Additional Names Join the Ranks of Recent WWE Layoffs

WWE fired over 100 employees from their corporate headquarters. They also released several members from their talent roster. The comprehensive list of people WWE has fired since the UFC merger includes executives and a former World Champion. The company figured more from the corporate side recently and now it appears the company wasn’t done just yet.

It was previously reported that TKO Group Holdings was expected to make even more cuts after their 3rd quarter earnings call and that is exactly what they did. It was largely on the corporate side alongside McKenzie Mitchell getting her pink slip as well.

According to Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it was reported that WWE released more names from the office side of things. It was noted that Michael Weitz, the Senior Vice President of Financial Planning was released.

Apart from him, the likes of Craig Stimmel, the Head of Global Sales and Partnerships, Karen Mullane, the Controller and Chief Accounting Officer; Stewart Frey, the Senior Vice President of Streaming Technology and Matt Geyer, the Senior Vice President of Gaming.

”There were more front office cuts and one talent cut on 12/1. The only name confirmed at this point from being let so were five major executives. Michael Weitz, the Senior Vice President of Financial Planning, who had been with the company since 2006, was let go. This would be job duplication as either Endeavor or UFC have someone doing the same job. Weitz was part of investor relations and was on all the quarterly investors calls for probably a decade if not longer.

The last investors call was totally different and was handled by Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro and included nobody directly with WWE like Weitz, or Paul Levesque or Nick Khan or Vince McMahon. Also let go was Craig Stimmel, the Head of Global Sales and Partnerships. He had just started last year and was part of the group responsible for the big rise in sponsorships.

Others let go include Karen Mullane, the Controller and Chief Accounting Officer; Stewart Frey, the Senior Vice President of Streaming Technology and Matt Geyer, the Senior Vice President of Gaming. The only talent name cut was McKenzie Mitchell, the interviewer on NXT. The story was that all cuts were based on cutting expenses and not related to job performance, although I can’t see Mitchell being a gigantic expense. Kelly Kincaid (formerly Quinn McKay in ROH) took over the position Mitchell had.”

We will have to see what is in WWE’s future. 2024 promises to be a big financial year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will get to keep their jobs. With WWE and TKO’s merger already completed, fans are simply dreading the next round of cuts.

What’s your view on this story? Are you shocked such names were released recently? Let us know in the comments!