During an interview with Alex McCarthy of TalkSport.com, newly crowned WWE NXT Champion Samoa Joe discussed the hiring directive in WWE for new talent and what the company is looking for when go scouting wrestlers:

“As for the directive, yeah, there is a directive and they do come straight from Vince [McMahon], Vince says, ‘hey, this is what we want.’ But, the directives, it’s weird. They’ve been around forever. I worked for WWE in developmental when I very, very first started in California, and these directives existed. But, they change. It changes based on the needs of the company. It’s funny, I read the articles – I know exactly what you’re talking about – I read the outrage about the directive, and I’m like, this is nothing different. And then next week, the directive will be different.”

“The directive right now is probably a little bit younger and looking for a little more athletic, which isn’t terrible whatsoever, but that directive will invariably shift as the needs as the company shifts. So yeah, there is a directive, it comes from Vince, we all follow it and we get the job done for him. We’re happy to do so.”