Simple wisdom spilled out of Stone Cold Steve Austin when he expressed his opinions about WWE plucking stars from TNA.
The Hall of Famer laid out the reasons WWE should look to bring over talent from its rival, and it’s hard to argue with him. And not just because he’s an incredibly intimidating man.
He’s absolutely right that TNA’s talent pool can offer solutions toWWE’s issues with roster depth and be a boon for the company.
WWE has shied away from signing TNA wrestlers. When AJ Styles’ TNAcontract expired, Vince McMahon and company didn’t come calling. Instead, The Phenomenal One headed to Japan.
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Jim Ross believes that WWE’s philosophy leans more toward developing its own stars rather than signing ones who established themselves elsewhere. Ross writes on his blog, “I get the feeling WWEwants to create new stars and those new stars are going to come from the WWE Performance Center exclusively.”
While NXT is certainly home to number of promising stars and should be how WWE gets the majority of its talent, TNA already has a number of proven commodities that would be huge assets.
Austin agrees. When asked on his podcast last week if WWE should sign TNA stars, The Texas Rattlesnake said, “I think they should. There’s some good talent. There’s a couple of cats over there that I see potential all over.”
He went on to single out James Storm, Bobby Roode, Styles and Samoa Joe as wrestlers who could best thrive in a WWE setting.
The idea of that foursome crossing over to WWE is enough to get a fan’s head spinning with joy. Adding any of those men elevates the roster right away.
WWE may prefer homegrown stars, but its goal should be to amass the world’s best collection of wrestling talent. Why shouldn’t that include enticing a few TNA alumni to come to WWE? Storm, Roode, Styles and Joe would enter with a wealth of experience and ready-made fanbases.
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As Austin points out, it won’t be hard to get these guys over. A lot of fans are already rooting for them. That’s not true for a guy like Baron Corbin, as WWE is building his following from scratch.
Snatching up other promotions’ wrestlers has partly what made WWEso successful. Imagine what the company’s timeline would look like had it not grabbed Hulk Hogan away from the AWA, Chris Jericho fromWCW or Austin himself from ECW and WCW.
As Austin points out, Storm won’t be the future of the company seeing that he’s 37 years old, but there’s money to be made with him.
On Storm, Austin said, “I think the guy can work. I think he’s got a pretty damn good look. Is he a spring chicken? No. But can you get a couple of years out of him? Hell yeah you could.”
He has high opinions of Styles and Joe as well. He said of Styles as a high-flyer, “I don’t think there’s anyone who can top him.” As for The Samoan Submission Machine, Austin said, “He told a lot of great stories with some badass cats and had some badass matches that I’ve seen.”
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Austin isn’t the only one to hand out praise like this. Fans know that those men are great at what they do. They may not challenge JohnCena for the WWE’s throne, but the bookers’ options would grow far more plentiful if they had any of them to plug in.
The potential matches are the kind that could make subscribing to theWWE Network a lot more appealing: Storm vs. Randy Orton, Styles vs. Cesaro, Roode vs. Cena, Joe vs. Bray Wyatt.
With TNA struggling so much financially, it’s not as if McMahon is going to have to haul wheelbarrows of cash to convince any of these guys to come work for WWE. With the uncertainty surrounding TNA’s future,WWE’s sales pitch writes itself.
WWE can’t be content with the current state of the roster. Beyond Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns and Bad News Barrett being out with injury, two former world champs in CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio aren’t around anymore.
These are some gaps that Storm and company could fill. Imagine how much better WWE instantly becomes if it traded out Zack Ryder for Storm, R-Truth for Roode, Justin Gabriel for Styles and Darren Young for Joe.
Wrestling is a business built on stars, and TNA has a number of them on its payroll. When the contracts of Storm, Roode and Joe expire,WWE should be right there, with a check in hand.
