WWE Director of Talent Development Canyon Ceman Discusses Tryout Process in Germany, Number of Current Talents at WWE Performance Center, and the Globalization of WWE and NXT Brands

– Raute Musik recently interviewed WWE Senior Director of Talent Development, Canyon Ceman, during WWE’s recent tryouts in Germany. Below are some highlights (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Ceman on how the tryout process will work: “We will choose our favorites, something like ten percent of them, between three and seven [people]. They will have the opportunity to either join the WWE Performance Center, or to join our NXT UK brand, or a long-term watch list for NXT Europe or other evolving brands. And finally, there could be opportunities for tournaments in the future like Mae Young Classic 3, if there’s another cruiserweight [tournament]. We’re always creating new products and what we need to fill those new products are elite sports entertainers.”

Ceman on global efforts for WWE and NXT: “I’m not going to answer that because, frankly, I think it’s premature. I think the idea is we’re globalizing, NXT UK is the first effort at global localization, and we’re going to continue. Could it be there’s another country first in that global localization, is it India? Is it Saudi Arabia? Is it Germany? Who knows, we’ll see, that will be a decision made way above my head.”

Canyon Ceman on the current talents at the WWE Performance Center: “In Orlando at the WWE Performance Center we have 90 talents today. That will soon rise to something upwards of 100 in the next couple months. Those talent represent 15 or 20 different countries, there’s something like 43 percent international diversity.”