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Wrestle Mania: Grappling with the future of the WWE in Florida
WWE rookies don’t make a lucrative living, at least at first. The WWE says pay begins at $45,000 a year, although established performers brought in from independent circuits can command larger salaries. It’s a full-time job. Trainees begin each day at 9 a.m. with two or three hours of in-ring lessons. That’s followed by a couple of hours of open gym — which most spend in the ring — and then a few hours of weights and conditioning. They take promo classes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and then spend the weekends traveling to small practice shows around Florida; the company informally refers to them as “coconut shows.”
The best performers at the center also get to star in WWE’s NXT division, which has bloomed rapidly into an established promotion in its own right. In addition to taping the weekly television show at Full Sail University, the NXT performers also tour the world.
As NXT has grown, WWE has continued to expand its Orlando footprint. The company’s spending on talent-related expenses, which includes the performance center, has jumped 41% over the past three years, from $17.8 million to $25.1 million. And it now leases nearly 50,000 square feet of space in Orlando, nearly double the square footage it had when it first opened the performance center. The extra space has been used primarily for more production facilities.
The number of performers that the WWE has under contract — from established superstars on multi-year guaranteed deals to the superstars-in-training — has climbed from 135 to 200 over the past three years, a 48% increase.
“It’s a great training ground for them. It brings in a lot of talent and allows them to program more hours,” says Laura Martin, an equities research analyst who covers media and entertainment for Needham & Co. “It’s a big expense, but I think it makes your product better.”
The dynamic inside the center has evolved as WWE has begun to prioritize diversity in its recruiting. The lobby of the building at times more resembles the terminal at an international airport than a wrestling training ground.
On a recent visit, a training center employee could be found helping Alruwayeh, the Kuwaiti recruit, arrange an overseas trip. “Every time you come back, bring your passport to me,” she told him. “Let me know the day you’re back so I can start your English classes back up.”
He was soon followed by a Chinese recruit named Yifeng Han, who had been summoned to the lobby after getting a ticket for driving with an expired license. “His driver’s license is expired. If he gets pulled over, he could go to jail,” the employee told his translator. “He needs to go (to the DMV) with his passport, he needs to go with his I-94, he needs to go with his current driver’s license and he needs to go with two documents that show his current address.”
“Cultural awareness is very important,” says Bloom, the head coach. Bloom, 45, is a 6-foot-7 former offensive lineman with a shaved head, close-shorn beard and three silver studs below his lower lip who once wrestled as Prince Albert and A-Train. “It’s a melting pot right now.”
Sara Amato, who spent years wrestling on independent circuits as Sara Del Rey, joined the WWE in September 2012 as its first woman coach. The company had only eight female recruits at the time; today it has 25. Amato, who has been promoted to second-in-command at the training center, has since been joined by two more female trainers. “Women want to see women empowered,” Amato says.
Expect the flow of new talent into Orlando to continue. Levesque, the WWE executive in charge of talent, live events and creative, says the company could eventually expand the central Florida facility and add performance centers elsewhere around the world.
“The long-term goal,” Levesque says, “is to continue to grow this.”
