WWE announced today via press release on their own official website, that they will be starting the “Campus Rush” recruitment tour in conjunction with the “Next in Line” (NIL) program, which began last year. These programs come at an interesting time in pro wrestling, as the independent scene is very scarce for talent in the last few years, forcing WWE to look elsewhere for talent. Here is the official statement from WWE’s website regarding the “Campus Rush” tour:
WWE® Announces “WWE Campus Rush” Recruitment Tour
10/11/2022
STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE® (NYSE: WWE) today announced “WWE Campus Rush,” a multi-campus college athlete recruitment tour which will visit top NCAA Division I universities in search of the next generation of WWE Superstars.
WWE Superstars such as Big E, Bianca Belair, Omos, Madcap Moss and Raquel Rodriguez, all of whom have transitioned from college athletics to a career in WWE, will address student athletes at each tour stop and educate them about the global leader in sports entertainment. In conjunction with each university, student athletes will learn about WWE’s “Next In Line” (NIL) program and the resources that they can utilize including brand building, social media, fan engagement, media training and more. Each stop of the tour will include a lively competition that features student athletes facing off on the microphone to cut the best WWE-style promo.
“WWE Campus Rush” will begin tomorrow, October 12 at the University of Mississippi and will visit a total of eight universities from five conferences during the fall semester, including:
- University of Mississippi – Tomorrow, October 12
- Georgia Tech – Thursday, October 13
- Clemson University – Tuesday, October 25
- Boise State University – Tuesday, November 8
- University of Arkansas – Wednesday, November 9
- Ohio State University – Tuesday, November 15
- University of Kansas – Tuesday, December 6
- Penn State University – Wednesday, December 7*Schedule subject to change
Looking ahead to 2023, ‘WWE Campus Rush” will visit the University of Florida, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of North Carolina, Texas A&M University, University of Oklahoma, Auburn University, University of Illinois, and Northwestern University.
“WWE Campus Rush will serve as a core pillar in our commitment to finding the next generation of WWE Superstars among today’s elite college athletes,” said James Kimball, WWE’s Head of Talent Operations and Strategy. “The talent pipeline from college sports to WWE has proven to be effective, as evidenced by current champions Roman Reigns and Bianca Belair, and we are looking forward to visiting major college campuses around the country to introduce ourselves in a new way.”
WWE launched its “Next In Line” program in December 2021 and currently has 25 active athletes with NIL partnerships. Three athletes from the inaugural class have joined the company following their graduation from school and have started training full-time at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla.
Additionally, WWE has exclusively hosted more than 100 college athletes from more than a dozen different sports at multi-day talent tryouts in 2022. WWE signed nearly 50 athletes from those events in a growing effort to find the most talented athletes in the world.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an unlimited array of WWE content on the WWE Network and Peacock.
