Matthew Schroeder‘s (@mat_matician) help in collecting this data and guidance in analyzing it was essential to this project, which required scanning the entire cagematch.net database.
The data referenced here is up to date as of mid-October 2020.
What follows will not be an exhaustive analysis. The amount of data related to this project is vast. Many more articles could be written on this subject, referencing this data. At best, this is an introduction.
The purpose of this analysis is broad. But among our issues of interest was in learning about what the output of WWE’s developmental system has been, in recent years, and going back to as early as the year 2000.
I might at another time, but I will not try to make opinionated conclusions about the output or cost-effectiveness of WWE’s current or previous developmental systems here. I admit I have intuitions about the system (possibly biased by my personal experience as an independent wrestler) that were not much swayed either way by examining this data. If anything, my view has become more complicated. The phenomenon of NXT arguably morphing into something beyond a developmental system further complicates the issue. While we may measure match counts, match types, and time in interesting ways in attempt to shed light on this topic, nonetheless, qualities like “success” and “talent” remain elusive in their subjectivity with regard to pro wrestling, largely due to the predetermined nature of matches. Most importantly, opportunities for wrestlers and the results of their matches are ultimately left to the judgment of WWE’s key decision-makers, CEO Vince McMahon chief among them.
The Performance Center era
The information in this article will focus first on the period since the WWE Performance Center was opened in Orlando, Florida, in July 2013. The opening of the facility marked the moment World Wrestling Entertainment took its talent development in-house, after many years outsourcing developmental to various regional wrestling promotions (e.g., Ohio Valley Wrestling, Florida Championship Wrestling, etc.)
Of particular interest to us was the issue of sorting out which wrestlers, among those who have worked extensively on WWE’s main roster:
- a) had most of their previous match experience in companies not affiliated with WWE or its developmental system (referred to throughout as “non-universe”)
- b) had most or all of their previous match experience within WWE’s developmental system, or
- c) somewhere in between.
We should keep in mind when it comes to the “non-universe” match data, cagematch.net does not have a complete record of all matches that have occurred. Certainly many matches wrestlers have had with lesser known promotions are unaccounted for. However, we believe cagematch.net has the most completed record available for this type of research.
Since we are initially focused on the output of WWE developmental following the opening of the Performance Center in July 2013 (and since many wrestlers who were among the first to train at the Performance Center were participating in WWE-affiliated developmental with Florida Championship Wrestling in the time immediately previous to July 2013), January 1, 2014 seems as good a time as any to start the clock on the analysis.
You will notice throughout we are using a wrestler’s 10th WWE main roster (MR) match as an arbitrary qualifier for assuming a wrestler has worked extensively on the main roster. This is not a perfect qualifier, but we struggled to find one that would be as effective without getting convoluted. Dark matches were ruled out of this criterion.
As of the timing of the data collection (mid-October 2020), 128 wrestlers have had their 10th WWE main roster match after or on January 1, 2014.
The table for those 128 wrestlers, with various other data points in additional columns is below. They are sorted in chronological order, beginning with the wrestler who had their 10th MR main the earliest.
A few notes for reading the table:
- The numbers you see in parenthesis next to each wrestler’s name is simply a unique identification number associated with each wrestler in the cagematch.net database.
- The name listed for a given wrestler in some cases may not be the name the wrestler is best known by. In many cases, a name used early in the wrestler’s career may be shown. Rest assured, though, due to our reliance on unique ID numbers for wrestlers, matches for an individual wrestler who used many names are counted to the individual wrestler and their associated ID number.
- “A TV” refers to WWE main roster programs Raw and Smackdown
- “B TV” refers to WWE programs 205 Live, Main Event, and possibly others.
You may click on any of the table images to enlarge view
Note the column “Non-universe development” (on the far right, in orange) attempts to measure the percentage of non-WWE matches a wrestler had before that wrestler had their 10th main roster match.
So for example, someone like Finn Balor (listed in the table as “Prince Devitt” has very high percentage (96%). He wrestled many matches before coming to WWE and working in NXT. For an opposite example, Baron Corbin was signed by WWE and went into developmental without ever having had previous wrestling experience. His result in this column is 0%.
Again, this is where the incompleteness of the cagematch.net database may be misleading. The most controversial example may be that Becky Lynch (who I would venture to guess most people would not think of as “pure Performance Center” developmental talent) has a value of 38% in this category, likely due to the lack of a complete record on cagematch.net of her pre-WWE independent wrestling matches.
