April 15 was a sad day for WWE as Vince McMahon announced that the company would be releasing talents, and quite a few names were cut including Kurt Angle, Zack Ryder, Rusev, EC3 and many more.
It will be interesting to see where some of the talents go from here, as the coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on the professional wrestling industry.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics is reporting that the talent cuts weren’t simply a matter of keeping WWE profitable, but a matter of maintaining pre COVID-19 profit projections.
Unless WWE is expecting or is already missing TV rights payments, cost-cutting probably isn't a matter of keeping the company profitable, it's probably a matter of maintaining pre-COVID19 profit projections.
I estimated the COVID19 impact here: https://t.co/95m8LWmTxb
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) April 15, 2020
Missing Wrestlemania was a real loss (~$25mm), and losing venue merch, which is profitable, long-term is a small loss. Live Events generally aren't very profitable. The cost to produce TV in the PC is almost certainly much cheaper than producing in major arenas.
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) April 15, 2020
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer echoed that sentiment noting that WWE has $500 million in cash reserves and the company was still expected to have a profitable year without it.
This has been such a sad day on so many levels. A lot of good hard working people lost their jobs at the worst time possible. Keep in mind this was in a company with $500 million cash reserves and was still expected without it to turn a significant profit this year.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) April 15, 2020
In the end, this was about maintaining a huge profit margin, and unlike with UFC having its and Endeavor's massive debt, there was no true economic hardship.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) April 15, 2020
Stay tuned for more updates regarding WWE releases.
[…] You can get more details on why WWE is cutting so many people here. […]