One of the biggest discussion points on the last few weeks has been WWE’s age problem and their inability to create new young stars. There’s a lot of reasons why this is the case .
Vince McMahon
Pointing the finger to Vince McMahon is the easiest answer and its the truth. Vince McMahon is the reason WWE has not been able to create new stars.
Like it or not, Vince McMahon is out of touch with current society and pop culture. The stories WWE like to tell are not able to connect with fans anymore.
McMahon’s reliance on nostalgia is baffling, especially considering this is the same man that thought Randy Savage (41) was too old to wrestle in 1993 and relegated him to a commentator. Edge at age 47 just won the Royal Rumble and he’s going to main event WrestleMania this year.
Nostalgia from time to time can be great, but when you rely too much on it things generally suffer a lot in the long term. This is something Vince McMahon and the rest of WWE Higher-ups haven’t realize yet. Wrestling needs new faces so young audiences can connect to them and be fans of those wrestlers in the long term.
The Performance Center and NXT
The PC has done a terrible job forming new recruits and even recruitment the PC has failed on multiple levels. The fact WWE let wrestlers like Wardlow and Will Hobbs go out of the PC without a contract is mind-boggling.
Paul Levesque has an obsession on signing talent that has wrestled in a PWG ring. WWE benefits nothing by stockpiling all this talent and not doing nothing with them. Levesque needs to sign talent that he knows Vince will want to push instead of those he will get bored and send them to Main Event a year later *cough* Ricochet *cough*.
Even when presented the opportunity to create a star, WWE botched it. For Example, NXT had the the hottest act in the company last year in Rhea Ripley and a few months later she was cold as ice thanks to a bizarre feud with Charlotte that didn’t help anyone.
Even as a wrestling school the PC doesn’t work. Comparisons are tedious but Tay Conti was part of the PC for 4 years and she didn’t improve much in those 4 years there, once she felt WWE and join AEW, Conti has improved so much in just 6 months with the promotion thanks to the help QT Marshall and Dustin Rhodes. In AEW, Tay Conti is allowed to be herself and use her knowledge of Judo and Brazilian jujitsu as part of her arsenal, something she was not able to do in NXT.
The Current Roster
WWE has the deepest roster in terms of talent in their long history. They have some of the best wrestlers in the world do nothing or be part of awful storylines all year.
The fact Akira Tozawa is stuck in a ninja gimmick and running in circles like a clown for the 24/7 Championship should be considered criminal. What a waste for such a talented wrestler. There’s hundreds of cases like Tozawa’s in WWE.
This year Rumble on had 2 wrestlers under the age of 30. Dominic Mysterio (23) and Otis (29), the Rumble also had 14 wrestlers over the age of 40. This numbers are concerning.
The current Elimination Chamber match for the WWE title has 5 wrestlers over the age of 40 and Drew who is 35 is the youngest of the competitors. There’s an age problem in this company and it can’t be ignore anymore.
