10 Absolutely Incredible WWE Backstage Vince McMahon Stories
3. McMahon Almost Shuts Down Developmental
The lack of legitimate headline acts in WWE between the OVW Class of 2002 and Triple H's NXT Revolution can be traced back to one man: John Laurinaitis.
He p*ssed off Jim Cornette - the man who formalised the developmental system and nurtured the careers of John Cena, Brock Lesnar and many other men who had the potential to reach their level but did not - with his ineptitude and arrogance. Corny effectively walked in 2005, slapping the future Santino Marella silly on the way out of the door, after which, bar a brief Paul Heyman salvage job, OVW slumbered into disaster. Shortly prior to Cornette's meltdown, Laurinaitis accepted an offer from Jody Hamilton, which saw his Deep South Wrestling become the second recognised WWE developmental territory.
The problem is that Deep South barely existed. Hamilton had not secured a regional TV deal - nor the equipment to produce a show. He hired Bill DeMott to train the recruits in all-drills WCW Power Plant-style - even though the two graduates of any note either A) had a gimmick in which they performed for two minutes on average (Goldberg) or B) were so fundamentally shoddy that WWE themselves re-trained them (The Big Show).
It was such a mess that Bruce Prichard was despatched there no house shows and two years later. His report was damning. The crazed story of DSW's shut down really does warrant a more in-depth read. McMahon was so furious that he threatened to shut down developmental altogether. All of it. This was years before he reluctantly embraced the independent scene as a talent pool.
Where did he think he was going to recruit from?!