Vince McMahon Rejected Scotty 2 Hotty's Pitch For WWE To Hold A Tryout For Theatre Performers

As part of WWE's current recruitment strategy, the company has moved away from bringing in independent wrestlers, with the emphasis having been placed on signing athletes with no professional wrestling experience instead. That doctrine is only set to become more embedded within the company, according to reports, as WWE look to mould the next generation of Superstars how they see fit.

While he didn't suggest WWE bring in more wrestlers, Scotty 2 Hotty revealed to Fightful that he pitched for WWE to actually hold a tryout for theatre performers since they already look like athletes and know how to react to an audience. Vince McMahon ultimately rejected the idea, though. 

"So, he came to the Performance Center one time the whole time I was there. Maybe six months ago. I was always the guy in the talent meetings, or any meeting in life, I would sit in the back row not wanting to be seen. He came there, he gave a speech and I was like, 'You know what? I'm gonna sit in the front row and I'm gonna be the first one to ask a question because I feel like I have a legitimate question.' [Because we're] always going out doing these tryouts for all these athletes - NFL, Major League Baseball, everything but bowlers and golfers, pretty much, they're hiring," Scotty said. 

"So I said to him, and I had this idea for a while where Broadway is shut down. All these live shows around the world shut down, right? All these performers are out of work, so I said to Vince - I asked the second question - I said, 'We're always doing these tryouts for the athletes. Is there any thoughts to doing a tryout specifically designed for these live theatre performers?' Because I can remember going to see Lion King on Broadway and there were all these dudes swinging around up on the stage, they're shredded. They look like athletes, they were probably athletes at some point in their life, got hurt and then fell into theatre or maybe they just looked like an athlete," he continued.

"That's what we do; we're performers who react off crowds. So you would take these people who look like athletes, but they understand the importance of the theatrical part. Because sometimes that's a hard thing to teach, say, a football player who's been taught, 'Hey, just win, win, win, win, win, get that ball in that end zone. You don't worry about the crowd.' Whereas somebody who's done a show every day, two shows on the weekends, they might understand.

"So I said, 'Is there any thought to doing an open tryout for these people?' His answer was, 'We are not actors. We react.' I was like, 'Okay. I guess that's dead in the water,' even though we have acting class and promo class and bringing in acting coaches...we're not actors."

Scotty 2 Hotty has since departed WWE and returned to the independent wrestling scene. He has so far performed for GCW, Big Time Wrestling, and OVW.