WWE reveals list of new recruits to the WWE Performance Center

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Originally published at WWE reveals list of new recruits to the WWE Performance Center

WWE has released the names of its latest recruitment class at the WWE PC, which they are calling the “largest recruit class in history”.

The following names have reported to the WWE Performance Center and including ten female recruits:

Bronson Rechsteiner – the son of Rick Steiner and played football at Kennesaw State University as a running back and fullback. He began pro wrestling last October.

Kira Magnin-Forster – Better known as Taya Valkyrie, who was initially trained at the Storm Wrestling Academy by Lance Evers and has been a pro for eleven years. She has worked extensively for AAA, Lucha Underground, and just wrapped up with IMPACT Wrestling where she held the Knockouts title for a year.

Shaun Ricker – The former Eli Drake, who is now going as “LA Knight” and debuted on the pre-show of the recent TakeOver: Vengeance Day card. It is Ricker’s second stint in WWE developmental and comes after having success with Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, IMPACT Wrestling, and the NWA where he has become one of the better talkers in the industry.

Angela Arnold – She wrestled as AQA and was trained by Booker T. Arnold has worked for SHIMMER, RISE, and held the Diamonds Division Championship twice for Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling group in Texas.

Parker Boudreaux – His signing was reported several weeks back and confirmed by Paul Levesque on the recent NXT media call. He was an offensive lineman at the University of Central Florida.

Anthony Henry – Henry has been wrestling for nine years and became a regular for EVOLVE in 2016. He won the EVOLVE tag titles with JD Drake in July 2017.

Chance Barrow – The former Harlem Bravado and as part of The Bravado Brothers with Lanc,e they worked for ROH from 2008-12. The duo would find work in Japan for Pro Wrestling NOAH and would bounce around with several groups in the U.S. including Dragon Gate USA and FIP.

Theresa Serrano – She previously wrestled as Lacey Ryan and was introduced several weeks ago as Zoey Stark. She appeared on last week’s episode of NXT defeating Valentina Feroz.

Christian Brigham – The former Christian Casanova, who held titles with Chaotic Wrestling out of Massachusetts, Limitless Wrestling, and Beyond Wrestling.

Priscilla Kelly – She now wrestles as Gigi Dolin and previously appeared in the Mae Young Classic in 2018 and teamed with Cora Jade in the recent Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.

Drew Kasper – He is the brother of Jacob Kasper, who was signed last year to the WWE. Drew is a two-time All-American heavyweight wrestler in Division III wrestling for Otterbein University. He was a started and lettered at the school where he also served as the team captain.

Brianna Coda – Coda wrestled as Elayna Blacker on the independents. She was announced along with the signings of Lacey Ryan and Priscilla Kelly previously. Coda is now wrestling as Cora Jade and teamed with Kelly in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.

Christian Hubble – Previously known as Blake Christian, who had a breakout run on the independents over the past two years mainly working for Game Changer Wrestling. Hubble is only 23 years old and made his debut in 2017

Matrick Belton – He played football at the University of South Carolina and did training at the CZW Academy before his WWE tryout.

Camron Clay – She wrestled as Camron Bra’Nae for the likes of RISE, WWN Live, and EVOLVE. She once wrestled Lacey Evans in an enhancement match on Friday Night SmackDown in October 2019.

Joe Ariola – Ariola, 25, wrestled at the University of Buffalo.

Taylor Grado – The former Avery Taylor, who was trained by Jay Lethal and Matt Sydal and been wrestling for four years.

Karissa Rivera – She made her debut on the independents in 2018 and is from New Jersey where she trained under Damian Adams. She has done several appearances on WWE television in the past.

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So he let the guy named “Ariola” keep his own name but nobody else? Interesting.

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Taya should be put on the Raw roster straight away. There’s nothing good going on in the Raw Women’s title scene.

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Agreed, she’s main roster ready. Besides, the NXT women’s division is bloated.

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Think there’s a reasonable chance they might just throw her up there after Mania and skip NXT. These have pretty much taken the place of signing announcements and doing the gimmicky labeling of “largest recruit class in history” makes me think they wanted to put every name possible on here.

Does seem like a class that has a lot of different types of people coming in. I’m excited to see what Blake Christian can do with some of the momentum he’s had lately. We’ve seen Tyler Rust get rushed to TV and I wonder if they’ll do the same with him.

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Unfortunately, I don’t have much faith that they will do anything good w/Taya or most of these folks on the main roster(not past their debuts, anyways).

Also, at this point I feel like these “word soup” NXT names has to be HHH trolling, right?

:100:

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I disagree. I would like to see her in some good storylines and feuds on NXT before getting lost in the shuffle on the main roster once Vince forgets about her.

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They always announce them with their real names when they have these class announcements , so safe to say most of them haven’t gotten a WWE name yet besides the ones already that have been on tv (Dolin, Jade, Stark)

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That’s Tayas real name. She hasn’t been WWE-ized yet.

But she should absolutely go to the main roster ASAP. Far too overqualified to spend anytime in developmental and she’s not exactly that young either

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I also think she’ll likely be attached to Miz and Morrison if so, so that should be helpful to give her a unique position other women don’t normally get when called up.

