Reactions To Major Corporate Shake-Up, Rumor Killers On Why George Barrios And Michelle Wilson Left

Reactions To Major Corporate Shake-Up

The most shocking WWE news of the last year came yesterday with the announcement that WWE Co-Presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson had been bounced out of power and would be leaving the company.

We noted before that the timing of the announcement was very interesting as WWE is scheduled to report their fourth quarter and full 2019 earnings report next Thursday. PWInsider notes that this makes it clear that Vince isn’t happy with how things were going for the company, and he felt like it was time for a change. There’s a very small circle of people who know exactly what went down and it’s likely that the full situation and how it did go down won’t be known for a long time, due to corporate non-disclosures and severance packages. It’s believed that both Wilson and Barrios will receive a seven-figure severance package.

There has been a lot of speculation and some conspiracy theories about why Barrios and Wilson are gone, but word is that the main reason they’re out is that they and Vince had completely different visions as to how WWE could generate revenue, new and existing revenue, moving forward.

One employee joked to PWInsider, “It’s never going to be Vince who loses that argument.”

Word is that an internal announcement released by the company to its employees was even more direct. The announcement reportedly alluded to irreconcilable differences in WWE’s strategic priorities. Wilson and Barrios have had one vision, and Vince has had another. Vince being Vince McMahon, his vision will always win in the end.

Most WWE employees, like just about everyone else, are said to be shocked by the departures. If there was something specific that led to the departures, it has been kept extremely quiet and wasn’t something being talked about openly within WWE HQ in Stamford, CT. PWInsider speculates that something happened that led to an immediate blowup and departure because the announcement wasn’t held for the weekend, when most companies release their negative news with the hope that it’s forgotten about by the time the next week rolls around.

One WWE employee, speaking under the condition of anonymity, said all work that they were aware of was pretty much “ground to a halt” when the announcement was made on Thursday as everyone was shocked by the news. Another employee said it was the most shocking day they could recall since the “horrible day in 2007” when WWE fired 10% of its workforce. We noted yesterday that both Barrios and Wilson had been responsible for the development & launch of the WWE Network, and there was a lot of feelings of “what happens now” on Thursday, in regards to projects and strategies underway, including the planned launch of the tiered Network in the first quarter of this year. However, others noted that if the company survived after Linda McMahon left, and after Shane McMahon resigned in 2009, that the WWE “machine” won’t stop rolling for anyone’s departure.

One rumor going around that has been shot down is that Barrios and Wilson were pushing for a WWE sale to a larger company, such as a FOX or a Disney, which Vince was against. Another rumor going around, that has been shot down, is that the departures had something to do with Wilson and Barrios pushing back against Vince’s relaunch of his XFL football league next month. PWInsider added that the reality of the departures is that working for Vince is always an extremely hard job, one that can be almost impossible if he’s personally aware of your work and if he’s not happy with the results. These aren’t the first executives to climb the company ladder only to see their run come to an end when Vince isn’t happy. These departures were just shocking because of who Barrios and Wilson were, and what they’ve done with the company.

It was noted that Barrios and Wilson both had their quirks, but were well-liked within WWE and were thought of as a “calming presence” against the larger-than-life personality of Vince.

Next Thursday’s 2019 earnings call with investors could be very interesting due to the shake-up. Barrios and Wilson usually handled the majority of those calls, but there’s no word yet on if Triple H and Stephanie McMahon will have a larger role with them this time. They are both usually in the room when the calls are being done.

WWE stock tanked in after-hours trading yesterday. The stock opened at $45.41 today, down 27% from Thursday’s closing price of $62.31. As of this writing, stock is at $48.20 per share, down 22.6%.

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