A new report has offered some insight into WWE’s latest set of tryouts over the course of five days in Orlando. According to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the idea was to focus on Black men and bodybuilders, due to criticism that Paul “Triple H” Levesque doesn’t push Black stars.
Meltzer reported that more wrestlers with independent experience were brought in to the tryout, as compared to WWE’s recent focus on college athletes for its Next in Line (NIL) program. WWE will reportedly be holding a significant amount of tryouts this year with indie talent, according to Meltzer, and the company has done an “about-face” with college athletes. William Regal and Gabe Sapolsky are reportedly the officials set to be scouring the indies, and Meltzer wrote they are looking for talent who can cut promos, as well as those with the “right kind of body.”
Among those who attended the tryout include Starboy Charlie, Leon Lokombo, LaBron Kozone, Manny Lo, Jack Pasquale, Blade Brown, Tyler Jordon, Jeremiah Lakheani, Jariel Rivera, Bruss Hamilton, Ben Finnesseth, Bhupinder Gujjar, James Karnik, and Manny House. Many, but not all, of the talent have professional bodybuilding experience.
On the women’s side of the tryout, Elli Finch, Alyssa Daniele, KJ Johnson, Casey Scharoff, Syaradeeba Khamarulzaman, and Regina Tarin participated. Athlete and popular social media influencer Sallie Grace revealed in a tearful Instagram post on Friday that she suffered a concussion, and in another post, she said she had to quit the tryout. Grace said she wasn’t the only talent concussed during the tryouout, though that has not been confirmed by WWE or any of the other talent in attendance.
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