Morale for WWE wrestlers and employees at the WWE office and its new strategies to hit the year 2020
Just consider today as a rough day at WWE as everyone is going to agree with the companys decision, which is the announcement of releasing employees from some departments without whom the company still can run during quarantine as part of budget cuts related to COVID 19.
Media has revealed the entire hidden incidents took place at the offices of WWE. It says that these were already told and discussed the morale at WWE offices in Stamford, CT was at an all-time short with some worried that WWE could be the next if it were not able to continue live events within coming couple of months. Recently, the expiry of Howard Finkkel has shocked everyone hard as he was a very famous American professional wrestling ring announcer, perhaps best known for his appearance in WWE. As he died on 16th April 2020, this has become heartbreaking news for his fans, and again it is in trend for media. Howard Finkel was the first employee to have an iconic voice as an announcer and who was mostly loved by the audience. When Finkel was taking treatment and hospitalized, he was being paid by the company. He was suffering from stroke issues a couple of years ago. This has caused passing away to this legend of WWE at the age of 69. WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon took to Twitter to show tribute to the most magnificent ring announcer of all time.
A long list of wrestlers, producers, announcers, other on-air talents, coaches, a referee and a writer who were released recently has been exposed below-
Main roster wrestlers/on-air talent
Drake Maverick, Curt Hawkins, Luke Gallows Karl Anderson, Heath Slater, EC3, Lio Rush, Erik Young Erick Rowan, Sarah Logan, Referee Mike Chioda, Erick Rowan, Epico, Primpo, Mike Kanellis, Maria Kanellis, Zack Ryder,No Way Jose and Rusev.
NXT/Performance Center
Deonna Purrazzo, MJ Jenkins, Ace Steel (coach), Kendo Kashin (coach) Aleksandar Jaksic, and Serena Deeb (coach).
Producers/employees (note: some have been furloughed)
Kurt Angle, Aiden English, Lance Storm, Shane Helms, Sarah Stock, Scott Armstrong, Billy Kidman, Dave Fit Finlay, Pat Buck, Shawn Daivari, Mike Rotunda, Andrea Listenberger (writer) and Jerry Soto (Spanish-language announcer).
Many of the employees are thinking and hoping that they will be called back by the company and they can restart work there. But the reality might be something different than they expect. Paul Davis spoke to those who are expecting to work again and to those also who want to move on looking at transitioning into a different career field. Some employees may not be called back. The company informed the wrestler that they could come back at any point in time, but in the case of other employees, it is still not sure whether they can rework or not.
A WWE source reported PWInsider that a minimum of 40 % of the company has gone after Wednesday and happening of this case. The company allowed many more employees to leave the organization, which was not made public and did not reach to media.PWInsider named four different kinds of people that they have some fighter guilt after watching many of the employees leaving the company. So all the people in the WWE Company are ready with different strategies in their minds so that they can acquire more on their plate, and the live events division was hit hard.
WWE took this serious decision of talent and stuff cuts on Wednesday because of the impact of the Coronavirus on WWEs budget plan. The person behind this decision is CEO McMahon. On Wednesday morning, he told that he would expose a video to all the employees where he would like to address the extensive cuts that would be incoming. The video was for two minutes featuring McMahon talking and informing that the employment cuts would be for economic instability. Wrestlers are always welcome to rejoin, but no guarantee is there for the other employees. This was what he said to sustain the company and balance its existence.
WWE is not exceptional from other companies. It also has to decrease operating system to cut the cost and expenses. This is where he showed the area from where costs would be cut, such as reducing executive and board member compensation and increasing cash flow by making delay in construction of its new headquarters. What they were going to do is they will keep only the Heads od departments to make immediate decisions and other employees will be asked to leave mfor a while during quarantine and at the same point of time they will stop the construction of new buildings which will lead to save money for future expense and utilize it for better tomorrow.
CEO McMahon sadly quoted that besides all these measures taken, unfortunately company had to temporarily reduce manpower. As such, a number of WWE personnel would be furloughed now.
