WWE Mass Releases: Everything We Know So Far

By Oli Davis

Yesterday morning, an email was sent to WWE employees saying Vince McMahon will be holding a call at midday to provide an “important company update”. It appears to have caught many by surprise, with no prior warning. NXT was to be broadcast live that evening.

According to PWInsider, the video call lasted less than five minutes, where McMahon outlined a number of cost cutting measures because of the worldwide pandemic, which included:

-releases and furloughs across the board, saying that these weren’t easy decisions for him to make

-that the company will be cutting back on pay for board members and executives

-that plans to move WWE HQ out of Titan Tower to a new building in Stamford have been delayed

-and that cuts will be made to the talent roster and overall headcount of employees.

Shortly after, WWE released an official statement on these measures, confirming PWInsider’s points, adding that they’ll also be cutting “third party staffing and consulting” and the new HQ building will be deferred by “at least six months.”

The statement boasted “substantial financial resources, both available cash and debt capacity, which currently total approximately half a billion dollars.” But despite those funds, WWE will be cutting costs for “an estimated monthly savings of $4 million” improving their cash flow to $140 million. And that these releases and furloughs would be “effective immediately.”

And so began what will go down as one of wrestling’s darkest ever days.

The initial WWE.com article announced the immediate releases of Drake Maverick, Curt Hawkins, Eric Young, Karl Anderson, EC3 and Lio Rush. As WWE called round individual talents to inform them they were being terminated, the website article couldn’t keep up, with many wrestlers tweeting that they’ve just been fired over the phone before WWE could add it to their officially announced list.

BREAKING: WWE has come to terms on the release of Drake Maverick (James Curtin), Curt Hawkins (Brian Myers), Karl Anderson (Chad Allegra), EC3 (Michael Hutter) and Lio Rush (Lionel Green). We wish them all the best in their future endeavors. https://t.co/cX449nNSLU

— WWE (@WWE) April 15, 2020

Within the hour, Kurt Angle, Rusev, Zack Ryder, Luke Gallows, Heath Slater, Rowan, Sarah Logan, No Way Jose, Mike Chioda, Mike Kanellis, Maria Kanellis, Aiden English, Primo and Epico had also been officially released.

And it wasn’t just onscreen talent who were being let go. PWInsider then confirmed a number of high-profile backstage producers and agents have also been released – many of whom were former WWE wrestlers themselves, working behind the scenes for decades. These included: Billy Kidman, Mike Rotunda, Dave ‘Fit’ Finlay, Pat Buck, Shawn Daivari, Scott Armstrong, Sarah Stock, Shane Helms and Lance Storm.

Pro Wrestling Sheet then added these names haven’t actually been released. Presumably as the producers are actual employees of WWE rather than independent contractors like the wrestling talent, they were “furloughed… not let go from the company entirely.”

Furloughing is where a company gives employees a temporary leave of absence, often due to economic conditions. As WWE’s initial statement outlines, they “currently believe the furlough will be temporary in nature” – and have the intention of bringing those employees back.

But the releases weren’t done there.

WWE were seemingly working their way through people brand-by-brand, with the first wave of releases being from the Raw and 205 Live rosters. And the day got even darker when Sean Ross Sapp tweeted the inevitable: “NXT talent is starting to be released”

The names again came through in dribs and drabs. The list as of the time of this recording stands at wrestlers Deonna Purrazzo, Aleksandar Jaksic, Dorian Mak, Josiah Williams and MJ Jenkins, along with Performance Center coaches Ace Steel, Kendo Kashin and Serena Deeb.

The people closest to me know this is something I’ve been struggling with wanting for the better part of the last year.

Happy to say I gave this journey my best and MORE excited for the future! ❤️

— The Virtuosa (@DeonnaPurrazzo) April 15, 2020

NXT wrestler and trainer Kassius Ohno has also been moved to the alumni section of WWE.com, but no official word has been issued on if he’s been released. 

Sean Ross Sapp tweeted that released NXT talent are being provided with 30 days of pay and then are free to do whatever they want. There’s no word on whether this is the same for the WWE main roster.

The releases extend to WWE’s office staff, too, with Andrea Listenberger – the writer responsible for SmackDown’s recent Otis and Mandy Rose storyline – posting she’s also been cut. And longtime Spanish announcer Jerry Soto has confirmed he’s been furloughed.

WWE have only made official announcements of the onscreen talent they’ve released. It’s unknown how many backstage staff like Listenberger have also been let go. We’ve been told that over 20 people were cut from WWE’s social media department alone, which implies many, many people have lost their jobs beyond what WWE have publicly confirmed.

In fact, the very-reliable WrestleVotes has a ballpark figure for the eventual number of releases, tweeting: “The number of people, staff + talent, let go will be in the hundreds when it’s all set and done. Well into the hundreds. A dark day in WWE history.”

With the Raw cuts seemingly over for now, and NXT talent also being notified, the fear is the SmackDown roster is next – with none of its drafted wrestlers so far being announced as let go. Dave Meltzer is reporting a second wave of both wrestler and non-wrestler releases is coming.

