WWE Releases In Ring Talent, Producers and HQ Office Staff

WWE Releases In Ring Talent, Producers and HQ Office Staff 

Photo Credit Ses Scoops

On Wednesday  15 April 2020 WWE Released the following statement on their website

(Source WWE Corp Website)

"STAMFORD, Conn., April 15, 2020 – WWE (NYSE: WWE) today provided an update on measures taken by the Company in response to the current impact of COVID-19 on the organization.

Due to COVID-19 and current government mandated impacts on WWE and the media business generally, the Company went through an extensive evaluation of its operations over the past several weeks. This analysis resulted in the implementation of various short-term cost reductions and cash flow improvement actions including:

• Reducing executive and board member compensation;
• Decreasing operating expenses;
• Cutting talent expenses, third party staffing and consulting;
• Deferring spend on the build out of the Company’s new headquarters for at least six months.

Given the uncertainty of the situation, the Company also identified headcount reductions and made the decision to furlough a portion of its workforce effective immediately. The decision to furlough versus permanently reduce headcount reflects the fact that the Company currently believes the furlough will be temporary in nature.

The Company’s reductions of employee compensation and headcount result in an estimated monthly savings of $4 million along with cash flow improvement of $140 million primarily from the deferral in spending on the Company’s new headquarters. Additionally, the Company has substantial financial resources, both available cash and debt capacity, which currently total approximately $0.5 billion, to manage the challenges ahead. Management continues to believe the fundamentals of the Company’s business remain strong and that WWE is well positioned to take full advantage of the changing media landscape and increasing value of live sports rights over the longer term.

The Company will provide further details when it reports its first quarter 2020 results next Thursday, April 23 after the close of the market"

Minutes after that announcement WWE then began releasing Wrestlers from their company in all 20 Wrestlers were released you can see the full press release below 

(Source WWE.com)

"WWE has come to terms on the release of Kurt Angle, Rusev (Miroslav Barnyashev), Drake Maverick (James Curtin), Zack Ryder (Matthew Cardona), Curt Hawkins (Brian Myers), Karl Anderson (Chad Allegra), Luke Gallows (Drew Hankinson), Heath Slater (Heath Miller), Eric Young (Jeremy Fritz), Rowan (Joseph Ruud), Sarah Logan (Sarah Rowe), No Way Jose (Levis Valenzuela), Mike Chioda, Mike Kanellis (Mike Bennett), Maria Kanellis, EC3 (Michael Hutter), Aiden English (Matthew Rehwoldt), Lio Rush (Lionel Green), Primo (Edwin Colon) and Epico (Orlando Colon Nieves). We wish them all the best in their future endeavors"

Drake Maverick posted a very emotional video regarding his WWE Release which you can view by clicking the link below - this video has currently over 2 Million Views and really shows the effect of a WWE release on an in ring talent.

WWE also released a number of producers and agents, alot of the individual talents confirmed this on their respective Twitter accounts Fit Finlay, Lance Storm, Shane Helms, Serena Deeb to name a few.

Source WWE

(Source Mike Johnson Pro Wrestling Insider) 

"WWE Producers Billy Kidman, Mike Rotunda, Dave Finlay, Pat Buck, Shawn Daivari,Scott Armstrong, Sarah Stock, Shane Helms and Lance Storm have either been furloughed by or departed WWE as part of today's cutbacks, PWInsider.com has confirmed"

It was very sad to see so many people released from a job i'm sure they all loved and a job that they are dreamed of having and in addition all these people were let go through no fault of their own but through a very difficult worldwide situation.

In addition to talent cuts WWE also released a number of office staff from their main HQ in Stamford, Connecticut. Sadly these people we won't hear about and many of them we will never know, but so many of them contributed to WWE continued success, and to all those people I hope they are ok and I hope that they all will be able to fund work once again when this situation is over.

It's been a whirlwind week in WWE as a business they have made decisions which they feel are right for them in this current climate its very hard times at the moment for all companies, My hope is that there are no more releases than this and that WWE will be able to continue with no one else having to be released however that may be difficult to achieve.

WWE is structured around live events and although WWE have lots of different revenue streams one of the main revenue streams is Live Events. 

WWE would  have 2 different crews working in 2 different places in the week so they would have income from two different shows 2 to 3 times a week. 

In this current climate mass gatherings aren't allowed and it remains to be seen whether any sporting events will be able to have spectators going forward and has even been rumored that sports may not have in stadium spectators until 2021 if that is the case, WWE may need to do further restructuring in the future and look at changing their model and style of business. 

I hope that WWE don't have to take any more action in the future but this will all be a game of wait and see.

Thanks for reading

@jon422002

Jonathan Orchard