Will The Writers' Strike Affect WWE?

The Writers Guild of America has gone on strike. The union of film and television writers across Hollywood began protesting on Tuesday after they failed to reach new contracts with various film studios. The core of this issue comes with western media's transition towards streaming, which has resulted in smaller writing staffs and shorter seasons compared to what broadcast shows would have. This downsizing has led to streaming showrunners making less than half of broadcast showrunners' wages, the WGA said. Until the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reach new agreements, progress on almost every Hollywood project in pre-production, as well as a variety of weekly scripted shows (The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live), has halted.

One entertainment avenue that operates in a grey area is professional wrestling, as it technically meets that aforementioned "weekly scripted show" category. This scripted form of sports-entertainment does utilize writing teams, often made up of former comic or television scribes, but they exist outside of the typical Hollywood realm.

Speaking on WWE's Q1 earnings call, WWE CEO Nick Khan clarified that since WWE's writers are not part of the WGA, the strike will not affect WWE product, including its shows on A&E. That said, Khan noted that WWE as a company is in support of the WGA's strike.

Khan's comments come alongside more details surrounding WWE's sale to Endeavor, the parent company of UFC. He stressed that Endeavor is strictly operating on WWE's business side as they will be keeping all creative duties in house.

"I can certainly represent emphatically to you on the creative that there's no one at Endeavor or the UFC that has any interest in trying to interfere with that, in any way whatsoever," Khan continued. "I think [UFC President] Dana White would also represent to you that never or almost never, I don't know the specifics but never would be my guess, have the Endeavor folks told him no, you should do this match or you should do it this way. That's not what they do."

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for continuing coverage of the WGA strike.