WWE: More on WWE’s Recent Round of Staff Layoffs, Jade Cargill on Winning WWE Women’s Tag Title Never was a WWE Career Goal, More News

WWE

May 29, 2024

More on WWE’s Recent Round of Staff Layoffs Last Week

As noted before, WWE’s office staff was impacted by a new round of layoffs this past Thursday at WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that ten long-time employees from several departments were laid off by WWE last week.

Johnson reported that the most shocking name among those laid off was WWE Senior Vice President, Entertainment Relations Kristin Prouty. Johnson reported that Prouty had been associated WWE since 2000 as the original Casting Director for their initial Diva Search competition. Prouty reportedly had worked independently with WWE until she officially joined the company in 2005. Prouty’s position in the company reportedly was to engage with the entertainment world and bridge the gap for new talents to join WWE. Prouty reportedly had been credited with finding a lot of new talent for the company, including The Bella Twins and The Miz. Prouty reportedly was also the key person booking guests hosts during the RAW Guest Host era and locking in celebrities for storylines in WWE.

Johnson reported that Kristen Velez was also among those who were laid off last week from WWE. Johnson reported that Velez had been with WWE since 2001 and had worked as a Manager in Talent Relations prior to her departure. Velez reportedly had also worked under Kevin Dunn for many years.

Johnson also reported that WWE’s recent round of layoffs had also targeted the company’s Travel, Marketing, and a number of other departments.

Jade Cargill Comments on Winning WWE Women’s Tag Titles was Never an Actual Goal for Her WWE Career

Title Sports Network held a recent interview with Jade Cargill. One of the topics discussed included Cargill’s thoughts about winning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship was never an actual goal she had for her WWE career.

“Amazing. It wasn’t something that was in my cards or my deck. Came out the blue. But teaming with the EST, we’re unstoppable. Who’s going to beat us? Like, let’s really think about that right now. No one. So we knew it was coming. We knew that, you know, we had phenomenal. The Kabuki Warriors are great. You know, they held the belts down, but it’s our time.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

WWE News & Notes

Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan reported that his sources stated that NXT officials recently made requests to WWE officials for Tegan Nox to potentially return to their NXT brand. Brennan reported that these requests were stated to have dated back to prior to this past April’s 2024 WWE Draft.

Madison Square Garden recently announced that Damian Priest will be defending his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Jey Uso at WWE’s SmackDown show on June 28th at their venue in New York City, New York.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that an upcoming episode of Biography: WWE Legends on A&E will feature The Steiner Brothers. Johnson reported that this upcoming episode is currently planned to air this June but its exact airing date is currently not known.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson also reported that his sources stated that A&E will also be releasing “Director’s Cut” versions of past Biography: WWE Legends episodes starting this June on the network. Johnson reported that the first “Director’s Cut” episode currently scheduled to air will be the Steve Austin episode due to it had been the most watched episode in series history.

Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert reported that WWE had filed a notice on May 24th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to officially abandon their trademark for “Big Time Becks.” Lambert reported that WWE had originally filed a trademark for this term in September of 2021 that was opposed nine days later by a person named James K. Duck leading to a lengthy legal battle lasting till this past April. Lambert also reported that this legal battle resulted in a discovery conference being ordered this past March.

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that this past Saturday’s King & Queen of the Ring 2024 event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ended up becoming the first time ever in WWE history that a WWE PPV/PLE event did not rank in the Top 20 on Google for searches for the day of an event. Meltzer reported that WWE’s event generated less than 20,000 searches that day due to that being the number for the #20 ranked topic. Meltzer reported that this was the second WWE PPV/PLE event to perform much lower than usual for a WWE event, following Backlash 2024 earlier this month in Lyon, France.

While responding to a now deleted fan question that was originally directed towards WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Ricochet stated that the reason why he does not wear his WWE Speed Championship belt on WWE RAW is due to Twitter had paid WWE to have WWE Speed and its title be exclusive to their platform. Ricochet stated “Because a specific company paid a specific amount of money to have a specific show and title, EXCLUSIVELY be shown on their specific platform.“

As noted before, this past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Savannah, Georgia featured RAW General Manager Adam Pearce revealing that he had fined and suspended Bron Breakker over his actions during last week’s show. This suspension turned out to be ineffective after Breakker showed up during the show and attacked Ricochet and Ilja Dragunov. Pearce recently provided an update on Instagram stating that he had tripled Breakker’s fine and suspended him again over Breakker actions. Pearce stated “I’m going to try and directly appeal to you this way because appearances matter. I’ve looked back on what the general public has seen and they’ve seen us together on Monday Night Raw and frankly, I’m embarrassed. You’re defiant, leaving bodies in the wake, and me screaming at you like I’m your dad disappointed at your report card. That’s not what I want the general public to be left with because what I had hoped we achieved Bron Breakker when I drafted you to Monday Night Raw was a level of respect and mutual respect where you and I could look at each other in the eye, say what needed to be said and accomplish the business at hand. But we’re not there. The aspect of professional wrestling that I’ve been very good at over the past 30 years, the one that sees me sit in front of you as Raw general manager, is that 99 times out of a 100, I can get in a room filled with ego and bad intentions and make two people who have zero interest of talking to one another sit at a table and get the job done. I have failed miserably doing that with you. I have taken your spotlight and suspended you and told you to sit your ass at home, I have appealed to you financially by taking money out of your wallet and nothing, as of yet, has worked. You have stared me in the eyes with a vacancy and dare I say hatred and told me that I cannot control you. I will look at you again like I have and tell you, I’m not trying to control you Bron. I do not want to control you, I want you to control you. I see the same thing that everyone else sees, a hall of fame pedigree and every potential possible under the sun. There’s a reason I went out of my way to pull whatever strings I could to draft you to the red brand. I want you to be on Monday Night Raw for today and for tomorrow and for the future because I believe in Bron Breakker. I believe in Bron Breakker. I can’t say it any clearer than that. I tripled your fine and I sent you home again. I’m done trying to talk to you like a man, because maybe you’re not. Maybe you just are a dog faced gremlin.“

WWE announced three new matches for the card of next week’s WWE NXT show on June 4th: