After all the years Vince McMahon has fought and pushed for his family’s company to be the best, surviving the Monday Night Wars and the mediocrity the WWE embraced since, their handling of the coronavirus pandemic could be what finishes it. It’s odd thinking about how the could be WWE killing itself, but it’s a possibility.
An escapism icon
With people and businesses struggling to survive, much less return to normalcy, the WWE has continued pretty much business as usual. They accepted their shows would be without fans in attendance and put on the best performances they could. They’re presentation as been second to none during this time, but it may have been too much.
In their quest to continue bringing us an escape from real world concerns, the WWE has lost a great deal of money. 2020 hasn’t been kind to them as it was, but now there appears to be blood in the water.
They were already limping along, but when the lockdowns eliminated their house shows, live audiences, and people’s paychecks to purchase their shirts and other paraphernalia it started to take it’s toll.
Closing the XFL
First, it came with the canceling of the remaining XFL football season. This wasn’t a surprise as the other professional leagues had done the same. It made perfect sense and was reasonable.
But then a week or so ago, it was announced the XFL was closing their doors. They fired all of their employees from the commissioner to the players. Everyone reportedly received a larger than usual paycheck as it had their accrued vacation days and all to that point added in for them. In short, it was severance pay and April 9 was the last day they would be paid.
Then last week, the XFL filed for bankruptcy and Vince McMahon has reportedly looking to sell.
This is where it gets interesting.
Releases to close the gap
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LOZ4gpsgi/
On Wednesday, April 15, 2020 (The original tax day for 2020. There’s a pun or joke in here I’m missing, I’m sure of it), the WWE cleaned house.
We’re all used to the WWE doing some spring cleaning by dropping a few mid-carders they rarely use, or even the occasional upper tier guy that’s fallen on hard times, but this was a purge.
In just a couple of days, the WWE released an estimated 40% of the company. Everyone from the wrestlers (main level and Performance Center), referees, writers, and producers. Names we recognized and didn’t, including the writer for the Otis-Mandy Rose storyline (one of the best of the year, of course) went.
It was said and believed by many this was to limit costs over the next few weeks until things start returning to normal. But many have also pointed out that the WWE claimed to have $500 million in fluid assets they could use to keep things running. Another claim has recently come out that the WWE didn’t have to release their people to make a profit this year.
There are other rumors out there that McMahon used WWE stocks to pay for the XFL, something he denied doing, and needed to get the money back.
Profit versus perspective
Some or all of those rumors may be true, or they could all be false. Honestly, it seems more like the releasing were to recoup what McMahon lost on the XFL. If some had to go to other creditors or shareholders, that’s another topic.
But one that that is never good in any business, especially a publicly traded company like WWE, is losing money or breaking even when you’re a multi-billion dollar operation. It’s just common sense and knowledge that people don’t want to lose money on their investment. If that happens, it can trigger a mass exodus.
What’s really come to light is while professional sports leagues like the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA have guaranteed money in their contracts. The XFL players didn’t, and this brings up the thought that the wrestlers may not. Especially the mid-card and lower talent that are striving to prove themselves and earn that safety blanket.
And guess what level those releases hit?
An example of Curt Hawkins who has a wife that’s 30 weeks pregnant. She gave up her career last year to be a stay at home mom and she recently wrote a blog post about this.
This doesn’t mean they and others didn’t save some money, but it also doesn’t say they have a safety net in place, and were worried about their friends. This leads to the perception that they were simply let go and that’s that.
The fact Vince McMahon is known for wanting everyone to sign long contracts (5-10 years) to keep talent from floating away while they’re in their prime, this is especially damning perception-wise.
The silver bullet
The long contracts and lack of guaranteed money could be one of the things that could sink the WWE.
Wrestlers were already looking to leave so they had their creative freedom, but this could be something that could come back to hurt the WWE in the next few years.
What is interesting is that many people have commented online that the WWE wrestlers need to unionize like the other professional sports. That alone would prove interesting as any deal most likely wouldn’t allow McMahon to bury wrestlers on a whim and he couldn’t just release because of this or that.
But more than that, when coupled with these releases, wrestlers may flock to AEW that openly admits it is run by wrestlers. They’ll expect some of their own will treat them better than McMahon, and they may not be wrong.
With everything going on at the moment, we could be seeing the end of professional wrestling’s Disney. Who knows, in three to four years, AEW could be the big boy in town and the WWE an Indie level promotion. Often times, things like this start with a company just trying to stay in business.
What does the future hold? Looks like time will tell.
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