The WWE Performance Center is jam-packed with prospective Superstars, and more are being added all the time via WWE’s tryouts, which take place all over the world. They’ve signed prospects via tryouts in China, India, and Europe, to say nothing of their regular en masse invites to the Performance Center itself. They’re adding so many people all the time that from time to time, WWE has to release some people in part just to make room.
One of the scouts and evaluators that attends many of these tryouts is NXT’s own William Regal. In a recent interview with ESPN, Regal explained what WWE tries to look for during the tryouts, and which attributes are most important when evaluating the talent.
“I’ve been doing this long enough that once I spend a day with somebody, I can say, ‘Well, this person will be good at this as long as, obviously, no injuries and everything goes right, but it may take two years. This person could be getting good at this after six months,'” said William Regal, head scout, WWE talent development. “But if you were to ask me to actually describe what that is, it’s more of an eye for looking at things or looking at people than actually being able to write down the formula of it.
“There’s no easy answer,” Regal continued. “But you want the physical attributes to be able to do it. Over a few days you learn a lot about people and whether they’ve got the kind of temperament that you need to do what we do in this day and age. You find a lot out about people when they’re blowing up, as we say, gasping for air, and if they can still hold conversations and be polite. Also, they’ve got to have some kind of charisma, because you can have 10 gold medals hanging ’round your neck, [but] if you’ve got no charisma at all, you’re just absolutely worthless to what we do.”
Long story short, it’s a combination of athleticism, mindset, and charisma. It’s largely true that charisma is something that just can’t be taught (ENZO AMORE WAS RIGHT), no matter how dedicated or skilled you may be athletically. And ultimately, charisma is the key component on whether a wrestler will be able to connect with an audience. Take note, prospective WWE Superstars.
