As we expected the WWE has made a slew of cuts today. This comes after a major loss in revenue for the company due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Among the names released are Kurt Angles, Rusev, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows and many more. You can see the announcement with the full list of releases below:
WWE has come to terms on the release of Kurt Angle, Rusev (Miroslav Barnyashev), Drake Maverick (James Curtin), Zack Ryder (Matthew Cardona), Curt Hawkins (Brian Myers), Karl Anderson (Chad Allegra), Luke Gallows (Drew Hankinson), Heath Slater (Heath Miller), Eric Young (Jeremy Fritz), Rowan (Joseph Ruud), Sarah Logan (Sarah Rowe), No Way Jose (Levis Valenzuela), Mike Chioda, Mike Kanellis (Mike Bennett), Maria Kanellis, EC3 (Michael Hutter), Aiden English (Matthew Rehwoldt), Lio Rush (Lionel Green), Primo (Edwin Colon) and Epico (Orlando Colon Nieves). We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
It was announced earlier today that WWE would be making financial cuts due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Drake Maverick had been scheduled for the WWE Cruiserweight title tournament.
Additionally, PWInsider.com is reporting that the following WWE Producers have been furloughed today:
Dave “Fit” Finlay
Mike “IRS” Rotunda
Shane “Hurricane” Helms
Lance Storm
Billy Kidman
Pat Buck
Shawn Daivari
Scott Armstrong
Sarah Stock
Once the WWE returns to running live events, it possible and likely that we’ll see some of these folks come back. Until then, it looks like it’s going to be a long road for anyone trying to run an entertainment company at the moment.
With Wrestlemania being held with no crowd as well as RAW and Smackdown, the WWE has lost Millions of dollars at this point. The WWE usually makes cuts around this time each year after the conclusion of mania, but this years is significantly larger. Between the loss of live event revenue, stock prices and the money lost with the XFL, Vince McMahon cannot be happy.
We’ll keep you posted as more information comes out on this situation. Are you surprised by the number of superstar releases? Do you think we’ll see any of them make the jump to AEW? Let us know down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.