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WWE merged with UFC in April of last year, finalizing the deal in September, which led to a number of cuts of both backstage staff and in-ring talent. The releases have trickled into 2024. Since the formation of TKO Group Holdings, redundancies have taken their toll on the WWE staff.
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Fightful Select has confirmed some WWE layoffs that occurred early Thursday afternoon regarding some long-term employees. Kristen Prouty was one of the first names revealed to be released from the company, she'd been working for WWE for nearly 25 years starting her career in 2000. Prouty had become the Senior VP of Entertainment Relations, a position she held for almost 20 years, and was "instrumental" in helping WWE sign the current United States Champion Logan Paul.
Also released was Tavia Hartley. Hartley had been with WWE since 2021 and held the role of an appearances manager and was also a part of Talent Operations. It is still uncertain whether these layoffs are related to the announcement that the UFC and WWE live events divisions are now merging into one division moving forward, as TKO Group Holdings cuts costs in certain backstage roles within both WWE and UFC to maximize overall revenue.
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As of today, there have been no talent releases according to Fightful Select, as they reached out to WWE for confirmation about further cuts or individual names but so far have not received a response. The last major talent releases made by WWE occurred last April over the weekend of the "WWE Draft". Several names from the main roster as well as "WWE NXT" were cut including Jinder Mahal, Cameron Grimes and Xia Li.