Both Tom Colohue and Voices of Wrestling are reporting some of the releases so far were “mutually agreed upon” and “came with a hefty payoff” – which will presumably be those wrestlers who have multiple years still left on their contracts. Gallows and Anderson, for instance, signed 5 year contracts worth $750,000 a year just last April. And Mike and Maria Kanellis, who also re-signed with the company for 5 year deals last June. Mike revealed neither he or Maria saw their release coming. The couple are currently weeks away from the birth of their second child.

WWE’s very cynical business practice of signing up talent for lengthy periods of time despite not having any intention to use them, just to keep them away from competitors like AEW and New Japan, has massively backfired.

The releases have caught everyone – most tragically the people actually being released – by surprise. Especially as apart from holding WrestleMania in the Performance Center, WWE have pretended as though the worldwide pandemic isn’t happening. So what changed? 

Up until last Friday, WWE’s plan was to bulk film the next month’s worth of TV in one go at the Performance Center. This would’ve massively cut down on the amount of travel needed from talent, making it the safest way to still make WWE TV. 

Still, Florida officials were advising WWE to not go ahead with the tapings, as they would violate the state’s state-at-home order. The Orange County Mayor and Sheriff disagreed that professional wrestling was an “essential service”.

But then last Thursday happened.

The backstage panic seemingly began with WWE becoming spooked by their TV contracts. WWE’s deals with Fox and the USA Network are the promotion’s single largest revenue source, and a big part of how WWE have that half a billion dollars in cash reserves. But reports started to come out that those same contracts only allowed for a limited number of pre-taped shows a year. If WWE continued to prerecord Raw, SmackDown and NXT, USA and Fox could restructure or cancel their deals – a very real possibility with TV Networks also hugely affected by the worldwide pandemic and the consequent fall in advertising revenue.

Dave Meltzer has tweeted Fox or the USA Network warning Vince about this is “not speculation in the least.”

Around this same time, Linda McMahon’s America First Action Super PAC – an organisation supporting President Trumps’ re-election campaign – announced a $26.6 million investment in battleground states. $18.5 million of that was to go to Florida, where WWE have been taping their shows. That same day, the Florida governor Ron DeSantis went back on previous rulings, announcing professional wrestling is now considered an “essential service.” And the day after that, Vince suddenly changed WWE’s plans from pre-recording TV in bulk in advance, to reverting back to the three times a week live schedule – a strategy that will pose an exponentially more dangerous risk to anyone who works those shows, but one that will prevent Fox and USA from restructuring WWE’s TV contracts for the time being.  

Soon after, President Trump announced the “great Vince McMahon” on a board of sports industry leaders who will help decide when the economy will reopen.

I could make a link between those events myself, or I could instead quote the State Attorney for Palm Beach County in Florida Dave Aronberg, who sarcastically told ESPN:

“’How come they got an exception?’ That shows the problem with the process. It’s haphazard. I’m sure it had nothing to do with fact that the McMahon family is very tight with the Trumps and the fact that Linda McMahon is raising $300 million for Trump’s Super PAC and the [Florida] governor is tight with the President. I’m sure it had nothing to do with that, right?”

Before then explicitly saying: “[The political ties] has got to be the answer.”

Governor DeSantis was confronted on this during a press conference yesterday, where he dodged the question. 

Florida giving professional wrestling the go ahead has become a lightning rod in the mainstream media in the debate over what is and isn’t an “essential business” right now – putting WWE’s ability to keep honouring their TV deals on very shaky ground. What happens if DeSantis has to go back on his decision in the face of growing criticism? 

This could be the driving force behind McMahon’s sudden mass cost-cutting measures – which also includes the XFL filing for bankruptcy over the weekend and laying off all its staff. There’s also the Q1 investors call next Thursday, for which McMahon has now changed the narrative from massively declining stock prices, to all the measures WWE is undertaking to ensure profitability.

And that’s what makes this whole situation so underhand. WWE didn’t need to make these cuts. According to Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston, the cuts have been made to maintain pre-pandemic profit projections, and WWE will still have a profitable year. This isn’t a case of a financially struggling company trying to survive. It’s a greedy company prioritising revenue over the people who work for them. 

Compare WWE’s actions to the rest of the wrestling world. Yesterday, seven of the top promotions in Japan – including New Japan, All Japan, NOAH, Stardom and DDT – all united to meet with government officials, requesting support for testing kits and compensation and protection for wrestlers out of work during these times. And Ring of Honor are still paying talent for shows they’ve had to cancel.

A big under the radar story is all the different Japanese companies together today met with governmental officials. The companies went together to show solidarity and made very reasoned requests to protect the health and finances of talent. They asked little for themselves.

— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) April 15, 2020

Those companies have a fraction of WWE’s resources available to them. And Meltzer has also revealed that of the $4 million of monthly expenses cut by WWE outlined in their statement, only $703,000 are from cutting talent. To put that in perspective, Goldberg was paid $2 million for one match in Saudi Arabia last year. 

If WWE just pledged 1% of their $500 million of cash reserves to a wrestler support fund, they could’ve paid for all the talent cut so far for over half a year. 

There’s a saying that keeps being used a lot right now, about how ‘adversity builds character’. But in this case, with WWE, ‘adversity has revealed character.’

This situation is still unfolding, with unfortunately many more releases expected to come. Make WrestleTalk.com your homepage to keep up to date with breaking stories, and follow us @WreslteTalk_TV on Twitter.

• Releases
• Vince McMahon
• nxt
• wwe

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