-- As we saw in 2019, WWE continues to try and sign its wrestlers to new long-term contract extensions, however, a report from fightfulselect.com notes that the situation is quite a bit different from, at least from the talents’ perspective. While 2019 brought forward lucrative offers with WWE signing their new TV deals and the emergence of AEW creating competition in the marketplace, 2020 was much more challenging with the pandemic pretty much wiping out the whole year and causing WWE to cut costs in their business and as per the report, offer far less substantial offers to wrestlers whose deals are running out.
-- Furthermore, WWE has shifted its thinking in that they aren’t really out there to hoard talent or keep them locked in deals and we have seen evidence of a plethora of wrestlers given their release over the last 12 months. Those who have been offered new deals have suggested that they are not nearly as strong as anticipated and as such, at least “half a dozen” of them have decided to wait before agreeing anything, presumably in the hope that 2021 brings better news business wise. The report added that WWE was fine with these wrestlers waiting it out and hoping to re-negotiate a better deal down the road.
