As per WWE's official announcement on their website and social media channels, the company has launched a program they call NIL (Next In Line) that will allow college athletes to use their name, likeness, and images to work their way into WWE and start earning money. Essentially, this is a pathway to becoming a WWE Superstar for college athletes.
WWE called it a groundbreaking announcement and say NIL is taking the lead from a "historic new policy by the NCAA effective July 1, 2021, which ushered in the NIL era allowing college athletes the ability to monetize their name, image and likeness." The announcement adds that WWE has constructed a comprehensive program to recruit and develop potential future Superstars and believes NIL has the potential to be among their biggest recruitment strategies.
WWE Executive Vice President, Global Talent Strategy and Development, Triple H (Paul Levesque) said of the announcement, “The WWE NIL program has the potential to be transformational to our business." Considering Triple H was instrumental in building NXT into a feeder system and was the architect behind the WWE Performance Center, for him to say that about this initiative means WWE has big plans to use college athletes as part of their recruitment strategy.
The website also notes, "All athlete partnerships will feature access to the state-of-the-art WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., in addition to resources across the organization including brand building, media training, communications, live event promotion, creative writing and community relations. Upon completion of the NIL program, select athletes may earn an exclusive opportunity to be offered a WWE contract."
NIL Is In Line With Talk WWE Is Trying To Build Fresh Stars
There's been a lot of talk about WWE moving away from independent wrestling talent and looking instead at young athletes they believe have that "it" quality. Instead of bringing in established wrestlers, WWE wants to find fresh faces and new talent they can mold from the start and college athletes are a great way to see that vision out.