns and Big E got promoted to the main roster before the PC opened.

Next best homegrown in the NXT/PC era, assuming we mean without previous non-WWE experience, would be...

• Baron Corbin
• Chad Gable
• Dominik Mysterio
• Street Profits
• Omos
• Braun Strowman

And on the women's side...

• Alexa Bliss
• Carmella
• Liv Morgan
• Charlotte Flair

Although some not listed above had very limited experience prior to getting into the WWE system - like Raquel Rodriguez, who had one indie match - that it really shouldn't even count since it was so insignificant.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

Charlotte
Alexa Bliss
Liv Morgan
Raquel Rodriguez
Carmella
Mandy

And thats not counting the ones who havent become champions yet. The only reason I didn't include the males is because most of the main roster guys have prior indy experience and the ones who started in the PC are mostly midcarders BUT that's only because Triple H spent 2013-2021 poaching the indies instead of focusing on homegrown male talent because he was more focused on NXT getting smark clout than actually building younger guys from the ground up.

That is why they rebranded NXT and changed up their recruiting practices in the first place. The zeroing in on college athletes recruiting practice is too early to determine if its a failure or not. NXT is filled with college athletes who have 0 prior wrestling experience and are showing a lot of promise in the next few years youll see them on the main roster. The obvious ones are people like Sol Ruca, Tiffany Stratton, Bron Breakker, and The Creed Brothers but there's hella people who are just starting off on Lvl Up or are enhancement talent right now who will be factors in coming years.

Out of the names you listed, I can agree with Charlotte. Alexa Bliss & Liv Morgan are certainly over, but the rest aren't anywhere close to being stars. They've been on the athlete/college athlete recruiting trail since probably 2015-2016. That's a pretty bad return for the number of people who have come through their system.

Roman Reigns and Big E got promoted to the main roster before the PC opened.

Next best homegrown in the NXT/PC era, assuming we mean without previous non-WWE experience, would be...

• Baron Corbin
• Chad Gable
• Dominik Mysterio
• Street Profits
• Omos
• Braun Strowman

And on the women's side...

• Alexa Bliss
• Carmella
• Liv Morgan
• Charlotte Flair

Although some not listed above had very limited experience prior to getting into the WWE system - like Raquel Rodriguez, who had one indie match - that it really shouldn't even count since it was so insignificant.

I didn't say Roman and Big E came from the PC. I was talking about WWE's developmental system as a whole has failed to make established main event stars from athletes turned wrestlers. None of the names you listed have broken through as major players in WWE and they've been on the roster for a good 5+ years other than Dominik & Omos.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

Out of the names you listed, I can agree with Charlotte. Alexa Bliss & Liv Morgan are certainly over, but the rest aren't anywhere close to being stars. They've been on the athlete/college athlete recruiting trail since probably 2015-2016. That's a pretty bad return for the number of people who have come through their system.



I didn't say Roman and Big E came from the PC. I was talking about WWE's developmental system as a whole has failed to make established main event stars from athletes turned wrestlers. None of the names you listed have broken through as major players in WWE and they've been on the roster for a good 5+ years other than Dominik & Omos.

While true, unless someone turns out to be a natural for wrestling - like Logan Paul, for example - it is quite the steep learning curve to get to be a high-level wrestler.

A lot of people can get to a high level as far as doing moves, but it's everything else that takes so much time. Like think of the pro and college athletes you watch who have all the physical tools in the world but they never develop any awareness, IQ, or feel for for the game that can elevate them to the next level.

And unlike in real sports, they have to develop their charisma and essentially acting skills too in order to sell, cut promos, etc. And even if a person has a naturally charismatic personality, it can sometimes be a struggle for them to translate that to their work.

Going this NIL route may eventually work out, but it's going to take a LONG time to know as I imagine the vast majority of the people they sign will be the type that have a very steep learning curve as opposed to being a born natural like a Logan Paul.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

While true, unless someone turns out to be a natural for wrestling - like Logan Paul, for example - it is quite the steep learning curve to get to be a high-level wrestler.