Of those 128 wrestlers, there are 20 wrestlers who came to WWE with no prior wrestling experience. Those wrestlers are filtered in the following table:
A more historical analysis: Ohio Valley Wrestling, Heartland Wrestling Association, Deep South Wrestling, Florida Championship Wrestling, NXT
Let’s take a longer view of WWE developmental history. We looked at what percentage of talent in a given year that had their 10th main roster match had the majority of their previous experience outside of WWE’s system (“non-universe”) or majority within the WWE system. Again, this data may be incomplete due to the incompleteness of non-WWE records in the cagematch.net database.
I understand readers may want to know which developmental system was the best, the most effective at putting out talent wrestling stars. It’s a difficult question to answer without gathering better data about how many wrestlers signed to developmental and main roster contracts throughout the relevant period of time. Otherwise the denominator to weigh the results against isn’t clear.
In this very long table, we instead look all the wrestlers who had at least 100 main roster matches since 2000 (217 wrestlers) and this is what the table looks like, sorted by highest MR match counts:
| Name | Total WWE main roster matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Randy Orton | 2091 | 4% | 2% | 16% | 0% | 0% | 2% |
| John Cena | 2000 | 17% | 4% | 65% | 0% | 0% | 2% |
| Kofi Kingston | 1908 | 23% | 0% | 8% | 21% | 38% | 10% |
| The Miz | 1801 | 18% | 0% | 42% | 26% | 4% | 11% |
| Dolph Ziggler | 1779 | 0% | 0% | 44% | 0% | 52% | 4% |
| Sheamus | 1574 | 52% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 47% | 2% |
| Cody Rhodes | 1410 | 0% | 0% | 87% | 0% | 1% | 12% |
| R-Truth | 1338 | 50% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 6% | 44% |
| Natalya | 1291 | 66% | 0% | 2% | 3% | 16% | 12% |
| Cesaro | 1288 | 93% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 4% |
| Jack Swagger | 1287 | 0% | 0% | 40% | 2% | 57% | 1% |
| Rey Mysterio | 1248 | 99% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Zack Ryder | 1238 | 17% | 0% | 26% | 20% | 1% | 37% |
| Shelton Benjamin | 1195 | 1% | 0% | 49% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Seth Rollins | 1134 | 79% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 16% | 5% |
| Jimmy Uso | 1124 | 6% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 58% | 36% |
| CM Punk | 1104 | 87% | 0% | 13% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Jey Uso | 1077 | 7% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 48% | 45% |
| Roman Reigns | 1054 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 80% | 20% |
| Primo | 1053 | 90% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 8% | 1% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Dean Ambrose | 1016 | 92% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 6% | 2% |
| Chavo Guerrero | 1012 | 99% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
| Curtis Axel | 1007 | 9% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 69% | 22% |
| Heath Slater | 995 | 5% | 0% | 0% | 13% | 69% | 13% |
| John Morrison | 988 | 8% | 0% | 86% | 0% | 2% | 5% |
| Big E | 968 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 74% | 26% |
| Chris Benoit | 962 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Daniel Bryan | 951 | 97% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 3% |
| Titus O’Neil | 928 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 56% | 44% |
| Batista | 899 | 13% | 3% | 42% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Drew McIntyre | 897 | 45% | 0% | 4% | 0% | 26% | 25% |
| Alicia Fox | 875 | 0% | 0% | 29% | 0% | 51% | 20% |
| Alberto Del Rio | 847 | 96% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 4% | 0% |
| Santino Marella | 808 | 7% | 0% | 87% | 0% | 4% | 2% |
| Rusev | 783 | 4% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 18% | 78% |
| Bray Wyatt | 779 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 79% | 21% |
| The Hurricane | 771 | 99% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Booker T | 765 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Fandango | 762 | 24% | 0% | 0% | 2% | 53% | 20% |
| Jinder Mahal | 740 | 67% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 25% | 8% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Sin Cara | 736 | 37% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 41% | 22% |
| Wade Barrett | 723 | 19% | 0% | 16% | 0% | 52% | 13% |
| Naomi | 713 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 86% | 14% |
| Ryback | 707 | 6% | 0% | 28% | 18% | 39% | 10% |
| Luke Harper | 704 | 87% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 12% |
| Charlotte Flair | 695 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Epico | 679 | 72% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 26% | 2% |
| Bo Dallas | 673 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 62% | 38% |
| Brian Kendrick | 669 | 84% | 12% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 4% |
| Carlito | 665 | 84% | 0% | 14% | 0% | 0% | 2% |
| Damien Sandow | 664 | 15% | 0% | 56% | 0% | 27% | 3% |
| Tyson Kidd | 660 | 61% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 21% | 17% |
| Eddie Guerrero | 657 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Kevin Steen | 653 | 95% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 5% |
| Luke Gallows | 652 | 31% | 0% | 17% | 45% | 5% | 3% |
| Erick Rowan | 646 | 57% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 12% | 31% |
| MVP | 642 | 71% | 0% | 1% | 23% | 1% | 4% |
| Mickie James | 640 | 67% | 0% | 30% | 0% | 1% | 2% |
| Becky Lynch | 634 | 37% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 63% |
| Baron Corbin | 631 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| The Great Khali | 630 | 87% | 0% | 0% | 8% | 0% | 5% |
| Sasha Banks | 619 | 22% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 78% |
| Charlie Haas | 619 | 52% | 34% | 14% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| AJ Styles | 610 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Victoria | 601 | 28% | 16% | 48% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Beth Phoenix | 592 | 44% | 0% | 54% | 0% | 2% | 0% |
