WWE SVP Confirms NXT Two-Year "Up Or Out" Development Cycle

Great changes have been made to WWE NXT and how the brand recruits and develops talent over the last year, with a heavy emphasis having been placed on bringing in college athletes as opposed to independent wrestlers. 

Gone are the days of talent languishing at the WWE Performance Center for several years too and WWE SVP James Kimball revealed talent are reviewed every six months and if they aren't ready for NXT TV after two years, they are let go. 

"It literally is six-month intervals, two-year mark, you're up or out. Obviously, there's constant evaluation down at the Performance Center in Orlando. Coaching staff, our staff, on-site, all the time constantly evaluating, but formal, deliberate evaluations occur in six-month periods. At that time, and again these all kind of flow in and around the same kind of entry points, we'll do a tryout and then we'll do a set of releases," Kimball said on WrestleRant.

"I would say that it was incorporated around the same time that this entire new strategy was put in place about a year ago. That all kind of dovetails with our NIL program, heavy emphasis on collegiate athletics, heavy emphasis on putting a real system in place that replenishes and drives itself to where we already know where we're going six months, 12 months from now already."

Shawn Michaels is currently in charge of the day-to-day running of NXT, while Triple H is WWE's Chief Content Officer. He is responsible for WWE creative and oversees talent relations. 

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