The WWE Performance Center is the official

professional wrestling school Professional wrestling has accrued a considerable amount of jargon throughout its existence. Much of it stems from the industry's origins in the days of carnivals and circuses. In the past, professional wrestlers used such terms in the presence o ...

system of the American

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

. The promotion currently operates two Performance Center locations, which serve as

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or Physical fitness, fitness that relate to specific practicality, useful Competence (human resources), competencies. Training has specific goals of improving on ...

facilities for WWE wrestlers, as well as

sports science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally inc ...

and

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

facilities. The first branch, located in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

, was opened on July 11, 2013. The second branch opened on January 11, 2019, in

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. During the early stages of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the main studio of the Performance Center in Orlando became WWE's home arena, with the company moving its weekly television programs and all

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

s for

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

and

SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes simulc ...

(including

WrestleMania 36 WrestleMania 36 was the 36th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brand divisions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic ...

) behind closed doors at a studio in the facility from March 2020 onward. In August 2020, WWE moved its closed productions to larger, arena settings as the

WWE ThunderDome The WWE ThunderDome was a bio-secure bubble created by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, in partnership with the full-service fan experience company, The Famous Group. It was launched in August 2020 as a way for professional wres ...

—which used a larger-scale production more in line with its touring shows, and a

virtual audience A virtual audience is the use of videoconferencing as a substitute for an in-person studio audience or spectators during a television program or sporting event. A virtual audience allows users to attend a television taping or other event virtually ...

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * ''WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * ''NXT UK'', the British spin- ...

and

205 Live ''WWE 205 Live'' is an American professional wrestling streaming television program that was produced by WWE. It premiered on November 29, 2016, and ended on February 11, 2022. The show originally aired exclusively on the WWE Network until March ...

subsequently moved to the Performance Center in October 2020, with NXT moving from its former home at

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center ...

, and its main arena being reconfigured as the "Capitol Wrestling Center" (CWC) to suit the look and feel of NXT programming. Unlike Raw and SmackDown's tenure at the Performance Center, NXT's move was permanent, and most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in June 2021. The CWC naming was dropped in September 2021 as part of a larger relaunch of NXT, which saw a second reconfiguration of the arena.

History

Training facilities

The facility covers and includes seven training rings (including a special padded ring for high-flying moves), a strength and conditioning program, edit and production facilities including an ultra-slow camera, and a voice-over room that performers and on-air announcers can use to practice. The facility was opened in 2013 and replaced the training center at WWE's former developmental territory,

Florida Championship Wrestling Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) was a professional wrestling promotion based on the former National Wrestling Alliance member promotion, Championship Wrestling from Florida, which operated from 1961 until 1987. From October 2007 to August ...

(FCW), which was based in

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

and had been serving as WWE's developmental headquarters since 2008. The Performance Center trains around 65 to 70 wrestlers at any one time. Trainees have a variety of experience levels, from beginners from non-wrestling backgrounds to experienced wrestlers from the

independent circuit In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective noun, collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor lea ...

. Wrestlers train to improve their in-ring performance, strength and conditioning, as well as working on their characters and personality. Upcoming referees, ring announcers, commentators, and backstage interviewers also train at the Performance Center. The trainees train full-time, while also performing at weekly NXT

house show A house show or live event is a professional wrestling event produced by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive du ...

s and appearing on ''

'' television. In addition, established WWE performers often use the facility for training and injury rehab while mentoring new trainees. The Performance Center uses former wrestlers as trainers. The inaugural head trainer was

Bill DeMott William Charles DeMott II (born November 10, 1966) is an American retired professional wrestler and road agent and trainer. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Hugh Morrus and World Wrestling Federatio ...

, who departed the company in 2015 and was replaced by

Matt Bloom Matthew Jason Bloom (born November 14, 1972) is an American retired professional wrestler and professional football player. He is currently signed to WWE, where he is the head trainer at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Bloom ...

. Other trainers include

Sara Amato Sara Ann Amato (born November 13, 1980) is an American professional wrestling trainer and retired professional wrestler, best known by her ring name Sara Del Rey. She was a mainstay for Chikara and Shimmer, but also appeared for many other inde ...

Robbie Brookside Robert Edward Brooks (born 11 March 1966), better known by his ring name Robbie Brookside, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a trainer/producer for the NXT brand. He has toured all ove ...