| Curt Hawkins | 587 | 15% | 0% | 23% | 19% | 29% | 14% |
| Ted DiBiase | 584 | 57% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 31% | 11% |
| Jamie Noble | 582 | 60% | 35% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 0% |
| Braun Strowman | 575 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Nikki Bella | 562 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 85% | 15% |
| Fit Finlay | 548 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Chris Masters | 548 | 20% | 0% | 66% | 0% | 0% | 14% |
| Darren Young | 546 | 76% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 9% | 15% |
| Layla | 541 | 13% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 38% | 50% |
| Brie Bella | 537 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 88% | 13% |
| Chuck Palumbo | 533 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Tamina | 524 | 13% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 40% | 47% |
| Kalisto | 523 | 68% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 32% |
| Trish Stratus | 522 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Lance Cade | 514 | 19% | 56% | 24% | 0% | 1% | 0% |
| Spike Dudley | 512 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Bayley | 508 | 16% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 84% |
| Viktor | 501 | 64% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 8% | 27% |
| El Generico | 497 | 83% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 17% |
| Bobby Lashley | 490 | 0% | 0% | 97% | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| Konnor | 488 | 4% | 0% | 0% | 19% | 15% | 61% |
| Tyler Breeze | 487 | 18% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 11% | 72% |
| Karl Anderson | 482 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Xavier Woods | 480 | 63% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 22% | 16% |
| Justin Gabriel | 473 | 27% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 48% | 25% |
| Paul London | 471 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Apollo Crews | 440 | 76% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 24% |
| Matt Sydal | 432 | 93% | 0% | 5% | 0% | 2% | 0% |
| PAC | 430 | 82% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 18% |
| JTG | 424 | 0% | 0% | 49% | 0% | 0% | 51% |
| Umaga | 418 | 65% | 35% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Alexa Bliss | 416 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Shinsuke Nakamura | 408 | 92% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 8% |
| Chad Gable | 407 | 12% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 88% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Lance Storm | 404 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Snitsky | 403 | 88% | 0% | 12% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Prince Devitt | 403 | 79% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 21% |
| Kelly Kelly | 401 | 0% | 0% | 40% | 0% | 10% | 50% |
| Carmella | 398 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Melina | 391 | 53% | 0% | 33% | 0% | 13% | 0% |
| Vladimir Kozlov | 386 | 0% | 0% | 75% | 15% | 2% | 8% |
| Eve Torres | 383 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| Mojo Rawley | 379 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Brodus Clay | 375 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 10% | 72% | 19% |
| Brock Lesnar | 361 | 0% | 0% | 10% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Jimmy Wang Yang | 360 | 91% | 9% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Michelle McCool | 348 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 67% | 0% | 33% |
| Trevor Murdoch | 343 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Rene Dupree | 340 | 50% | 5% | 42% | 1% | 1% | 0% |
| Kana | 340 | 81% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 19% |
| Sylvain Grenier | 335 | 50% | 0% | 50% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Alex Riley | 329 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 70% | 30% |
| Lita | 324 | 82% | 9% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Paige | 319 | 70% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 6% | 24% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Ezekiel Jackson | 316 | 4% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 92% | 4% |
| Samoa Joe | 315 | 87% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 13% |
| Aiden English | 313 | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 4% | 94% |
| Nia Jax | 312 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Dash Wilder | 312 | 43% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 57% |
| Maven | 311 | 0% | 88% | 13% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Davey Boy Smith Jr. | 310 | 72% | 0% | 4% | 0% | 24% | 0% |
| Rosey | 309 | 71% | 28% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Maryse | 308 | 0% | 0% | 68% | 0% | 21% | 11% |
| Bobby Roode | 307 | 44% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 55% |
| Shannon Moore | 306 | 75% | 25% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Orlando Jordan | 302 | 50% | 0% | 50% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| AJ Lee | 302 | 18% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 65% | 17% |
| Mr. Anderson | 301 | 90% | 0% | 9% | 0% | 1% | 0% |
| Scott Dawson | 294 | 16% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 84% |
| Dana Brooke | 291 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Gail Kim | 289 | 93% | 0% | 6% | 0% | 2% | 0% |
| Marco Corleone | 281 | 71% | 5% | 19% | 5% | 0% | 0% |
| Shad | 278 | 2% | 0% | 77% | 0% | 21% | 0% |
| Rico | 274 | 47% | 3% | 7% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Torrie Wilson | 273 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Elias | 272 | 32% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 68% |
| Adam Rose | 272 | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 41% | 58% |
| David Otunga | 265 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 65% | 35% |
| Yoshitatsu | 261 | 79% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 12% | 9% |
| Cedric Alexander | 251 | 95% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 5% |
