Apologies if you’ve tuned in today for me dressing up as Maki Itoh to celebrate this
channel passing 800,000 subscribers.
I hope you understand, but I’d prefer to do that on a day when I don’t have to talk
about WWE firing loads of people from their jobs.
I don’t know when that day will be, because they seem to be doing it every few hours right
now, but I will do it as soon as possible.
So please subscribe for that.
Following the round of main roster cuts on April 15th - which saw names like Samoa Joe
and the IIconics get released - and last week’s NXT firings - which saw Velveteen Dream, Drake
Wuertz and Alexander Wolfe lose their jobs - yesterday’s mass batch of redundancies
took place in WWE’s office staff.
But not before one onscreen talent was publicly let go, with the company announcing:
“WWE and Adnan Virk have mutually agreed to part ways.
WWE thanks Adnan for his work.”
A release so early in his run, they didn’t even have an official WWE image to use on
the announcement.
Virk became Raw’s lead play by play commentator in the announce team shake-up following WrestleMania
37, despite having no prior wrestling experience.
He was not good in the role, being panned by fans and critics alike, but it’s a difficult
role to succeed in - especially when you’re thrown in at the deep end, and you have Vince
McMahon supposedly yelling at you constantly through the headset while you work.
Virk lasted just six episodes.
Virk had previously been a sportscaster for the MLB, ESPN and TSN - proving it’s not
just NXT talent the main roster can ruin, but successful hosts from other major companies
too.
Virk had previously revealed in an interview, though, his commentating experience wasn’t
actually what got him the job.
With most things in WWE, it’s down to how tall you are.
“At one point [Michael] Cole goes ‘your look is great.’
And I’m laughing and asking ‘what do you mean by that?’
And he said ‘your height.
Mr. McMahon loves that because it makes the wrestlers look even bigger!’”
He also attributed getting the job to his former talent agent Nick Khan.
Remember that name, because he features a lot in today’s stories.
Because he’s quickly become one of the most powerful people behind-the-scenes in WWE.
Virk tweeted a statement following his release explaining why he and WWE 'mutually agreed
to part ways’.
“Thanks to @WWE for a wonderful opportunity.
The weekly travel along with my other jobs was a grind for me and my family.
Am grateful to everyone with the company especially @WWEGraves and @ByronSaxton for being such
fantastic teammates.
Virk also still works for the MLB show ChangeUp and hosts boxing events, implying that his
schedule was too much for him, so he asked WWE for his release and it was granted.
But according to Dave Meltzer, the ‘mutual’ parting of ways could be both sides Virking
themselves into a shoot, as he’s reporting Adnan’s release was “a company decision”.
As WWE have so far been unsuccessful to fully clone Michael Cole, they are having to look
elsewhere for Virk’s replacement.
Raw’s former lead play-by-play guys Tom Phillips and Vic Joseph are obvious favourites,
but PWInsider is reporting fromer UFC and American Ninja Warrior announcer Jimmy Smith
- who joined WWE for last month’s NXT TakeOver: Stand and Deliver - is also a possibility.
Do you think Virk should have been given more of a chance in WWE?
Let me know in the comments, because I’ll be replying to people for the first 30 minutes
after this video goes live FROM OUTTA NOWHERE!
And now onto all the other people who lost their jobs…
While Virk was the only publicly announced release, as he’s an onscreen talent, WWE
also reportedly made a “ton of firings” in their behind-the-scenes departments - with
some reports having the number at at least 36.
PWInsider notes there has been “shock and surprise at how important some of the names
have been.”
Their Advanced Media Group Department - which would include the WWE Network - has been “extremely
hard hit”, being “all but destroyed” by the firings, with those that survived the
cuts both “shellshocked,” “heartbroken” and dreading the increased workload they will
now inherit.
This is particularly surprising considering that it didn’t just “come out of nowhere,”
but also that it was a division that “grew greatly in importance and revenue for the
company over the course of the pandemic.”
Apparently WWE had offered bonuses to staff just last week for employee referrals, and
now those fired are joking with “gallows humor” they should just refer themselves.
The biggest names that have come out of the lay offs include:
WWE’s Executive Vice President of the Advanced Media Group Jaylar Donlan, who had been with
the company for eight years and was named one of the Sports Business Journal’s Forty
Under 40 Sports Executives just last month.
Content Director James Wortman, who had been with WWE for over 11 years - whose Twitter
statement reads this wasn’t something he expected today or on any day.
WWE website manager Adam Kirshner, who had been with the company for over 15 years, dating
back to the start of WWE.com, and the Associate Producer behind WWE’s successful Top 10
and Inbox YouTube series - part of the team that saw WWE’s YouTube channel become one
of the biggest on the platform, and oversaw the Network’s last relaunch before it moved
to Peacock.
