10 Wrestlers Who Personify Why WWE Had To Scour The Indies

When the lumbering muscleheads aren't working out, it's probably best to look for actual talent.

Vince McMahon generally doesn't like other people doing his work for him. Over the years, WWE may have opened up more to the rest of the pro wrestling world, but there was a time when they point blank refused to push anyone that they themselves didn't 'create'. Going as far back as the WCW 'Invasion', genuine stars such as Diamond Dallas Page were treated shoddily upon joining the company, simply because McMahon and his team weren't the brains behind their characters. This has long been a problem for WWE, and in the past the issue has extended to a truly archaic view of the independent wrestling scene. In the mind of the McMahon family, those who had been a success on the indies were not there to be heralded, they were to be ridiculed. That mindset made have irked some, but it was the prerogative of the biggest promotion in the industry. That is, at least, until they started running out of talent... Towards the end of the last decade, WWE higher-ups knew they had to make a change to ensure a fruitful future for their organisation. All of a sudden, the company developed an overwhelming interest in the indies. That's exactly why WWE fans have been treated to the likes of Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose in recent years. Featured here are 10 infamous examples of wrestlers WWE were interested in pushing to the moon, instead of the stars we see today...
In this post: 
Heidenreich
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood.