Nick Khan Says “Aggressive” Cuts Coming To WWE

WWE is set to be taken over by Endeavor in the coming months and it looks like big cuts will be made to personnel in the new organization.

On the day after WrestleMania 39, WWE announced that it had signed a deal with Endeavor to be taken over by the company and merged into a new company with UFC. With the merger, it had been expected that staff cuts might follow – as had been the case when Endeavor bought UFC – and that has seemingly been confirmed by the man who will become WWE President in the new company.

Speaking to LightShed Partners, Nick Khan noted that aggressive cuts are coming to WWE and that savings of a massive $50 million are only a conservative estimate:

“If you look at what Endeavor was able to take out, cost-wise, from UFC in 2016 or shortly after that deal was done, we have the same expectation here. We think 50 (million) is a really conservative number. We have integration teams now, we’re going to get those in shape, I think we’ll have a better sense of it in a month or two.

“We’re going to be pretty aggressive with them to make sure that, for our shareholders and for our company, our organisation is as lean and mean as possible, and we’re going to rely on the Endeavor flywheel to make up the rest.”

Khan went on to clarify that these cuts seem to be coming for backstage and office staff as the company is not looking to make any more cutbacks to the roster:

“The most important thing is to leave the product untouched. Untouched, meaning, if Triple H and Kevin Dunn want to evolve it, great, but in terms of cutbacks there, that’s not what we’re looking to do.”

The deal between Endeavor and WWE is signed but is expected to be finalized later in 2023 when these cuts could begin to bite in the company.