Jake "The Snake" Roberts says the talent pool in the WWE isn't what it used to be and he blames the Performance Center, as well as Vince McMahon's insistence on scripted promos and interviews.
WWE's Performance Center is obviously a great avenue for the development of wrestlers and is responsible for most of the company's fresher talent. But Roberts reckons it doesn't help them where uniqueness is concerned.
Scripted promos have also been a sore point for a number of years. Fans certainly appreciated when stars like The Rock and Steve Austin simply grabbed a mic and did their thing. Those who are older will never forget how the likes of Rowdy Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Randy Savage could induce goosebumps by belting out original promos night in night out.
"There isn’t a huge talent pool like there used to be," Roberts explained (via Wrestling Epicenter). "A lot of guys today are cookie cutter types. They’re not characters. They don’t know how to do it yet. That is the bad part about Vince’s machine. His machine creates new talent all the time. But, the talent never gets to grow and become something to where they’re unique. They’re all built at that Performance Center.
"The guys learn a bunch of moves and that’s it. As far as doing interviews, they don’t do their own interviews. It is all written and scripted stuff. When you’re doing scripted stuff, the character is not there and the people see through it. They realize these guys are just reading. The fans want more. They deserve more.
"But, whenever Vince started this whole thing up and killed all the territories, that was the breeding ground for the talent. So, there it went. It is hard to learn how to wrestle working once or twice a week. You can’t do it. You’ve got to go out there 5, 6, and 7 nights a week to push it, to get it where it is second nature. That is what these guys are missing.”
Most WWE fans will agree that the era of scripted promos isn't helping WWE, it's hardly a fresh complaint, but Jake makes a great point about that Performance Center.
It isn't like WWE produces clones over there - every wrestler is unique in some way, personality and otherwise. However, Jake's onto something here, a bit more originality would go a long way.