His exit was said to have “shocked a lot of WWE staffers”.
Senior Vice President of Production Brian Pellegato, who had been with the company since
2015, and PWInsider notes that “everyone loved working with and was seen as a very
progressive, forward thinking executive.”
One of those was Xavier Woods, whose tweet shows just how important these backstage names
are: “Without @Pelle1105
- An unbooked me wouldnt have been able to hone my mic skills on the WWE app (second
screen) - I wouldnt have had a creative space to build
chemistry with @WWEBigE & @TrueKofi - I wouldnt have been able to create @UpUpDwnDwn
- I wouldnt have the life I have now” And over in WWE Studios, the company’s long-money
losing movie production department, the film industry trade website Deadline is reporting
“the cuts were deep” there too - impacting its “film, TV and social media divisions.”
The firings were described as a “bloodbath” to PWInsider, which was carried out via a
“brief call with WWE Human Resources at the end of the day.”
So why did all this happen?
According to PWInsider and Deadline, staff were told a number of divisions are going
to be folded together to be overseen by WWE’s Executive Vice President of Television Production,
that innovator of the nauseating shaky cam, Kevin Dunn.
One reason for this is the firings at the start of the pandemic last April.
WWE apparently realised they could run just as well, and make far more money, with much
less people - with one source telling PWInsider WWE “have shown they can ‘cut to the bone’
if needed and still get things done and this is just the latest example of that.”
One example was how WWE had two separate graphics departments for TV and digital.
The company realised they can merge those two departments into one smaller one, presumably
making the process far more efficient.
And then we get to that name we heard earlier, Nick Khan.
Khan, no relation to Tony, will now reportedly be personally overseeing WWE’s international
offices to keep them in closer alignment with WWE HQ in the US - with another one of the
firings being the Executive Vice President of International Jay Rosenstock, after just
2 years with the company.
It’s another big power grab for Khan, who only joined the company last August as President
and Chief Revenue Officer, replacing McMahon’s longtime right hand people George Barrios
and Michelle Wilson, whom he abruptly dismissed last January when they wanted to keep pursuing
the Network as its own product, while McMahon wanted to sell the rights to a larger company.
And that is exactly what Nick Khan did, managing the $1 billion Peacock Premium Network shift,
before previously negotiating SmackDown’s $1 billion deal with Fox.
I like the way he does business.
$1 billion or nothing.
But after laying off so many people, how does he sleep at night?
Quite comfortably, actually, as Dirt.com is reporting he’s just bought a $7.6 million
mansion in California.
As brutal as mass releases are, they can sadly make perfect business sense - like consolidating
two graphics departments doing the same thing into one, leaner division.
And, in one glimmer of hope here, at least it’s now, when the pandemic is easing, than
at the start of all this last April when it would’ve been far harder for those fired
to find new work.
But, also, rather contradictory, efficiency can actually create inefficiency.
If you’ll indulge me for some business theory for just one second…
There is a school of thought, popularised by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book the Black
Swan, that a certain degree of redundancy - i.e. stuff that seems to have no practical
use - is actually really healthy for a company’s future potential.
Because how many great ideas to you have when you’re actually working at the task in hand?
I’d assume hardly any.
But in the shower, when you’re walking outside, when you’re doing seemingly inefficient
things, that can be where the genius lies.
And in a company so stale and creatively bankrupt as WWE, a bit of redundancy can be very healthy.
Look at Xavier Woods’ story.
How it was the inefficient digital department that helped nurture the New Day and UpUpDownDown.
Look at the seemingly useless Talking Smack, and how that actually relaunched the careers
of The Miz and The Usos.
Ethics aside, letting go so many young and talented backstage executives could actually
end up being a bad business decision.
Speaking of bad and ethically compromised business decisions.
John Cena just pissed off China.
In an interview promoting Fast and Furious 9, Cena said “Taiwan is the first country
that can watch F9.”
Problem is, China doesn’t recognise Taiwan as a country.
China recognises China as just more China - and comes down hard on any inference that
Taiwan might be independent.
And, sadly, because large US companies like Disney and the NBA want that Chinese money,
Cena is the latest person to apologize to their government, posting a video on the social
media platform Weibo saying in Mandarin: “I made a mistake in one of my interviews...
I love and respect China and Chinese people.
I’m very, very sorry about my mistake.
I apologize, I’m very sorry.
You must understand that I really love, really respect China and the Chinese people.
My apologies.
See you.”
This has gone down very badly in not just the United States, but also in WWE itself
- with the Mat Men Podcast saying Cena’s apology is “NOT going over well at WWE right
now.”
Cena’s classic WWE foe CM Punk, meanwhile, briefly updated his Twitter to read “Taiwan
is a country”.
Should John Cena have apologised?
Let me know in the comments.
And now, here’s Tempest
with last night’s NXT i