Last month, WWE announced that it had launched WWE ID, a program that would provide a pathway for independent wrestlers to join the company.
Some wrestlers will become WWE ID prospects, and several wrestling schools have been given WWE ID designation. Those schools include Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling, Cody Rhodes’ Nightmare Factory, and Seth Rollins’ Black and Brave Wrestling Academy.
AEW CEO Tony Khan discussed the creation of the program while speaking at the Full Gear post-event media scrum.
Khan stated, “It’s interesting. I don’t really know how it’s going to work. I understand there is some kind of first right or refusal aspect of it. We haven’t come up where it’s been a conflict yet. But, I do think it’s going to affect the independent scene in some ways. We’ve had a really great experience here over the years bringing in young wrestlers. Through the pandemic, the best place for independent wrestlers to get work was at AEW and on AEW Dark and Elevation. It’s sitting here with somebody who’s now the TNT Champion sitting with [Daniel] Garcia, somebody who came into Daily’s Place and was working on Dark and working on elevation and started teaming with 2.0 at the time and built this friendship with Daddy Magic that’s lasted to see now Daniel Garcia is the TNT Champion. Somebody who was a top independent wrestler came in, wrestled on Dark, and has now worked his way into the top and is going to be competing in the Continental Classic, and somebody who’s had this incredible 2024 and is now the TNT Champion. It’s a really really exciting thing.
The women and men in AEW, we’ve seen so many great wrestlers work their way up from the independents, we’ve signed big free agents, and we have a lot of homegrown day-one people. It’s a great mix. I expect we’ll keep signing great talent off the independents. I do think it’s a different mechanism. It’s something to keep an eye on. It hasn’t created major conflicts or anything yet, but I imagine it will definitely influence the independent wrestling scene. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit AEW’s YouTube channel with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