Norman Smiley Norman Anthony Smiley (born February 28, 1965) is an English-American retired professional wrestler and vocalist specializing in Gregorian Chants. He is best known for his appearances with the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre fro ...

Adam Pearce Adam John Pearce (born June 24, 1978) is an American professional wrestling executive and former professional wrestler. He is currently employed by WWE as Director of Live Events, producer, trainer, coach, and on-screen authority figure. He is ...

Mike Quackenbush Michael Spillane (born March 18, 1976), is an American podcaster, author, professional wrestling trainer, professional wrestling promoter, and retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Mike Quackenbush. He has hosted several p ...

Scotty 2 Hotty Scott Ronald Garland (born July 2, 1973) is an American professional wrestler who was most recently signed to WWE as a trainer at the WWE Performance Center. He also competed under the ring names "Too Hot" Scott Taylor (1991–1999) and Scotty 2 ...

and

Sarah Stock Sarah Stock (born March 4, 1979) is a Canadian professional wrestler, who was most recently signed to WWE as women's trainer and producer. Stock began her career in Canada and moved back and forth across the country, working for various promotio ...

Dusty Rhodes Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who most notably worked for the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crocket ...

was responsible for developing the trainees' microphone skills and wrestling personas until his death in 2015. The Performance Center includes some guest trainers, including

Kevin Nash Kevin Scott Nash (born July 9, 1959) is an American actor and retired professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE under a legends contract. He is best known for his tenure with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where he performed under his r ...

and

Scott Hall Scott Oliver Hall (October 20, 1958 – March 14, 2022) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenures with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under his real name and under the ring name the Diamond Studd and with the ...

. In addition to training contracted performers, the Performance Center is also regularly used for tryouts which operate on an invite-only basis and include athletes from a wide variety of backgrounds, including established domestic and international professional wrestlers,

amateur wrestlers Amateur wrestling is a variant of wrestling practiced in collegiate, school, or other amateur level competitions. There are two international wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games: freestyle and Greco-Roman. Both styles are under the ...

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

and

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

players, and individuals from a range of other sporting and non-sporting backgrounds. A second

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

-based Performance Center opened in

on January 11, 2019. In April 2019, WWE announced plans to open additional Performance Centers in India and China.

Use as a home arena

On March 12, 2020, WWE announced that due to the

(which resulted in the suspension of many professional sports leagues), live episodes of ''

'' and ''

'' would air from the Performance Center without an audience until further notice, beginning with the following day's episode of ''SmackDown.'' The company had begun filming episodes of ''

'' without an audience at

the previous day, although the March 11 episode was filmed at the Performance Center and was the last show produced with a live paying audience. On March 16, it was announced that

, set to take place on April 5 and previously scheduled for

Raymond James Stadium Raymond James Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Tampa, Florida that opened in 1998 and is home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL) and the University of South Florida (USF) Bulls college football program. The se ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

, would instead be moved to the Performance Center, again without an audience and would expand to two nights taking place on Saturday April 4 and Sunday April 5. The Performance Center continued to host episodes of ''Raw'', ''SmackDown'', ''

'', and ''

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

'', as well as the

s Money in the Bank,

Backlash Backlash may refer to: Literature * '' Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women'', a 1991 book by Susan Faludi * ''Backlash'' (Star Wars novel), a 2010 novel by Aaron Allston * Backlash (Marc Slayton), comic book character * ''Backla ...

, and

The Horror Show at Extreme Rules The Horror Show at Extreme Rules was the 12th annual Extreme Rules professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event was broad ...

, before the shows and pay-per-views moved to the new, larger-scale " ThunderDome" staging (under similar restrictions, but with a

on LED screens) at Orlando's

Amway Center Amway Center is an indoor arena located in Downtown Orlando, Florida. The arena is home to the Orlando Magic of the NBA, the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL, and the Orlando Predators of the National Arena League. Amway Center hosted the 2012 N ...

, beginning with the August 21 ''SmackDown'' and that weekend's

SummerSlam SummerSlam is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it is considered WWE's secon ...

. In December, the ThunderDome relocated to

Tropicana Field Tropicana Field (commonly known as the Trop) is a Multi-purpose stadium, multi-purpose domed stadium located in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The stadium has been the home of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball (MLB) since the ...

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

before moving to

Yuengling Center Yuengling Center (formerly the USF Sun Dome) is an indoor arena on the main campus of the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida. Construction began in November 1977, and it opened on November 29, 1980. It is located in USF's Athl ...

in Tampa in April 2021, and being discontinued entirely in July 2021 with the resumption of touring shows.

