WWE Has Laid Off More Corporate Employees

WWE appears to have celebrated the onset of the holiday season in one of the least heartwarming ways imaginable: By laying off their employees. Wrestlenomics' Brandon Thurston first reported on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the company was making corporate cuts on Fruday. Wrestling Inc. has since reached out to WWE, which has confirmed the report. 

WWE has laid off more corporate employees today, according to multiple people at the company.

This follows layoffs of more than 100 employees in September following the closing of the TKO merger.

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) December 1, 2023

Later in the day, Wrestlenomics reported that the layoffs affected the finance department, the sales and partnerships team, human relations, and production. Several employees at the Senior Vice President level let go, including Michael Weitz of Financial Planning, Head of Global Sales and Partnerships Craig Stimmel, Controller & Chief Accounting Officer Karen Mullane, Streaming Technology SVP Stewart Frey, and Gaming SVP Matt Geyer.

WWE backstage interviewer McKenzie Mitchell also took to social media Friday to announce she had been released, though it's unknown whether Mitchell's departure is indicative of wider roster cuts. This latest round of lay-offs follows a round of cuts made in September (in the aftermath of WWE's merger with UFC into TKO Group Holdings) that included Dolph Ziggler, Mustafa Ali, and Dana Brooke. These were put down to the merger resulting in post-merger redundancies as Endeavor reportedly sought to cut $50-100 million in expenses.