By Richard Garner, Torch specialist

"Just a few years ago, Jim Ross would send memo after memo to Vince and Stephanie (and even to Executive Producer Kevin Dunn) practically begging the company to devote more time, effort, and resources to an active recruitment process, much like the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball. 'If we don't address this problem now,' JR once said in a passionate pitch on Air McMahon, 'we're going to pay a heavy price for ignoring the situation in 5 years.'"
-- Paul Heyman's blog, July 24 - www.heymanhustle.com.

The main event for Summerslam has been announced. John Cena will challenge Randy Orton for the WWE Title at what is traditionally WWE's second biggest event of the year. Funny to think that this used to be a dream match. The two most promising wrestlers to come out of the WWE developmental system this decade - whose name isn't Brock Lesnar - were kept apart after initially being called up. Now a combination of John Cena, Randy Orton, and Triple H seems to main event every Pay-Per-View and the majority of Monday nights.

There are certainly issues with WWE's recruitment policy, as identified by Paul Heyman. Jim Ross's resignation from his position as Vice President of Talent Relations several years ago heralded a major shift in philosophy in the way that the company discovered new talent. Instead of examining hours of footage of independent shows, searches seem to be restricted to the immediate family of former WWE wrestlers. Instead of poaching promising college athletes from under the noses of sports teams, time is spent rubbing elbows with modeling agencies, getting women with no experience of pro wrestling to come and try out in Connecticut. Anyone can learn to work but not everyone has the look right? Everyone who saw Jenna Morasca vs. Sharmell would disagree with that.

With less emphasis on recruiting from the independent scene, "paying your dues" has been redefined from traveling up and down the country for small payoffs just to get experience to earning your stripes via the WWE developmental territories, ECW, and then the main roster. As most of this is televised, fans can witness the stars of tomorrow being jobbed out as a means of teaching them respect.

But recruitment is not the only issue. Upward mobility is a thing of the past in the WWE, especially on the Raw brand. During the late 1990s, it was common to hear that Eric Bischoff was unable to make stars. WCW was plagued by aging wrestlers on guaranteed contracts doing everything within their power to protect their spots, which memorably resulted in Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn jumping ship to WWF. The situation in WWE today is beginning to show alarming similarities. I'm not suggesting that there will be a mass exodus to TNA; the Main Event Mafia's domination of the top spots proves that they are hardly a forward-thinking company. But the lack of mobility for young wrestlers on the WWE roster is quite staggering.

This does not appear to be WCW style self-preservation, but more a lack of trust by management in younger wrestlers. Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes are presented as being Randy Orton's henchmen instead of developing their own personality. Evan Bourne wrestles an exciting style that is over with the crowd, but was inexplicably destroyed by The Big Show. Brian Kendrick was pinned by Jerry Lawler. Jack Swagger was never a contender to win Monday's Beat the Clock Challenge. MVP has lost momentum every week since being drafted to Smackdown, not to mention the fact that he was jobbed into oblivion towards the end of last year.

Young talent is leaving the company after being rendered redundant by nonsensical booking decisions. Ken Kennedy is virtually being handed to TNA despite having better heel charisma that the majority of the WWE roster. The creative team had no idea about what to do with Paul London until his release last year, and his tag team partner Brian Kendrick was released on Friday despite showing promise as a heel character towards the end of 2008.

Then there was the farce of an angle where The Big Show became Chris Jericho's tag team partner in place of Edge. If there is one person in the company who would not benefit from being Jericho's partner it is The Big Show. There are a number of young faces and heels stuck in the middle of the card who would have gained in stature by being associated with Chris Jericho, but WWE decided to play it safe and go with a wrestler who has been headlining their shows for the past decade. This is indicative of a booking policy that relies solely upon those old hands who have been on top for the last five years.

There needs to be a major culture change within WWE if they are to improve the quality of the product. Why should people pay for Summerslam when it features exactly the same main event as two years ago? As talented as Randy Orton, John Cena, and Triple H are, more wrestlers need to be added to the WWE title picture. It is questionable whether fans will continue to pay for matches involving the same three wrestlers who have been part of so many Pay-Per-View main events over recent years.

After all, familiarity breeds contempt.

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