As we exclusively broke here on the website Monday night, a number of top-level names have been fired from the WWE licensing department. The cuts were considered “major and shocking.”
* Jim Connelly, who served as the Senior Vice President of Consumer Products was let go from the company. He had been there since 1999.
* Dean Miller, who worked under Connelly as the Senior Manager of Home Entertainment, was also let go,
* Also let go was Florence DiGiorgio, who was with WWE since the 1990s and most recently served as the Senior Director of Global Licensing.
The official word from WWE on the departures is that they are re-organizing that department. The feeling is that Vince McMahon made the moves at the worst time as they happened right before a big New York Toy Fair last week. Several people from WWE’s Consumer Products division were awkwardly dancing around questions at the Toy Fair on who to contact within WWE for potential licensing deals.
