Gerald Brisco On Recruiting Amateur Wrestlers & Could Jacob Kasper Be The Next John Cena?

ESPN has an in-depth article about Gerald Brisco and his current role as a specialized recruiter for the WWE. Brisco travels to amateur wrestling matches to assess if the competitors have star potential.

“I don’t recruit a prospect unless I think the person has the potential to main event WrestleMania.”

One gem prospect that the article heavily features is Jacob Kasper of Duke:

“In my nearly 50 years in the wrestling business, I have seen only a few wrestlers who have such powerful personalities that when they come into a room, everyone there knows that person has arrived,” Brisco said. “Jacob Kasper has that type of personality, and he reminds me in many ways of a young John Cena.”

Duke’s assistant wrestling coach also credited Kasper with impeccable speaking ability:

“You listen to normal sports interviews and the players give clichéd answers,” Wissel noted. “When Jacob gives an interview, you have no real indication where he will take a question or how long he will talk about it. Even I have no idea where he’s headed and I’ve known him for years. He is a reporter’s dream and makes every other wrestler look bad in that area by comparison.”

Brisco also spoke of Vince McMahon keeping him around after he suffered three strokes:

Brisco also spent time performing as an on-screen character during the WWE’s Attitude Era, but his career came to a crossroads after he suffered three strokes in 2009 that left him unable to keep up with the grueling travel demands. After Brisco recovered, he told WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon that he was going to have to retire from the business because of his health issues. Brisco said that McMahon replied by saying, “You have been with me from the beginning and I still need you with the company” and asked Brisco to find a role that could allow him to continue working for the WWE.

To read the entire article and see a clip of a young Jacob Kasper donning a John Cena shirt you can do so by going here.

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Dominic started at WrestleZone in April of 2018.
He is a book reviewer for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, loves Penguins hockey, Pirates baseball and the lowly New York Jets.
Dominic also hosts a weekly Pittsburgh comedy podcast with his brother called The Keystone Cast and runs a Pittsburgh-based sports & pop culture blog called The Keystone Statement.
He lived in Philadelphia for five years before setting up shop back in Pittsburgh.
Feel free to rip him on Twitter @DominicDeAngelo.