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I think there are actually more women on NXT then Raw or SmackDown and they already have a lot going on. Io, Martinez, Storm, Blackheart, Dakota & Raquel, Candice, Ember Moon, and Xia Li are all getting TV time. Can add Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter after that. And then there’s Tegan Nox who’s injured, Zoey Stark who they introduced last week and is going to be in a significant match this week, and Priscilla Kelly who they also just signed. It genuinely doesn’t make sense to even try to fit her in there.

Raw have nothing working with the Raw women’s division. Especially when it comes to the singles division. All Taya has to do is show up and she’ll have a significant spot. Morrison is there too so I’m assuming she will very quickly be put on the main roster.

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Well that’s because NXT actually uses the women prominently. NXT has so far done a good job juggling the women. So I’ll be giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Meh I’ve heard this before than they are stuck in purgatory like Ruby Riot, Nikki Cross, Mickie James etc. Sorry but due to Vince booking. She would hardly get any time. The evidence speaks for itself. I fear for Rhea Ripley for the same reasons.

I also don’t like the idea of pairing her with Miz and Morrison. Since Taya has her own unique personality that’s different from them. Pairing her with them just because she is married to Morrison is just plain lazy. It worked for Maryse because she doesn’t really wrestle anymore and her personality fit the Miz perfectly.

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Certainly Taya could work on Raw or Smackdown, but she has not been WWE-ized yet.

It seems to me that WWE has been hiring more veterans and putting them in NXT, than say when NXT was first formed. I consider it parking talent (though some here appear to disagree with me.) Taya of course is married to Morrison so I was expecting her to move there. Again, though, perhaps WWE is going to see if she can train the younger women (e.g. Serena Deeb) as much as to be a “superstar” in her own right.

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Oh it’s totally parking talent or I prefer to call it hoarding talent. Same reason why guys like Balor, Cole and O’Reilly are still in developmental and Omos is on the main roster. Many of the people on NXT are people Vince has zero interest in but HHH is worried other promotions will use them.

Also see: Gargano and Ciampa now approaching five years spinning their wheels in developmental. Or Pete Dunne/Tyler Bate stuck in the same positions for four plus years.

It’s all very bizarre

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But also totally understandable when one realizes that Vince McMahon has based his business model on being the only national US TV wrestling company remaining. Vince hasn’t had to worry about competition since he bought Ted Turner’s WCW. And it is pretty clear that WWE hopes to keep it that way.

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Ah Balor was on the main roster. He hated it and ask to be on NXT again.

lol they asked to stay in NXT. Ciampa threatened to retire if he was sent to the main roster. Gargano’s happy in NXT he’s the top dog there plus he’s with his wife.

You all seem to be ignoring that the main benefit for the talent to going on the main roster was the money. Thats not really the case anymore. The USA network/NXT deal has probably raised the NXT rosters salaries quite a bit.

You claim they are being parked. But most of the talent on NXT seem to be quite happy with their situation.

The only WWE talent that seem miserable are the ones on the main roster :joy:

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Nah it’s ultimately Vince’s call. If he wants a guy on the main roster he or she is going there. They have zero say.

With Balor it was originally supposed to be a three month stint but I assume Vince just forget he employs him.

For the four guys I listed to be stuck in the same position for so many years is a flaw in the WWE system. NXT was originally supposed to be about taking raw talents and developing them but now it’s taking established talents and preventing them from going to the competition.

NXT doesn’t really tour and has a smaller audience than AEW. Seems like the minor leagues to me

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Well theres still there like you said. So apparently they got what they asked for.

Again you make it seem like thats a bad thing. But again they seem to be pretty happy where they are. If they are stuck like you say they haven’t complained once about it. No complaints on twitter no crying to Meltzer nada.

:joy: thats not really saying much. AEW’s tv ratings is not that much bigger than NXTs ratings. Touring is moot at this point thanks to the pandemic. Until AEW pulls Raw or Smackdown numbers or get a billion dollar deal from Comcast not the chump change from TNT their pretty minor league themselves.

Oh btw I like both NXT and AEW. So you trying to make this a tribal thing doesn’t really mean much to me.:hugs:

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I like both shows too. It’s not a problem with the talent, it’s the NXT/WWE system. People shouldn’t be stuck in the same spots for so long and waste years of their career. Just my opinion

I think you don’t hear people bitching because they know as much as anyone else what Vince wants so there is no point whining

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How are they wasting their careers on NXT btw? They are getting paid good money, putting on great matches, and are in good storylines. I think some of them are in heaven in my opinion. Just because you think NXT is a waste of time it’s clearly not to them which is what truly matters.

Seriously have you just woken up from a coma or something? Talent have been complaining. But on the main roster only. Why do you think Cody, Brodie Lee, The Revival, Rusev, Shawn Spears, Neville, Goldust, etc all willingly left the company the past few years? Even guys still there right like Owens and Rollins have openly questioned Vince.

So you’re theory on why NXT talent have not complained doesn’t really make a whole lick sense. Since it seems to be prevalent on the main roster.

And you are aware Vince is pretty hands on with Raw and Smackdown but he is not with NXT. Its pretty much common sense why they are no complaints on NXT in my opinion.