Last week, it was reported that morale was rather low at Tropicana Field ahead of Friday Night SmackDown as WWE employees had been informed that they would not be receiving the bonuses they were expecting.
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer has provided some additional information on the matter, explaining who informed the employees that they wouldn’t be receiving their bonuses:
There were several meetings this past week which wound up with employees being told that a lot of bonuses, raises and promotions that some were expecting were not going to happen. Christine Lubiano, who just started, was told by Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard to tell the writing staff on their conference call on 2/11. This went over horribly since she’s no new with the company and others told the writing team it was Vince’s decision (obviously) along with Nick Khan, Brad Blum and Prichard. Mark Carrano then held a meeting with producers on 2/12 before the Smackdown tapings. Vince was not at the show since his brother Rod’s funeral was this past week. The producers, many of whom took pay cuts last year, were not happy because they were expecting to be bonused as part of their annual review. The feeling is they all worked a year straight having to fly into a COVID hot spot every week and when the annual review and bonuses were expected, they were told they weren’t getting them. The idea seems to be to keep costs low and build the profit margin up because of the decline of the stock value when investors heard expenses would be higher in 2021 because of building the new office and the added costs of Thunderdome production.
This comes after it was reported that WWE employees were given stock awards valued at $3,000, a report that you can read more about by clicking here.
What are your thoughts on the above story? Let us know in the comments on Twitter or Facebook.