| Damaja | 241 | 58% | 0% | 18% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| La Sombra | 240 | 86% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 14% |
| Jason Jordan | 237 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 9% | 91% |
| Colin Cassady | 236 | 3% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 6% | 92% |
| Enzo Amore | 234 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Mike Knox | 230 | 54% | 0% | 0% | 45% | 2% | 0% |
| Kaitlyn | 227 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 56% | 44% |
| Kenny | 225 | 52% | 0% | 47% | 0% | 1% | 0% |
| Joey Matthews | 225 | 88% | 0% | 12% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Emma | 223 | 27% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 72% |
| Johnny Stamboli | 218 | 60% | 40% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Jillian Hall | 217 | 45% | 0% | 55% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Prince Mustafa Ali | 215 | 96% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 4% |
| Mistico | 209 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Tyson Tomko | 197 | 7% | 4% | 89% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Mandy Rose | 197 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Summer Rae | 196 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 4% | 96% |
| Maria | 196 | 0% | 0% | 67% | 0% | 33% | 0% |
| Liv Morgan | 194 | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 99% |
| Tony Nese | 189 | 92% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 8% |
| Cameron | 188 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 24% | 76% |
| Paul Burchill | 187 | 54% | 0% | 46% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Heidenreich | 186 | 48% | 0% | 46% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Sarah Logan | 185 | 83% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 17% |
| Rosa Mendes | 184 | 4% | 0% | 31% | 0% | 65% | 0% |
| Akira Tozawa | 179 | 99% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
| Sonya Deville | 178 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Lince Dorado | 176 | 97% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% |
| Lana | 176 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Mascara Dorada | 175 | 99% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
| Heidi Lovelace | 175 | 80% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 20% |
| Aksana | 174 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 76% | 24% |
| Kevin Thorn | 172 | 29% | 1% | 63% | 0% | 6% | 0% |
| Dean Malenko | 171 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Jazz | 168 | 96% | 0% | 4% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Ricochet | 166 | 91% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 9% |
| Candice Michelle | 165 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Robbie McAllister | 161 | 51% | 0% | 49% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Drew Gulak | 161 | 97% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% |
| Rodney Mack | 160 | 66% | 1% | 33% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Matt Striker | 160 | 93% | 0% | 0% | 5% | 0% | 2% |
| Tye Dillinger | 158 | 33% | 0% | 19% | 0% | 5% | 43% |
| Tyler Reks | 151 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 86% | 14% |
| Rory McAllister | 149 | 54% | 0% | 46% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Mason Ryan | 145 | 48% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 23% | 29% |
| Ember Moon | 145 | 56% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 44% |
| Sean O’Haire | 144 | 76% | 2% | 23% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Nikki Storm | 142 | 64% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 36% |
| Buddy Murphy | 142 | 24% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 76% |
| Luther Reigns | 141 | 68% | 5% | 26% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Elijah Burke | 140 | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Peyton Royce | 138 | 24% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 76% |
| Lacey Evans | 137 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Billie Kay | 137 | 44% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 56% |
| Name | Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
| Dawn Marie | 135 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Ariya Daivari | 135 | 97% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% |
| Swoggle | 132 | 84% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 16% |
| No Way Jose | 127 | 20% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 80% |
| Beretta | 126 | 24% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 63% | 13% |
| Jack Gallagher | 125 | 91% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 9% |
| Jesse | 124 | 50% | 0% | 13% | 38% | 0% | 0% |
| TJ Perkins | 122 | 98% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 2% |
| Simon Gotch | 122 | 50% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 50% |
| Deuce | 122 | 34% | 0% | 62% | 1% | 1% | 0% |
| Tommy End | 120 | 75% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 25% |
| Hanson | 117 | 88% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 12% |
| Chris Nowinski | 117 | 35% | 42% | 23% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Nidia | 114 | 0% | 17% | 83% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Mike Bennett | 114 | 99% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
| Raymond Rowe | 113 | 87% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 13% |
| Domino | 109 | 13% | 0% | 80% | 2% | 5% | 0% |
| Grand Total | 106,734 | 97.93 | 4.82 | 27.37 | 4.13 | 28.64 | 48.56 |
| Total MR matches | non-WWE | HWA | OVW | DSW | FCW | NXT |
100 matches is obviously an arbitrary minimum. It’s not clear whether it’s important to set a lower minimum. For transparency, frequency distribution for total MR matches among the larger all-time dataset of 4,415 wrestlers breaks down something like this:
Among the 217 wrestlers with 100 MR matches, in recent years there seems to be a trending increase in the prevalence of wrestlers who have had the majority of their prior experience from non-universe matches.