NXT moves to the Performance Center

In October 2020, beginning with

NXT TakeOver 31 NXT TakeOver 31 was the 31st NXT TakeOver professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's NXT brand division. The event took place on October 4, 2020, a ...

, ''NXT'' and ''205 Live'' moved to the Performance Center (from Full Sail University and the ThunderDome at Amway Center, respectively, as 205 Live was being subsumed by NXT), using a reconfigured version of the facility's main arena branded as the "Capitol Wrestling Center"—an homage to WWE's precursor, the

Capitol Wrestling Corporation Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. was an American sports promotion company. It was run by Vincent J. McMahon from 1953 to 1982. Operating as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), the company was originally a professional wrestling and boxing p ...

. It was designed to reflect the look and feel of NXT programming, with a virtual audience similar to the ThunderDome on an LED screen in the studio, and areas for limited outside spectators divided by plexiglass walls decorated with

chain-link fencing A chain-link fence (also referred to as wire netting, wire-mesh fence, chain-wire fence, cyclone fence, hurricane fence, or diamond-mesh fence) is a type of woven fence usually made from galvanized or linear low-density polyethylene-coated ste ...

. For TakeOver: Stand & Deliver in April 2021, the plexiglass wall dividers were removed and live audience capacity was increased. TakeOver: In Your House in June lifted almost all COVID-19 protocols, including mask requirements and the virtual audience, and expanded its seating capacity to around 300, Those who had tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 14 days were asked not to attend. While Raw and SmackDown resumed a live touring schedule in mid-July, NXT's move to the Performance Center was permanent. On September 14, 2021, the arena received a new stage design with the relaunch of NXT as ''NXT 2.0''; the Capitol Wrestling Center name was dropped at this time.

Events hosted

The following are the events that have been held at the Performance Center while being used as a home arena:

Locations

United States

The first WWE Performance Center facility was opened on July 11, 2013. The Performance Center replaced the training center at WWE's former developmental territory,

(FCW), which was based in

and had been serving as WWE's developmental headquarters since 2008.

Wrestlers trained

=2013

=2014

=2015

=2016

=2017

=2018

=2019

=2020

=2021

=2022

United Kingdom

The British branch is located at the Great Cambridge Industrial Estate in

and was opened on January 11, 2019. The center is 17,000 square feet and includes 2 rings. The school will be used to train potential future professional wrestlers from across the globe.

Wrestlers trained

=2019

=2020

=2021

2015 shooting incident

In August 2015, Orange County Sheriff's Office deputies shot 29-year-old Armando Montalvo outside the Performance Center after he threatened them and charged at them. Montalvo was "obsessed" with female wrestler

AJ Lee April Jeanette Mendez (born March 19, 1987) is an American author and retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in WWE under the ring name AJ Lee. She is currently an executive producer and color commentator for WOW – Wom ...

and made numerous attempts to trespass through the facility, despite an injunction against him by WWE. Days after the shooting, Montalvo claimed he was

bipolar Bipolar may refer to: Astronomy * Bipolar nebula, a distinctive nebular formation * Bipolar outflow, two continuous flows of gas from the poles of a star Mathematics * Bipolar coordinates, a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system * Bipolar ...

when he was questioned by detectives. He faced trial in February 2016 on charges of aggravated assault, resisting an officer with violence, and trespassing. A public defender representing Montalvo has entered a written plea of not guilty on his behalf. On April 19, 2018, WWE filed an emergency restraining order against Montalvo after he returned to the Performance Center the previous month and harassed the employees. In addition, Montalvo posted a threatening message to WWE wrestlers and staff on his

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account. On May 7, 2018, Montalvo was arrested for missing his court date with WWE.

References

External links

* {{WWE Performance center Performance center Professional wrestling schools Schools in Orlando, Florida Professional wrestling in Orlando, Florida Education in the London Borough of Enfield Professional wrestling in England Performance center 2013 establishments in Florida 2019 establishments in England

History

Training facilities

Use as a home arena

NXT moves to the Performance Center

Events hosted

Locations

United States

Wrestlers trained

=2013

=2014

=2015

=2016

=2017

=2018

=2019

=2020

=2021

=2022

United Kingdom

Wrestlers trained

=2019

=2020

=2021

2015 shooting incident

See also

References

External links