A lot of people can get to a high level as far as doing moves, but it's everything else that takes so much time. Like think of the pro and college athletes you watch who have all the physical tools in the world but they never develop any awareness or IQ for the game that can elevate them to the next level.

And unlike in real sports, they have to develop their charisma and essentially acting skills too in order to sell, cut promos, etc. And even if a person has a naturally charismatic personality, it can sometimes be a struggle for them to translate that to their work.

Going this NIL route may eventually work out, but it's going to take a LONG time to know as I imagine the vast majority of the people they sign will be the type that have a very steep learning curve as opposed to being a born natural like a Logan Paul.

I agree to an extent, but WWE had much better success turning out stars when they were using/running OVW and FCW. I just don't think what they're doing is working. Same with what AEW is doing with Dark/Elevation. My working theory is that they need to stop putting these kids in developmental on national television/Internet and they need to work on their stuff on a more local level. It also doesn't help when you have those clown Twitter accounts posting botches from NXT & Dark knowing these guys are working on their character and ring work but still finding ways to clown on them.

 

[SpacelySprockets]

Out of the names you listed, I can agree with Charlotte. Alexa Bliss & Liv Morgan are certainly over, but the rest aren't anywhere close to being stars. They've been on the athlete/college athlete recruiting trail since probably 2015-2016. That's a pretty bad return for the number of people who have come through their system.

Everybody I named became a champion, all of them have at the very least been main roster womens champ or NXT champion. The college athletes they signed prior to 2022 were recruited on a "knows somebody who knows somebody" basis like any other indy wrestler or fitness model, which has been the same practice since the beginning. College athletes were never the #1 priority until the NXT 2.0 switch. Now they do whole tryouts centered around strictly signing college athletes and several people who they signed from them have been signed are working live events and doing LVL Up right now. In 2-3 years the majority of the NXT roster is gonna be homegrown.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

My working theory is that they need to stop putting these kids in developmental on national television/Internet and they need to work on their stuff on a more local level. It also doesn't help when you have those clown Twitter accounts posting botches from NXT & Dark knowing these guys are working on their character and ring work but still finding ways to clown on them.

Agreed. If they want developmental on TV/YouTube, it needs to be essentially exclusive to the most TV-ready talent with concrete plans to bump them up to the main roster within two years or less.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

Everybody I named became a champion, all of them have at the very least been main roster womens champ or NXT champion. The college athletes they signed prior to 2022 were recruited on a "knows somebody who knows somebody" basis like any other indy wrestler or fitness model, which has been the same practice since the beginning. College athletes were never the #1 priority until the NXT 2.0 switch. Now they do whole tryouts centered around strictly signing college athletes and several people who they signed from them have been signed are working live events and doing LVL Up right now. In 2-3 years the majority of the NXT roster is gonna be homegrown.

You're missing my point. None of those names are people you can make the face of the company or build a division around. They had better success with the OVW/FCW method.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

You're missing my point. None of those names are people you can make the face of the company or build a division around. They had better success with the OVW/FCW method.

I think they just did a much better job recruiting back then and were much more selective.

Plus I think having three hours of TV they have to fill every week means they have to have more talent signed than they really need in developmental. Instead of the focus on developmental being just developing talent, now they have TV time they are contractually required to fill every week.

They have 52 men and 32 women on the NXT roster along with 22 men and 18 women in the PC that haven't even gotten to NXT yet. So that 84 men and 50 women total in development. They only have 74 men and 34 women on the main roster.

So their development roster is larger than the main roster. Absolute insanity to have 134 developmental talents when they only officially have 13 coaches in the PC, according to the WWE Personnel Wikipedia page

So instead of having a select smaller portion of talent they can devote their time and resources into recruiting and developing, they have to cast a wide net to bring in people who will never amount to shyt even in NXT just to fill TV time. And that means they have to take time and resources away from their top recruits so they can train nobodies.

I don't really get what it accomplishes to have such a gigantic developmental roster given how long the main roster talent generally sticks around.