WWE To Fire 10% Of Staff In Mass Layoffs

Today is a big day for WWE because of the earnings call that will take place with the latest Network subscriber count revealed. Optimism over the subscriber count is worryingly low and PWInsider reports that mass layoffs are expected over the Network's underwhelming performance. While nothing is for sure at this point, the report warns that 10% of WWE's employees could lose their jobs. That doesn't mean just wrestlers. It includes office staff, people in production, the marketing department, the website and so on. It's a huge company, so plenty of people are going to be affected. Perhaps the first victim of the cutting is Ricardo Rodriguez, who it was revealed by WWE.com last night that he is gone from the company. Back in April the number of subscribers WWE shared was 667,000. When the Network started the goal was to have 1 million subscribers in the US. What's more worrying for the WWE is the general consensus that a sizable chunk of those 667,000 subscribers are from savvy fans overseas who have bypassed the blocks that allows users to subscribe to the US only network. This is worrying because WWE haven't budgeted for those fans yet. The wrestlers on WWE's roster that need to be concerned are the ones that are barely on television. Although it's a little insensitive to mention names at this time, history does tell us that a guy like David Otunga isn't even doing house shows at this point yet he's still a WWE employee. People that are safe would be anybody that's regularly on TV (that includes Total Divas too), but even then some of them are in danger. It's not like the Adam Rose character is working that well. He's not a sure bet to still be around. They fired Emma, then brought her back after her shoplifting accident and she may be on the chopping block. A lot of talented people could be cut. When you hear WWE talk about the Network on television they always mention the fact that 90% of subscribers are satisfied with it. That's not some made up number. It's true. Most of us that have WWE Network are happy with it. The $9.99 price is great especially because it has the live PPVs that a lot of fans may have otherwise missed due to the $55 price tag that PPVs cost on DirecTV and elsewhere. It's a great deal. However, not enough people have subscribed and that's why jobs are going to be lost. It's just part of business. We will have an update on Thursday with the news about WWE's earnings call, what the subscriber number is and of course plenty of analysis as well.