WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings, announced last weekend that “WWE Campus Rush” 2023, is a recruiting tour for college athletes from several campuses. It will reach seven of the best NCAA Division universities this year fall in search of the next generation of WWE Superstars.”
WWE Campus Rush 2023 is already underway
WWE Superstars such as Big E, Bianca Belair, Omos, Riddick Moss and Raquel Rodríguez, all have transitioned from college athletics to a career in WWE. They have visited 11 of the country’s top schools since the program’s start in October 2022, including athletic programs such as Ohio State, Duke, Oklahoma, and Penn State. WWE Superstars speak to student-athletes at each tour stop and educate them on what it’s like to work for the global leader in sports entertainment. Along with each university, student-athletes will learn about WWE’s “Next In Line” (NIL) program and the path to becoming the next WWE Superstar new TKO company.
Last week, “WWE Campus Rush” visited the University of Texas and will visit six additional universities from five conferences during the fall semester, including:
University of Wisconsin – Wednesday, September 27
University of Pittsburgh – Monday, October 2
University of Washington – Wednesday, October 4
University of Maryland – Tuesday, October 17
University of Missouri – Monday, October 23
Texas Christian University – Tuesday, November 14
However, not everything is good news or good words for this WWE project since Ric Flair, the two-time member of the Hall of Fame, criticized the company’s future policy. WWE launched its “Next In Line” program in December 2021 and currently has 25 active athletes with NIL associations. Three athletes from the inaugural class have joined the company after graduating from school and have begun training full-time at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
Additionally, WWE has exclusively hosted more than 100 college athletes from more than a dozen different sports in talent tryouts. WWE signed nearly 50 athletes from those events in a growing effort to find the most talented athletes in the world.