Is AEW or WWE Developing Young Talent Better?

[LiamMcDuggle]

WWE has historically always been the best at developing new talent, but man AEW is developing some amazing talent right now. Brit, Max Caster, MJF, Starks, Hook, Jungle Boy and many others.

What does WWE have right now to compare? Theory and Bron Breakker? I can't really put those two in the same class as any of AEW's young guys.

It just seems WWE develops guys to be better in their system, while AEW is developing guys to just be better professional wrestlers in general.

Anytime I see AEW's young talent, I am always excited to watch. I really can't say the same when I see Theory on my TV. Sure, he's really good and has a huge upside, but he's not really must watch in the way Max, Starks, or MJF are.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

I think WWE's been building up some really good athletes from the ground up, time will tell if they can take the main roster step, but they're doing well in developing talent

AEW doesn't have a PC, but they have The Factory, Dustin's Training School, and others like a feeder system, train the people they want, and give other ones a look as well, and it is producing really nice results for them

I don't wanna say they're better than WWE right now, but I don't see either method currently failing, which is also a good thing.

[Mozenrath]

Dec 29, 2022 0:58:04 GMT -5 booty2shoes said:

Dec 29, 2022 0:32:02 GMT -5 LiamMcDuggle said:

WWE has historically always been the best at developing new talent, but man AEW is developing some amazing talent right now. Brit, Max Caster, MJF, Starks, Hook, Jungle Boy and many others.

What does WWE have right now to compare? Theory and Bron Breakker? I can't really put those two in the same class as any of AEW's young guys.

The difference is, AEW doesn't really "develop" talent. They sign wrestlers who are already talented elsewhere, and give them the ball to run with. WWE has a different mindset, and oftentimes signs people who aren't even wrestlers yet, and then teaches them from scratch. It's two different things. AEW is good at utilizing the talent and putting them in the right spots, but they aren't training/developing talent in the same way as WWE. AEW has no PC. AEW doesn't do house show loops for green guys to learn to work, either. It's just whatever there's room for on TV/YouTube (which is, more often than not, very short matches where young talent isn't really learning much in the process).

They do not have a PC, but Dustin Rhodes, QT Marshall, and Thunder Rosa each have wrestling schools and bring in a number of their students. I think that it's worth noting that the need for a performance center is lessened when you have people doing indie bookings, anyway, versus WWE where that's the sole place they are wrestling outside of few exceptions.

To answer the question: It's sort of hard to say between WWE and AEW who is shaping talent better. I'm inclined to lean AEW, but the fruits of all of this won't be fully seen for a while, and you do get people who burn bright early who end up not being big names in the long run, along with people who are slow to build up who then end up being a hit, so, tough to say.

[kingoftheindies]

It's apples and oranges for a few reasons.

1)As others have said, WWE has the PC and AEW has unofficial schools in the RWA, Nightmare Factory, Rosa's school, and even Gangrel's and Lethal's schools

2)AEW allows outside bookings so even without an official developmental territory, or the All Elite graphics, wrestlers with AEW still get talent out there getting reps.

3)Just different booking philosophies. AEW follows a very New Japan style where you have young talent look really good in defeat so fans know these people will be players in the future, and it makes the journey to wins mean more. Where as WWE doesn't really do well anymore booking people to get over in defeat and it's more wait till we have something for ya.

If the question is whose better now at getting young wrestlers over? I'd say AEW currently. If the question is whose better at training wrestlers from the ground up? Currently WWE as Bron Breakker, Tony DiAngelo, and the Creeds are top notch prospects where as nobody whose come up through the AEW affiliated schools have established themselves as prospects at those levels yet.

[This Player Hating Mothman]

Beyond the differing structures of how they build their futures, this is the kind of question you can't really answer in the short term. AEW's biggest guys on the rise right now aren't homegrown talents, but journeymen like Hobbs who finally connected the pieces in a big way to reach the next level, or ready-made stars like Ricky Starks and Swerve who were ready to go and just needed someone to take the chance on them. Jade Cargill is about the only home-grown big deal they have right now, and she's come along well, but she's still learning and is her own can of worms. But you also can't judge off of one talent alone.

This is the sort of thing where we'll really only know when we look back some years later at where the current crop is then and how they've grown. Where someone like Roman Reigns was fresh out of developmental and where Roman Reigns is right now are two very different beasts. Becky Lynch and Bayley have stood out as so much more than they were when they were in NXT in terms of developing their acts and raising their profiles from the roles they both seemed locked in to for life. Success in this metric is one born of hindsight.

[Bo Rida]

Aew by default as they give a relatively large selection of younger wrestlers a platform to show what they can do and be treated as the stars of today. Most of those that have been around a while could retire tomorrow and have a fair few highlights to look back on.

There's many stuck in the wwe system for years doing nothing of note. Sometimes they technically reach a high level on paper but are still treated as future stars. Some get to the main roster too early and stop developing. A much higher percentage of early career pushes are due to nepotism.

WWE may be better at training but the chances to develop are better in aew.

[1 Free Moon-Down with Burger]

Who knows at the moment,

But goddamn Carmelo Hayes and Bron Breakker are great starts

[XIII]

I feel like the WWE has a better system with PC/NXT where the greenhorns get the chance to learn from some of the greats in a more regimented way. The one flaw in there could be that sometimes some of the wrestlers get hotshotted to the main roster for some OTJ training and it doesn't always work.

AEW is not doing too bad though because there are a ton of vets that are likely helping out their greenhorns as well.

I think that they're both viable with WWE getting a slight edge by having a dedicated developmental with weekly TV.