Real Reason Major Name Left WWE Revealed

WWE

‘Budget cuts’ influenced Kevin Dunn’s departure from his role in WWE after more than three decades with the company.

Dunn’s departure was reported on December 30, 2023, with it being stated that he was planning his departure “around Christmas week.”

He had served as WWE Executive Producer & Chief, Global Television Distribution during his lengthy tenure with the company.

Writing about the departure in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer outlined the time scale and reasoning, stating:

“It was Dunn’s decision to leave, which one source said dated back about two months when Endeavor started wanting to make budget cuts to improve profitability in the department and started making decisions on the production side without relying on his opinions.”

Meltzer would go on to discuss a replacement for the role, with Chris Kaiser, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Television, reportedly being mentioned internally, writing:

“As far as a replacement as Executive Producer of all the shows goes, I was told not to presume anything and multiple people in the company even mentioned Mike Mansury, who at one point was groomed to replace Dunn until he quit the company, as someone Levesque would want.

“I would presume Mansury is under a long-term deal with AEW.”

Mansury joined AEW in December 2022 as Senior Vice President & Co-Executive Producer and later revealed his reasons for leaving WWE in 2020.

“Marty Miller’s name was mentioned. He’s the Director but that’s something completely different and in particular, the aspect of Dunn’s job dealing with budgets.

“At one point the attempt was to make Chris Kaiser the Executive Producer who would handle the budgets and Dunn as the guy handling the shows and making the final decisions.

“It could end up with Miller running the truck and Kaiser handling the budgets but that’s all speculation at this point.”

Following Dunn’s departure, it was reported that there were ‘several shocked talent‘ in WWE who were unaware that the executive producer was leaving.

WWE President Nick Khan has since addressed Dunn’s contribution to the company through an internal email.

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