Court Bauer Contrasts WWE's Current Talent Pool From When He Was In Creative

Long before he filed an anti-trust lawsuit against WWE, Court Bauer was a member of WWE's creative team at a time when WWE was competing for eyeballs with WCW in the Monday Night Wars. This was also the era when WWE did not develop talents at its WWE Performance Center, and instead just recruited them from other promotions and threw them into the fire on WWE television. 

In a recent interview with "Busted Open," Bauer detailed the differences between how WWE's creative team developed characters in the late '90s as compared to today's era. "They have done a great job of recruiting and scouting talents, developing them in the Performance Center, and now, they're thriving because so many of those guys are headliners," Bauer said. "When I was part of the WWE creative team, we were trying to make the most out of the roster — today, they have an embarrassment of riches ... they have such great talent there."

Bauer admitted that although he had the benefit of sharing the WWE writers' room with veterans such as Paul Heyman, Dusty Rhodes, Michael Hayes, Ted DiBiase, and Bruce Prichard, the formula used by WWE to develop talents was a lot more challenging two decades ago. "We had some great minds in there, but these were people who saw raw talent and figured out how to package them and make them stars," Bauer recalled. "And that process was so special to see, and of course, the WWE machine starts to crank up, and when they want to make someone, it's very powerful."

The MLW boss stressed that raw talents are being "optimized" better in 2023 WWE due to the resources at the company's disposal. That said, he still appreciates the eye for talent that his past colleagues relied upon to build stars.