The below column graph tries to address the question: Of the wrestlers who were promoted to WWE’s main roster (using date of 10th MR match as a proxy), what made up the majority of their experience prior to that 10th MR match: WWE developmental or non-universe experience?
And a second similar question: Of the wrestlers who were promoted to WWE’s main roster (~10th MR match), on average what percentage of those wrestlers’ experience up to that point was non-universe experience?
It seems possible talent development leadership played a role in these results. These charts may be reflective of the timing of transitions in leadership from Jim Ross (late 1990s until 2005) to John Laurinaitis (2001 to 2012) to Paul Levesque (2011 to present), and is consistent with an intuition (of mine at least) that Laurinaitis oversaw a period of WWE developmental that was less interested in non-WWE (“non-universe”) experience, maybe even saw it as a negative. I believe Paul Levesque had a similar mentality when he took over talent relations, but for whatever reason evolved after 2014.
WWE EVP Paul Levesque (Triple H) made comments in separate NXT media conference calls that suggest he had a change in philosophy on talent development between 2014 and 2015.
Levesque in February 2014 made it sound like he preferred talent come to WWE with less wrestling experience:
The indie scene becomes less and less of a factor all the time. It just does… We’re having to create the talent. They’re not out there ready to just get picked… Sometimes it’s really hard to get people out of — they’ve been doing a playbook for eight years, to get them to come over to ours. It’s a tough transition. Sometimes [it’s] easier to almost teach guys from day-one, to just do [our] playbook.
Twelve months later, on another media call in May 2015, his view changed:
It’s funny, sometimes people will say — there’s this big comparison of like, ‘Oh, this guy’s an indie guy; this guy didn’t have experience.’ I don’t care where people come from or — yeah, indie guys are great because they have experience, whether I agree with their style or anybody does, it’s irrelevant. They have experience in front of crowds. And that is something you can’t teach.
Among the group of 217 wrestlers with >=100 MR matches, there’s no strong relationship between non-WWE experience and either MR match count.
But can we say there’s a statistical relationship between non-WWE experience and going on to have a disproportionately high number of matches on the WWE main roster? No. Maybe there are other analyses that might get the heart of whether having non-WWE experience gives one an advantage, but the relationship between those two metrics (a] percentage of non-WWE experience before 10th main roster match and b] total main roster matches) in particular is basically random (as indicated by the very low R-squared result).
But is there a relationship between developmental background and whether a wrestler is used more on A-shows or on B-shows? (Looking at TV programs only, i.e., excluding house shows.) In other words, are wrestlers with experience being signed and disproportionately cast in less important “B” TV programs (like 205 Live, Main Event, Velocity, Heat, Metal, Jakked, etc.)?
Again, no, there’s no sign of a relationship here. The R-squared is nearly 0.
But maybe it’s a trend that’s only emerged more in recent years?
There are some interesting trends, suggesting wrestlers with majority WWE developmental experience (as opposed to non-universe) tend to have the majority of their TV matches on A shows.
Despite Levesque’s aforementioned turn to accept wrestlers with non-WWE experience, does WWE nonetheless still prefer to put those who are more purely WWE projects into more prominent roles, i.e., Raw and Smackdown (“A” TV matches)?
It’s not present in every year, but especially since 2013, there does actually appear to be a distinct difference in the destinies of wrestlers with non-universe experience versus those without.
The analysis here likely only scratches the surface. I’m interested to hear any feedback or questions that might lead to better insights.
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He’s also worked as an independent wrestler and trainer. For more, see our About page.
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