Post by J12 on May 27, 2016 14:37:20 GMT -5
Many of us have been paying close attention to the current WWE roster over the last few days with the announcement of the oncoming brand split, and in doing so, I started to piece together some information that I find to be rather interesting. This occurred to me, in part, because of a similar observation made on a couple of podcasts this week.
We have what essentially amounts to a lost generation of talent. After the huge influx of new talent (the "Ruthless Aggression" class, if you will) at the conclusion of the Invasion/Attitude era, there was a large gap of time before the current crop of NXT-developed talent started pumping in to the main roster. I tend to look at The Shield as the first inductees of this new "class" (and, coincidentally, the most successful thus far, by a considerable margin.)
What's become of the generation prior? The talent that was brought in after the Ruthless Aggression era, but before NXT rose to prominence? With the recent releases of Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, and Damien Sandow, we're left with almost no one from that time period. We still have legacy attitude era stars, we still have Ruthless Aggression guys transitioning into veteran roles, and we have a huge crop of exciting, new talent from NXT and the independent scene, but the current roster has almost no representation from the pre-NXT (as it currently exists) developmental system.
Here's some guys (and gals), picked out from the alumni section, who didn't make it:
AJ Lee
Aksana
Alex Riley
Beth Phoenix
Brodus Clay
Boogeyman
Brad Maddox
Brian Kendrick
Camacho
Candice Michelle
Chris Masters
Christy Hemme
CM Punk
Curt Hawkins
Damien Sandow
Daniel Bryan
Drew McIntyre
Evan Bourne
Eve Torres
Ezekiel Jackson
Hornswoggle
Jinder Mahal
John Morrison
JTG
Justin Gabriel
Kaitlyn
Kelly Kelly
Layla
Maria
Mason Ryan
Melina
Michelle McCool
Mickie James
MVP
Santino
Shad
Ted Dibiase
The Great Khali
Tyler Reks
Umaga
Vladimir Kozlov
Wade Barrett
Yoshi Tatsu
That's a staggering number of individuals - a full roster worth, and that's not even all of them. Granted, a few of these have some additional circumstances, such as Bryan's untimely retirement and Umaga's unfortunate death, but, by and large, these are physically capable individuals who either left/were cut from WWE and currently work elsewhere, or left the business entirely.
What strikes me, in particular, is how unbelievably weak this class is. That's a long stretch of time (roughly 2005 - 2010/11) where WWE's talent acquisition efforts were almost entirely futile.
The few standouts appear to be Kofi Kingston, The Miz, and Natalya, who are still with the company and actively engaged in the product. The remainder (guys like Jack Swagger, Titus O'Neil, Darren Young, Zack Ryder, etc.) are frequently mentioned in people's "likely to be cut" lists each go around.
I like looking at things like this from time to time and seeing just how much the company's landscape has changed in a short span of time. If I'm not mistaken, the majority of these years saw Johnny Ace in charge of talent acquisition, and I know he's been long lauded for his ability (or lack thereof) to find stars.
We have what essentially amounts to a lost generation of talent. After the huge influx of new talent (the "Ruthless Aggression" class, if you will) at the conclusion of the Invasion/Attitude era, there was a large gap of time before the current crop of NXT-developed talent started pumping in to the main roster. I tend to look at The Shield as the first inductees of this new "class" (and, coincidentally, the most successful thus far, by a considerable margin.)
What's become of the generation prior? The talent that was brought in after the Ruthless Aggression era, but before NXT rose to prominence? With the recent releases of Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, and Damien Sandow, we're left with almost no one from that time period. We still have legacy attitude era stars, we still have Ruthless Aggression guys transitioning into veteran roles, and we have a huge crop of exciting, new talent from NXT and the independent scene, but the current roster has almost no representation from the pre-NXT (as it currently exists) developmental system.
Here's some guys (and gals), picked out from the alumni section, who didn't make it:
AJ Lee
Aksana
Alex Riley
Beth Phoenix
Brodus Clay
Boogeyman
Brad Maddox
Brian Kendrick
Camacho
Candice Michelle
Chris Masters
Christy Hemme
CM Punk
Curt Hawkins
Damien Sandow
Daniel Bryan
Drew McIntyre
Evan Bourne
Eve Torres
Ezekiel Jackson
Hornswoggle
Jinder Mahal
John Morrison
JTG
Justin Gabriel
Kaitlyn
Kelly Kelly
Layla
Maria
Mason Ryan
Melina
Michelle McCool
Mickie James
MVP
Santino
Shad
Ted Dibiase
The Great Khali
Tyler Reks
Umaga
Vladimir Kozlov
Wade Barrett
Yoshi Tatsu
That's a staggering number of individuals - a full roster worth, and that's not even all of them. Granted, a few of these have some additional circumstances, such as Bryan's untimely retirement and Umaga's unfortunate death, but, by and large, these are physically capable individuals who either left/were cut from WWE and currently work elsewhere, or left the business entirely.
What strikes me, in particular, is how unbelievably weak this class is. That's a long stretch of time (roughly 2005 - 2010/11) where WWE's talent acquisition efforts were almost entirely futile.
The few standouts appear to be Kofi Kingston, The Miz, and Natalya, who are still with the company and actively engaged in the product. The remainder (guys like Jack Swagger, Titus O'Neil, Darren Young, Zack Ryder, etc.) are frequently mentioned in people's "likely to be cut" lists each go around.
I like looking at things like this from time to time and seeing just how much the company's landscape has changed in a short span of time. If I'm not mistaken, the majority of these years saw Johnny Ace in charge of talent acquisition, and I know he's been long lauded for his ability (or lack thereof) to find stars.
IT" but in reality while some of the stories may have been hot garbage, there were some great feuds and matches that'll be forgotten gems because everyone seems to focus on the Attitude Era then skip to the NXT Era of 2012ish and on. It's sad to me.
