WWE Returns to Developmental Roots with New WWE ID Program

By finally acknowledging the failure of the WWE Performance Center, WWE has better positioned itself today for future talent acquisition and development while simultaneously making it harder for its closest competitor to do the same.

Today, WWE announced the introduction of WWE ID (WWE Independent Development), a new developmental system that returns the company to its developmental territory roots.

While their press release calls WWE ID “a first-of-its-kind developmental program designed to provide up-and-coming independent wrestlers a pathway to a potential career in WWE,” this program is simply a return to the developmental system that WWE employed in the early 2000s.

Before creating the WWE Performance Center, WWE utilized several partnered developmental territories to train and develop their next wave of talent. Promotions like Ohio Valley Wrestling, Deep South Wrestling, Florida Championship Wrestling, and Memphis Championship Wrestling churned out several of WWE’s top stars from the mid-2000s.

WWE has returned to this model today, announcing they will “provide prominent independent wrestling schools with the WWE ID official designation.”

The initial list of WWE ID independent wrestling schools is as follows:

Reality of Wrestling (Houston, Texas)
Nightmare Factory (Atlanta, Georgia)
Black & Brave Academy (Davenport, Iowa)
Elite Pro Wrestling Training Center (Concord, New Hampshire)
KnokX Pro Academy (Los Angeles, California)

WWE says these schools are being designated “with the goal of providing new trainees and existing talent at these select institutions with enhanced developmental opportunities.”

This is a brilliant move by WWE that helps them and hurts their competitors.

I’ve been an outspoken critic of WWE’s Performance Center since its creation, and nothing in the years has convinced me it was a sound investment for WWE.

Talent development, the key to the Performance Center, has simply not been there, and most of WWE’s top stars during the Performance Center era either came to the company with extensive independent wrestling careers or were prodigies who likely would have succeeded regardless of their training in the Performance Center.

That’s not to say the Performance Center was entirely worthless; it clearly wasn’t. The shiny state-of-the-art facility undoubtedly helped WWE secure talents (mainly through the WWE NIL initiative) that likely wouldn’t have chosen a pro wrestling path if they had to start training in a dingy warehouse in Lovejoy, Georgia. However, with the enormous cost of the Performance Center facility and the amount of people that have come through their system in the years since its opening, the return on investment cannot be considered positive.

Look at it this week: today’s news doesn’t happen if WWE thinks the Performance Center is thriving.

While WWE officials threw water on the fire when the news of the WWE PC moving to Las Vegas was rumored in August, it’s hard not to look at today’s news as the doomsday clock ticking for the Florida-based Performance Center.

As the new TKO company refines its corporate structure, it simply makes more sense to consolidate UFC and WWE’s training efforts into one facility. UFC President Dana White mentioned that the UFC Apex facility had recently received a $20M upgrade. TKO President Mark Shapiro touted Las Vegas as a place where WWE should have a presence, and now this news feels like far too much smoke for no fire. WWE is hosting WrestleMania 2025 in Las Vegas? Is there no perfect time to announce and tout the new era of the WWE PC than that?

I don’t think the Performance Center as we know it will cease to exist though I do think the Performance Center in Florida will be shuttered in favor of a Las Vegas-based facility. There’s still intrinsic value to a shiny, expensive training facility, particularly as WWE grows its NIL program. Those who follow American college sports are well aware of the insane investment that schools make into their school’s training facilities. Trying to recruit a former Division 1 football player to give up his post-playing life to become a pro wrestler is a lot easier when you can show them a gigantic training facility with state-of-the-art equipment versus a one-way bus ticket to Davenport, Iowa, to train in a former pawn shop.

The WWE PC will still help convert former college athletes into aspiring WWE superstars, but the bulk of the training and the actual developmental pipeline will come from WWE ID-affiliated promotions.

This is a sound move for WWE and something they should’ve done this long ago; it’s the best way to create future stars.