WWE released over one hundred employees on April 15th. Several longtime employees were left without a job and the company was heavily criticized for this decision during the pandemic.
Tony Khan spoke to Sports Illustrated, where he was asked regarding WWE firing so many employees. He then said he is pleased how AEW managed to go through these troubling times without making any widespread releases.
“I’m really pleased that we haven’t done that. We negotiated a great television contract that will keep us going, and that made it possible for us to hang on in a time when there wasn’t a revenue stream of ticket sales. Now the ticket sales revenue stream is very different. We were the No. 1 touring wrestling company per event, but that’s not a major revenue stream right now. The television revenue is such an important part of the business model.
Frankly, I wasn’t concerned about making the biggest profit in 2020. We could have slashed and made some good money, but it’s been a very challenging year. Every company can approach it the way they want, but as the president and CEO of this company, it was important for me to keep people working and getting paid.”
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