Amidst all-time record profits, WWE laid off and fired several backstage staff today.
The production, digital and WWE Network departments took the biggest hits, according to PWInsider.
WWE’s reason for the layoffs is that they “determined there were too many redundancies across multiple departments,” PWInsider says. One example given was that WWE had two separate graphics departments for TV and digital media, which would now be merged into one department, with a smaller staff doing more work.
Other divisions will also be merged and will be overseen by WWE Executive Vice President of Television Production Kevin Dunn.
PWInsider says that several employees are “shellshocked,” including those remaining who will now have more work and responsibilities. Some staff who survived the layoffs “expressed shock” at how important some of the names who were let go were.