It has been reported lately that due to massive losses in WWE Network start-up costs, WWE is looking to make some significant budget cuts.
According to one source, Vince McMahon has personally ordered that roughly $20 million in cuts across every department in the company needs to be made.
This was the decision to led to all of the recent roster cuts, which included well-known talents such as Brodus Clay, Drew McIntyre and Evan Bourne. It also led to announcing cuts, such as Josh Mathews. High-level writers and executives in the company were let go.
WWE is taking the budget cut issue seriously.
It is being said now that plans for a second season of the popular WWE Network reality show “Legends House” may be put on hold, or put off altogether. The same can be said for the return of “Tough Enough.”
Both of those news items bothered me to a certain extent.
Even though I had not heard any talk of Steve Austin being attached to the new Tough Enough project, I was one of the fans of the most recent season of Tough Enough, which Austin hosted, that felt that the show was excellent. I thought the last few minutes of every episode, with Austin reviewing his “bottom three,” was superb television.
The same can be said for Legends House. At first, I thought it was a depressing look at retired wrestlers holding on to past glory, and looking very frail physically overall, but eventually grew to love the cast of characters and enjoyed tuning in each week.
There was some talk that Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair could fill the role that Roddy Piper had on the first season, that of the legitimate main event level star. I thought that was something to look forward to. Even the right mix of old stars from the 1980s would be entertaining television in a reality show format.
Picture Iron Sheik on Legends House. C’mon. Forgetta-bout-it. Television gold.
The fact that WWE is already bailing on putting additional funds into the WWE Network production budget shows that they are already scaling back on the project in an effort to make it more financially feasible. The problem there is that the content suffers as a result, decreasing the value of the product as a whole.
Hopefully I’m jumping the gun here and a second season of Legends House, complete with a great cast of characters, returns soon enough. Hopefully we see the return of Tough Enough — although even in the best of circumstances I can’t see Austin hosting the show, as his price tag is probably pretty significant, and WWE doesn’t seem to be investing that kind of money in the Network at this time.
The same can be said for Hogan on Legends House. But they can afford Sheiky-Baby, and anyone mixed in with him would make for a good season of reality television!
Hopefully we don’t see too many additional roster cuts as a result of the budget cutbacks. It was a shame to see a guy like Evan Bourne get kicked to the curb after he had just recently expressed his excitement via social media that he was back in good condition after being on the sidelines with an injury for so long. He had so much talent as well. The same can be said for many of the guys who were released.
What do you guys think of WWE’s recent budget cuts and those that are expected in the future? What do you see being affected the most? What are your expectations? Leave your feedback in the “Comments” section below. You can also hit me up on Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR and/or on Twitter @MBoone420.
