There have recently been conversations sparked about AEW needing to create a proper development system. I first saw this conversation come up from Ibou of WrestlePurists.
Ibou isn't wrong and I think people are stuck on the idea of AEW being reactive.
— GrapPro – Aaron Wrotkowski (@AaronWrotkowski) November 8, 2024
AEW has already worked in building indie relationships to find and build talent, but what Ibou is getting at is something far more focused. I'll write on it tomorrow. https://t.co/UeXVYTq8vr
I think the reason people are apprehensive on the idea of AEW creating a development system comes purely from WWE. This conversation is coming up due to the WWEID system so people think this discussion is reactionary. But this is a discussion that has been happening since 2019 and AEW has had various forms of trying it out.
AEW has had the Nightmare Factory to provide additional training to wrestlers. They have had Dustin Rhodes (who has his own wrestling school) train wrestlers while on the road. There was also that morning class that William Regal hosted a few times before being called a stooge by CM Punk. All Elite Wrestling has had multiple signings of non-wrestlers who they trained from Anthony Ogogo to Satnam Singh to Trench to Paige VanZant. Aside from VanZant all of them were signed already in their 30s. They weren’t really prospects.
What Ibou discussed is something that used to be done for decades. When kayfabe was still protected it was hard to break into the business. There were ways to be scouted and some advertised wrestling camps (the most famous being Verne Gagne’s for AWA) but what you often had to do was be scouted before you could put your foot in.
I know of wrestling trainers who used to scout high school football games to find potential trainees, and have heard many wrestlers talk about how they got to break into the business. The ones who grow up as wrestling fans will find wrestling schools and go through the independent route. AEW needs to create, and create comes through amateur scouting.
On Scott Hall’s RF Video Shoot he talked about having to go around Florida gyms to try to meet a wrestler to get an in and finally met Barry Windham. He had been training with Hiro Matsuda (often done just to gatekeep the wrong people from getting into the business) but his real in was talking to Windham, who helped him get properly trained and put on the wrestling circuit. The purpose was to get him smartened up and work various territories, so one day he could return to Florida and be a top star for them. Every place Scott Hall went to, from St. Louis to Charlotte to Minnesota, he gained extra training and knowledge into the business. Knowledge and training that didn’t fully click for Scott until years later when he made it to the World Wrestling Federation.
The AEW Development Program
Essentially this is what I would see for an AEW Development System. It should borrow from the 20th century territories and it should borrow from the New Japan Pro Wrestling Young Lion system.
It’s not about doing some Tough Enough gimmick or the Performance Center tryouts. You keep it private. You do your own scouting, no different to what Gerald Brisco and Mark Henry had done for WWE for decades. Have someone whose job is to literally go around North America to various sporting events and scout potential pro wrestlers for AEW. Have them talk to these guys and see if not just pro wrestling but All Elite Wrestling is what they want to do.
Once you have people you have scouted to bring into your development system, you train them from the ground up. Think of the NJPW Young Lion system. Teach them the fundamentals and teach them the basics. Get their cardio up and have them nimble. Build their intelligence in the ring brick by brick until you have a foundation. Because AEW isn’t NJPW, you also need to teach them how to think on American style promos. How to talk about anything. How to be quick on your feet with a response and how to easily memorize the bullet points you need to get over. How to assemble a gimmick and personality inside and outside the ring.
AEW Excursion Program
Once all of this is established? AEW isn’t the place for them. Not even ROH. They need to go elsewhere. This is where AEW can lean on their relationships. CMLL in Mexico, Maple Leaf Pro in Canada, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stardom in Japan. There are also independent promotions that AEW knows the owners and can trust their talent will be used properly like Defy, RevPro, C4, and others.
AEW has had a bit of a reputation of being protective of their talents when doing indie bookings on both price and handling (you can thank Michael Elgin losing matches in PWG while ROH World Champion for that) but they don’t have to be as hands on when these talents are working abroad. They are rookies so they can lose. They are getting paid by AEW and not the promotions so they don’t have to demand a pay minimum. This is about experience and development.
The larger promotions can be leaned on for excursions. You can have one of their young wrestlers spend months abroad to really learn new styles and continue putting down those development bricks. Unless someone is a sure fire can’t miss superstar (Jumbo Tsuruta/Kurt Angle level getting it) the signees will likely spend 2-3 years in development before they ever step foot in All Elite Wrestling or Ring of Honor.
Develop Your Own Future
So why do all this? Why do we need these think pieces about AEW on building homegrown talent? Because the indies are depleted. People are frightened by WWEID because we’re at the point of scraping the bottom of the barrel. The 2010s are over and essentially everyone good has been signed by AEW, WWE, TNA, and every other promotion.
So AEW can’t rely on trying to find a Darby Allin on the American indies anymore. You can’t luck out on an Orange Cassidy. There’s no Maxwell Jacob Friedman out there right now. If there is (if anyone could be the next Darby Allin it’s Alec Price)? They might be signing that WWEID for extra cash and becoming early property of WWE. You can’t rely on signing top stars from New Japan Pro Wrestling forever. You can’t rely on signing people who left WWE. You have to make your own names.
2025 and beyond AEW has to set up a way to build those new talents. No different to what Verne Gagne had to do. No different to what Dory Funk Jr. had to do. No different to what Stu Hart had to do. You have to make your own prospects. AEW President Tony Khan has plenty of experience in the Jacksonville Jaquars and Fulham building development programs. AEW has attempted half measures on building a development but it’s time they go all the way.
This isn’t about making the AEW Performance Center. This is about AEW establishing a way to create new young stars on their watch. This is about AEW in the 2030s no longer having to rely on wrestling stars from the 2010s. Invest in your future and you will have a future.
