More on WWE’s Recent Talent Releases – COVID-19 Vaccination Update & Office Releases

As noted before, WWE released eighteen talent and several of their staff as part of their newest round of cuts last week. Some of the releases were partially due to those talent not being vaccinated for COVID-19.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources within the company stated that while WWE officials never told anybody that if they were not vaccinated for COVID-19 that they would likely lose their job, the company had very much encouraged several people to get vaccinated. Meltzer reported that one top talent spoken to stated that they were told if you were not vaccinated, you would be seen as less valuable to the company due to not being able to go on overseas tours.

Meltzer also reported that those who were released were never told that they had to get vaccinated or were warned that their jobs were in danger if they didn’t. Everyone in the company reportedly had been told that the releases were officially due to budgetary reasons.

In regards to office staff releases, Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that WWE’s former Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrator Kristina Salen had not been well liked within the company due to her management style. Thurston reported that several employees within her finance department had chosen to leave the company recently over these issues.

Besides Salen, Meltzer reported that the recent round of office cuts primarily targeted most of Stephanie McMahon’s staff in her Branding department. Meltzer reported that the current belief by some within the company is that the Branding department will be getting merged soon with the Marketing department due to the large amount cuts that were made.