Is it me or are WWE debuting stars getting older?

[rich12341]

Right, until recently where we have seen the introduction of The Shield, Big E Langston, and next week Bray Wyatt it seems to me the debutantes of the WWE seem to be getting older.

Allow to to elaborate, back in the day when we had stars like Triple H, The Rock, The Big Show (when he joined the E), Chris Jericho (when he joined the E), Rob Van Dam, Randy Orton and Kurt Angle etc wrestlers seemed to debut when the were in their mid to late 20's. This often meant by the time they hit 30 or at the most their very early 30's they were well established stars of the company.

Now if you fast forward to today we have guys like Curtis Axel who re debuted at 33, Del Rio debuted at 33, the other 2 members of the family, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan who will debut at 33 and 31 respectively, Cesaro debuted at 31, Titus O'Neil debuted at 35, Sheamus 32, Ryback re debuted at 30.

Now it might just be me picking at straws but if the stars of WWE today could debut a few years prior to when the actually did debut would it give them a better chance of becoming bigger stars as they would have more time to get over with the fans and maybe get repackaged if it wasn't working?

That being said they have done a good job with The Shield and Bray Wyatt who are all in the mid to later twenties which makes me feel like they have more chance of success, however this seems to be a rarity.

Also this is my first thread so go easy I'm fragile.

 

[MCMG]

I certainty noticed this as well. I was thinking about the future of the company and it seems that the majority are in their 30's and a similar age to John Cena. It is, of course, difficult to judge how long people are going to wrestle for. Guys like Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Sting, Kane and Kurt Angle have aged very well; whereas, The Undertaker hasn't.

I thought guys like Sheamus (35), Ziggler and Bryan (both 32) would be vital for the WWE for decades to come but that depends on how long they have left. I suppose the safety of the superstars is now paramount which will certainly help. Realistically, we could see another 20 years of Bray Wyatt, Cody Rhodes or Dean Ambrose. It seems crazy but it is a definite possibility. That would suggest there is no rush to bring up talent. Just wait until they are ready and there is a suitable gimmick; supported by strong booking. That is paramount. Talent alone won't work without a good story-line or feud.

Moreover, I think these younger superstars are finding it difficult to break onto the main roster. It takes time to become a WWE quality superstar. The excellence in the ring and on the mic is clearly pushed and some superstars who are employed for so long never truly become the complete WWE superstar - John Morrison for one.

They have to be careful how they book these young guys as well. For example, David Hart Smith debuted in his early 20's and is now long gone. Just because you have talent doesn't mean you should be instantly brought up to the roster because for whatever reason it may be detrimental to your career. (He is just an example)

 

[rich12341]

Completely agree with you pal, obviously the talent has to be their and the storyline in place to bring up the fresh young talent or else they will fall flat on their face.

The problem I have is basically what you illustrated quite well, that the much of the 'future' of the company seem to be the same age, or their about, as the already established stars of Cena and Punk etc.

 

[#heel420]

Not really, it's always been a mixed bag.

Batista debuted when he was 33 back in 2002.

Scott Hall debuted when he was 34 back in 1992.

It's just a matter of when guys get their big break.

 

[Redemption-2012]

Every member of The Shield is under 30. I do see where you are coming from though, Sheamus, Del Rio, Axel but a guy like Batista was 33 when he made his debut in 2003. It's usually been a mix for the most part but recently they seem to have been going with the older talent, it could have something to do with experience and more time in the ring.

 

[dman1373]

are you nuts. austin, angle, jericho, hogan, hall, nash, and rvd were either withing months of being 30 or were well over when they debuted with the wwe, so that throughs your theory right out the window.

And the reason why your shawn michaels made it big time was not because of how early they came to the wwe but its because of how much talent they had. Thats why shawn was signed so young because of the talent he had and his partner had.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

It's important to recognise that the average age of a WWE star did go down over the course of the 2000's but even now we're nowhere near what it was like in the 80's and 90's where most talents who came onto the roster were mid-late 30's minimum and many were far older like Harley, Andre, Flair, Slaughter and Shiek.

The end of the Attitude era saw a lot of young talent break through in a short space of time, Matt & Jeff, Edge and Christian, and the class of 2002 from OVW that had Lesnar, Cena, Orton, Benjamin - indeed Batista was the oldest of them by quite a few years.

It was easier to pick talent up younger then, as the indy scene was vibrant, kids like Edge started in Border City as Sexton Hardcastle, you had Smokey Mountain, USWA/Memphis, All Pro, for a while Shawn's TCW and of course ECW who would all take chances on younger talents, knowing that they would eventually leave, but make their reputations for them... Chris Jericho was still relatively young when he made the WWF, but had been seasoned all over the world so his young years weren't even noticed by WCW or WWF.

