WWE ID Nears Two-Year Mark Amid Exits and Criticism

WWE’s developmental pipeline program ID is approaching its second anniversary on October 29, and the run-up has brought a fresh wave of turnover along with renewed debate over how the initiative treats independent promotions.

Launched in 2024, WWE ID was pitched as a first-of-its-kind pathway that lets independent wrestlers keep working the indie scene while receiving mentorship and development support from WWE, with the company also forming partnerships with wrestling schools to enhance training for both new and existing students there.

The program has seen steady churn since its inception. Jimmy House recently became the sixteenth wrestler to exit WWE ID since launch. Earlier this month, Cappuccino Jones — the promotion’s first-ever ID Champion, who signed back in November 2024 — departed after two years, saying he was grateful for the knowledge and experience gained during his time in the system. October also saw Women’s WWE ID Champion Laynie Luck leave the program after her contract wasn’t renewed, shortly after dropping that title. On the flip side, WWE ID has continued adding names, with Monica Monroe, Joshiah Jean, Conan Lycan and Richard Adonis among the recent signees.

The bigger flashpoint, though, has been WWE’s willingness to pull ID talent off independent cards it doesn’t control. Earlier this year, wrestlers were pulled from dates with the promotion PRODUCE, with observers Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez suggesting WWE didn’t want its signed talent appearing on a show airing on MyAEW. PRODUCE founder Orange Crush was blunt about the situation in a social media post, accusing WWE of effectively using talent for ‘scab work’ after promising something closer to a grant-style arrangement. Because ID wrestlers also pull double duty on WWE’s Evolve tapings and occasional NXT appearances, conflicts over availability are becoming a recurring wrinkle for indie promoters who book them.

On the other end of the pipeline, WWE ID has produced a legitimate on-ramp to NXT for at least a few standouts. Jackson Drake, Ricky Smokes and Brad Baylor — known together as Vanity Project — all signed with ID in November 2024 before transitioning to NXT by January of this year. Drake went on to become the first WWE Evolve Champion and currently holds the NXT North American Championship, while Smokes and Baylor (formerly Swipe Right) are the reigning NXT Tag Team Champions. Triple H has described the program’s long view as one where WWE sticks with talent as long as they keep progressing, potentially funneling them into the Performance Center down the line — exactly the route Vanity Project took.

Two years in, WWE ID remains something of a mixed bag depending on where you sit. For the wrestlers themselves, it’s a credentialed foot in the door with real mentorship attached, and the Vanity Project trio shows the ceiling is legitimate. For training schools, the partnership functions as validation of their coaching pipeline. But for independent promotions booking ID talent, the arrangement is murkier — a title match featuring an ID star can be a real draw, but there’s always a chance WWE pulls that name at the last minute for its own purposes, something that goes beyond the usual card-subject-to-change caveats of travel or injury.

As ID approaches its second birthday, the program looks less like a finished product and more like an ongoing experiment WWE is still calibrating — one that will keep drawing scrutiny every time a signing, an exit or a pulled date makes headlines.

Just a note on yesterday:

The point of my announcements was not to name and shame talent.

It was to highlight the fact they were promised the equivalent of a grant program and were conned into doing scabwork. This should be widely understood.

PRODUCE exists to serve our…

— ORANGE CRUSH (@orangecrushart) July 2, 2026