Paul Heyman has been involved in WWE tryouts held in Nashville during SummerSlam week.
WWE has been holding tryouts for prospective talent with Paul Heyman present to assess possible new recruits. Having been brought in by Triple H to help seek out budding future stars, the notorious manager and former boss of ECW was a recognizable addition to the scouting team.
Speaking to Bleacher Report Heyman commented on being involved in the SummerSlam try-outs, what he looked for and how he purposely asks potential prospects questions that they “better not have the answer to”.
“There’s a difference right now in that today’s recruits are those who see this as an option, not an obsession,” Heyman said. “These aren’t people living and dying and breathing and hoping and praying that all of their dreams since they were five-years-old can come true or come crashing down around them by the decision that’s made.
This guy might say, ‘Oh, if this doesn’t work out, I’ll go play Canadian football,’ or, ‘I’ll go play basketball in Europe, my thing is, I’m going to ask you a lot of questions you better not have the answer to because if you do, you’re in the wrong class, because this is for people that don’t have the prior knowledge.”
The try-outs lasted a few days and consisted of over 50 college athletes, while NBA star Dwight Howard also made a special appearance.
Heyman continued:
“There are plenty of people I saw today that are qualified,” Heyman said. “Are they going to main-event WrestleMania? There’s a few people I can see that happening with, but not everyone and I’m very excited about working with them in the future. But not all of them.”
“If you’re not going to main-event WrestleMania, are you a disruptor? Are you someone who’s going to change the industry? Are you someone who’s going to give us a vision that we don’t have? Someone who’s 20 better not look at this industry the same way I do.”
This was the first try-out since Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan were appointed as co-CEOs of the company and Triple H was announced as Head of Creative.
It has since been reported that WWE are set to scrap their current recruitment philosophy, after the recent try-outs were branded a “disaster.”