In the 80's it was impossible to get into the biz unless you'd been introduced by a wrestler, who was putting their rep on you by doing so. So there was a lot of hazing and paying dues, even uber talented guys like Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig and Rick Martel had 2 stints in the WWF, one where they were literally kids, blue chippers or jobbers and their 2nd more prominent run when their "dues had been paid". 87-88 you got some late 20's guys coming in like Rick Rude, Bossman and Earthquake Ykozuna but they had seasonng elsewhere or unique selling points (Quake being a sumo for example)

Today that variety and seasoning isn't there because to get onto the WWE's main roster, even the acknowledged best indy wrestlers have to go through developmental and NXT. The indy's that are out there worry more about getting a "name" for their show than letting a kid become one, it's all economics. There is no "dues" that can be paid as there is no real proving ground bar time served in NXT and even then it's sink or swim. Guys like Chares Wright or Glen Jacobs wouldn't survive today's WWE developmental system as they had a few gimmicks before they found one that stuck. Today Unabomb would get Jacobs signed, Yankem bombing would get him sent back to NXT at best and Fake Diesel would have seen him fired... Kane would never have existed.

A lot of the names you have mentioned have spent a lot of time in developmental. Curtis Axel (scarily it's now 2nd nature to call him that) has been in developmental for 5 years, so he was only 30 when Nexus hit... Ryback is the classic case of a guy who has literally spent 6 or 7 years in developmental for the WWE so him being 33 or whatever now is not an issue, they knew what they were getting and have spent (or wasted) several years trying to get him to where he is.

Some guys like Wade Barrett will come to wrestling late, that in itself is no bad thing. Booker T. was a late bloomer, so was DDP.

Where it will become an issue though is the career length projection. WWE is steering away from older wrestlers after Lawler. Sting may be an exception but very soon a lot of big names will be approaching (or if you believe age doctoring) may have done already like Taker. Those guys will rapidly start to vanish and you'll be replacing them with guys not that much younger...

Also now guys have seen the Jericho/Taker/Brock schedule or guys like Rocky who got out early and with all his faculties, copuled with the fact they can make the money quicker in WWE than ever then you will get short careers. Much as I think Barrett is a great resource, his recent interview saying he wants to go till 40 was a major fuckup... Why push a guy you know wants out in 5 years over a guy who may give you 7-10 years on top? Someone like Randy Orton, while still having a lot of time on his contract could take that 3rd Wellness strike and the year off, knowing that he has been on top for 8 years and could come back and make it 10 without too much trouble. Someone like Bryan could after 5 years say "you know what? I've made millions here, I'm the most famous guy here now, but I wanna wrestle" and go off to Japan or set his own promotion up...

Someone like Roman Reigns or Dean Ambrose could hit the big time and get another offer from Hollywood or somewhere... guys who are older generally have families and make different decisions, they will work hard to get there and will decide for themselves when to leave. Look at Tyler Reks...sure he wasn't main event but he'd made enough money to keep his family comfortable and had a good enough fallback that he didn't NEED to wrestle again. In the 80's and 90's guys needed the road, needed the PPV royalties and needed to be on the show, asking to take time off like Ricky Steamboat did was almost a sin...today you get Ricardo saying of his suspension "It's 30 days I can give to charity and my family".

The answer of course is you need both, but the WWE has always led with this kind of decision, they invest the top push and spots in guys there for the long term unless your name is so big, like Rock, Hogan or Brock that a short term run works, or you can do a lot of business in a short time like Chris Jericho and no doubt Batista will when he inevitably returns to promote the Marvel movie.

The other factor to consider is that WWF is nearly exclusively hiring guys with college degrees now, JR constantly mentions it in his blog - so inherently the earliest WWE will look at a talent is 23-24 unless they are extremely talented or 2nd/3rd generation. Guys like Harry Smith had been wrestling professionally since 16, he even tagged with his father and he died a full 6 years before Harry made the WWE...he wasn't screwed by his age, just that he didn't have what they wanted at that time - he is a guy who will be back and now he goes by Davey Boy Jr. they have the gimmick all sorted for him - much like Axel being Perfect's kid.

 

[H33LTurn]

It might just be a security measure on WWE's part. WWE has had to send too much talent back to developmental for being green so older stars seem to be a worthwhile investment. 20 seems a bit young to thrust someone into the spotlight with all the responsibilities of a WWE superstar. At 30 they're bound to be more seasoned in the ring and are more prepared to carry the burden that comes with the business. I dont mind since the majority of today's superstars are in their mid 30's and can still entertain.

 

[The Gribbler]

I honestly think it comes down to the WWE taking less risks with its talent. In the 90's the superstars were given bulletpoint production notes and allowed to elaborate and construct their own promos. Now the WWE writers are writing scripts for actors to memorize.

This leads directly to superstars being unable to truly get themselves over, if the material is bad no one could make it work, at least not very well. This stops young charismatic from breaking out on their own. The older, more seasoned wrestlers who have had more time to perfect delivery, despite a lack of creativity get their chance.

The only concern is, they will always be the corporate produced, poorly written wrestling character. As opposed to something original.

Just My Opinion

 

[FlairFan2003]

Not really, it's always been a mixed bag.

Batista debuted when he was 33 back in 2002.

Scott Hall debuted when he was 34 back in 1992.

It's just a matter of when guys get their big break.

Scott Hall was hardly a new guy on the scene...He'd been wrestling for a decade and was prominently featured in the AWA (World Tag Team Champion with Curt Henning). His whole Razor Ramoan gimmick, while hopelessly cheesy and fake, was a rip off of the Diamond Stud he played for two years in WCW.