Second generation wrestlers will always have the difficult task to follow the careers of their parents or relatives, especially those who leave a major legacy in the business. For every Bret Hart, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Hijo Del Santo and others, there’s second generation wrestlers like David Sammartino, Tamina, Cody Hall , David Flair and many more that were not able to follow up the careers of the previous generation.
Dominik could be on the same path David Flair had back in the day. Dominik is a better worker than David Flair ever was, but in terms of charisma they are pretty much equal.
The argument of the Performance Center being a failure and a terrible place to learn how wrestle has been done to death, but it’s also true. Just look at legends like Mark Henry or William Regal who decided that their sons should train somewhere else that can actually help them on their first steps to become wrestlers. Dominik not having a place to be training right now and being fast tracked into WWE was not a good idea. Dominik should be improving before being on TV on a regular basis.
Comparisons are tedious, especially those about AEW and WWE, but it can’t be ignored on this particular subject. In AEW, the promotion has a done a good job developing slowly their second generation stars. Brock Anderson (Son of Arn Anderson) is having matches on Dark and Elevation and improving slowly, while also training to improve his in-ring work. Another name is HOOK (Taz’s son), who has become a very popular with the AEW fanbase and he has yet to wrestle, although, we’ve seen some of his move and according to some reports, he is a very good wrestler. Taking your time to develop such young stars and slowly introducing them to audiences us the way to go.
One of the big problems Dominik has right now is that he doesn’t have an in-ring personality. In all his matches he tires to be like his dad instead of finding his own style. Trying to follow the steps of someone as legendary is not necessarily a bad thing, but thing your own personality is better. Look at Cody Rhodes for example, he may pay tribute to his dad when the right time comes, but he has his own style that’s different from Dusty’s.
Dominik is too green for TV and maybe the spot he is right now is too big for him. He should be on developmental and getting reps and then thinking about being on TV. He has the potential of being a good wrestler one day, Rey has done a good job training him on the fundamentals.