CEO McMahon reported that after the call was over, every employee would receive a communication mentioning and detailing their individual situations. Those employees affected by the furloughs would receive a text message from HR for more information. According to him, these were not easy decisions but reflected the reality of the environment they were working during this serious quarantine situation. Sometimes, the situation goes beyond everyones control, and we live in a world of troubled times. So he said that he was very much confident upon the company and the employees to bring them back to their own and previous workplace to start everything again. Once he finished the call, the company started releasing the talent that is manpower.
In spite of the coronavirus outbreak, WWE is going to set a new record of revenue generation for the year 2020. The American journalist David Allen Meltzer noted that WWE is still in a position where they can make a large amount of profit this year on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio. In fact, there is a possibility of making a record-setting revenue this year. This has reason also. Because over the last few years, WWE is dealing with FOX and NBC Universal, as well as their two events every year deal with Saudi Arabia for which WWE is generating more profit. They generated $800 million in the year 2017, and revenue increased by 16 % to $930.2 million in the year 2018. Then revenue reached $960.4 million in the year 2019, which was considered to be the highest in the companys entire history to date.
According to David Allen Meltzer, WWE is highly on target for building 2020 a record year even if they do not earn revenue throughout the year and other streams due to talent and manpower layout. This may include not organizing another Saudi Arabian event in the year 2020, not doing house shows, or make a dime in produce and licensing them. But keep in mind, they will, of course, earn something from merchandise and licensing. David Meltzer also revealed that WWE is again on target to come closer to $ 1 billion, which might be even over $ 1 billion in total revenue, relying on how much the company keeps up.
But what if they get no subscribers? It is alright if there is zero network subscribers (which cannot occur). They are talking about $ 850 million in revenue. They are, maybe, planning to wind up being close to $ 1 billion, which is more than they have ever reached in any year in the history of WWE by far. It will be more than the last which would have been the records and a year before and all that. Actually, you cannot say it was their target, but they are practicing the best possible practices to maximize profit in the year 2020.
The last Wednesday is considered as the black Wednesday for WWE. It hit WWE hard as the organization had to temporarily terminate at least 39 employees, including wrestlers and employees. But this was not enough. There is a chance to again release some of the rest. Out of them, wrestlers and staff from NXT have a bigger chance of losing the stage or career.
The American journalist Dave Meltzer believes that no other main schedule cuts will be made. But of course, everything has some possibilities to happen. He mentioned on Twitter that manpower cuts would let WWE hold and save up to $ 703,000 per month. But a rumor was spread that WWE will be able to save up to $ 4 million with the cuts, but that was not the case. As I have already mentioned, WWE was planning to build its headquarters in Stamford, CT, so the $ 4 million includes all these expenses. It was announced in a press release that the headquarter or the new building has been delayed for six months.
In conclusion, this is very important to discuss the purpose of why WWE has taken measures like temporary termination of wrestlers and employees during the quarantine. The prime cause behind this decision is coronavirus related business changes. COVID- 19 is pushing not only WWE but also the other corporations to function in new ways and systems rapidly. The greatest immediate impact of COVID- 19 is on the audience. WWE cannot take risks of its audience. So it has focused on caring for its workforces while rapidly managing termination as well as daily events. At this critical time, CEO McMahon must see through these changes in ways that gain and manage the trust of their wrestler and employees. The trust depends upon the demonstration system that he made via a two minutes video clip expressing what and why these decisions have been taken. So ultimately, it is showing his intension of clearly sharing a clear plan and transparently showing how decisions have been taken.
At this critical point of time, WWE needs to take care of its wrestlers so that they cannot be infected. So the CEO McMahon is developing a rapid response to address the current disruptions and strengthen operations in future preparation happenings. The WWE took the best decision to keep Triple H, John Cena, Roman Reigns, The Undertaker, and Stone Cold Steve Austin in presence. It made clear that those are the wrestlers who are still with WWE rather than sitting at home. The issue with wrestling is that it is more of an audience, unlike other sports that lack strength. The wrestling fan is a unique mixture of believer or non-believer. This is why WWE has one of the biggest sports in the world, which is enjoyed in every family and audience do not want miss it at any condition. Fridays and Mondays shows used to be emotional cases. In the world, wrestling has created for itself, if a possible gallery of celebrity WWE segment from one of its most respected and admired hall-of-Famers takes place in front of nobody, has it really happened? At present, the focus of WWE is pushing on.