The writing team managed to avoid the recent spate of WWE cuts as it was already down to a skeleton crew, with Brian Gerwitz, Ed Koskey and Dave Kapoor (Ranjin Singh) handling Raw, Michael Hayes, Freddie Prinze Jr and Christopher DeJosephs (Big Dick Johnson) on Smackdown and John Carle and Jen Bloodsworth as assistants. Koskey is also the head writer of ECW, which gets contributions from everybody. There have been complaints from some writers about their long hours, the lack of direct consultation time with Vince McMahon, the workload increasing with WWE Superstars returning in April, their salaries being frozen and a general lack of appreciation.
Those employees who were fired from their WWE office jobs in Stamford were immediately escorted from the building by security guards after they were given notice. The WWE.com staff took a bigger hit than other departments. Vince McMahon remains convinced that the economy is going to get even worse in 2009, which is mainly due to his negative reaction to Barack Obama winning the presidential election.
All in all, the layoffs are expected to save WWE around $8 million per year in salary and benefits. They are taking a one-off $3 million hit for severance packages. In addition to all of this, the Asia Pacific office in Sydney was closed down and all employees there were let go.
Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 19 January 2008 (subscribe here)
