Duke Hudson Weighs In On WWE Trying to Balance Indie Talent & Non-Wrestling Athletes In Recruiting

The former Duke Hudson recently shared his thoughts on WWE’s recruitment of independent talent and athletes who come from outside of wrestling. Brendan Vink appeared on the latest episode of That Sweet Pop and during the interview he was asked about WWE’s recruitment policies. He noted that the company tends to swing between focusing on indie talent or trying to recruit non-wrestling talent, and that both are ultimately needed.

“That approach does have success, but I think the proof is in the pudding,” Vink said (h/t to Fightful(. “I think they were always looking to have so many of these kind of kids come through the door – because all you need is one Roman, all you need is one Bianca. But you often need a lot of the indie talent and the ‘workers’ to come through and help them, to get them ready. Because there are some people going to the main roster now who are already stars- they are already stars, they’re already doing so much better than I will ever do, they’re already so much richer than I will ever be, and God bless them, good job, they did it. And I’m happy for them, they still have so far to go and they’re just being protected well enough that you don’t see enough of their green spots. Which is what you have to do, right? They did that with Angle back in the day. He was fresh, but you put him in there with Taker, Kane, Rock, Hunter, it’s sink or swim and he swam.”

He continued, “So it’s the same now. I do think, if I look at people like Priest, LA Knight, they’re in their 40s, they’ve only been there for a few years. The older talent who come from wrestling, there should always be a spot for them. If someone’s got enough momentum, enough popularity, there’s always gonna be a spot for that person to at least give them a go. But with the PC changing the way it has, you can see what they’re going for and history will repeat itself, they always go too far one way then they go too far the other. They’re always trying to find that happy medium.”

Vink, who worked as Duke Hudson in WWE, was released in January and has returned to the indie scene since.