We’ve learned more on the WWE hiring freeze.
Contrary to reports….that claimed the contrary of our report, it was reiterated to Fightful from WWE higher ups that there has been an effective hiring freeze in place since the beginning of the year. In fact, we’ve learned that Nick Aldis was told that WWE had maintained interest in him, but with the corporate moves, there weren’t main roster hires being made.
However, we have been told that A WWE higher up told some within the industry that they’re still talking to talent, and hope to be hiring again sooner than later. We’ve learned that there was contact with EJ Nduka via James Kimball, and Switchblade Jay White via WWE, and that Triple H was adamant he didn’t want details of the talks leaked. William Regal and Bruce Prichard had both reached out to talent during that time. The way that it was put to us was “we haven’t been hiring people, but we’ve been talking to people.” it was also mentioned that while WWE had heavy interest in Jay White and would have loved to have had him, there wasn’t a lot of communication in the latter weeks before he got signed by AEW.
WWE also had been interested in Hikuleo, Tama Tonga and bringing back Naomi and they didn’t end up landing them.
We’ve also spoken to multiple free agents who said WWE outright stopped responding to them along the way.
One WWE higher up pointed over 20 main roster signings between August and December, and none in 2023 as evidence that things had changed. However, they think it was more of a product of the sale progression than anything else.
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