3. A Strong Developmental System Is Key
If contemplating talent development, one could look at WWE's state-of-the-art system between the Performance Center and NXT as representing a top-of-the-line concept. However, if wanting to look at Saturday Night Live's relationship with Los Angeles' Groundlings and the Second City comedy troupes, there's a level of development that could be envied by Vince McMahon and company. Since being established in 1974 (intriguingly enough the same year that SNL took to the air), The Groundlings comedy troupe (alongside the Second City troupes in Chicago and Toronto) have placed 16 of their legendary performers onto SNL, the most significant of those being Will Ferrell, Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz. Second City have placed 28, with Dan Aykroyd, the Belushi Brothers, Mike Myers, Chris Farley and Tina Fey among that lot. Overall, of the 130 cast members in SNL's 40 year history, 34% have come from these two key developmental outposts. Since loosely starting affiliations with developmental promotions in 1996, 10 of the 26 men to hold the WWE World Heavyweight Championship had experience in WWE-run developmental promotions. Of course, when one considers that the number of people both employed by WWE in the developmental ranks that have been called up to TV in proportion to the number of people performing on TV overall is a number far greater than 130, the percentage of success rate for SNL "main roster call ups trumps WWE's by a long shot. Is WWE doing something wrong in their developmental hiring process? Possibly. Maybe the company casting a narrower and more defined net insofar as discovering successful future talents is required.