Wednesday afternoon WWE CEO Vince McMahon announced on an all-employee conference call that "cutbacks and furloughs" of WWE staff were being made. In the hours since, WWE has announced the release of 10 wrestlers, including Kurt Angle and Drake Maverick, and reportedly furloughed nine producers. More release announcements are expected.
The list of wrestlers being released includes: Kurt Angle, who retired in 2019 but is said to have been doing producer work; Drake Maverick, who was recently confirmed for the NXT's Cruiserweight tournament; The OC tag team members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson; TNA fan-favorite EC3; Curt Hawkins; Lio Rush; Heath Slater; Eric Young; and Sarah Logan.
WWE is also removing several other staff members. These include the WWE's longest-standing referee, Mike Chioda, and producer Lance Storm. Lance Storm had only recently sold his well-regarded wrestling training school for a position at WWE. It's unclear if non-wrestlers have been released or furloughed until after the COVID-19 crisis.
The news of WWE's releases comes just days after it was revealed that the state of Florida would be relaxing its COVID-19 stay-at-home rules to allow wrestling to be considered an "essential service." Just in the past day, US President Donal Trump also announced WWE CEO Vince McMahon was appointed to an advisory group for reopening the country economically.
Expect further updates about WWE's releases as they're reported.