WWE Report Reveals Details on Unofficial Hiring Freeze

Recently it was revealed that WWE had engaged in discussions to sign Jay White, but the former New Japan Pro-Wrestling star ended up signing with AEW and debuting on Dynamite. If White had been signed, it would have been the first major hiring since 2023 began, and there have been rumors that WWE is currently in a hiring freeze. A new report from Fightful Select discusses the unofficial hiring freeze and the few details that are currently available, and several talents that they’ve spoken to claim there is an active hiring freeze, and there are numerous talents that have been contacted by Fightful that say they’ve been contacted by WWE in 2023, but so far no signings or hires have been announced by the company.

As for why the hiring freeze is happening, talent that was spoken to have speculated that Vince McMahon’s return could be the reason, though they’ve also mentioned the sale being the key to it all. No one that was spoken to within the company specifically said there is a hiring freeze, though the term has constantly emerged.

There were also multiple talents that were told it was hard to make things happen because of the impending sale, though several talents on WWE’s radar have simply had no contact from WWE after initial interest was shown. James Kimball’s departure was cited as the reason for a few of them, but not all of them.

Stars that WWE reportedly had an interest in included White, Tama Tonga, Brian Cage, and the Authors of Pain. It seems AOP was already in talks with WWE in 2022, and evidently, Cage has well-respected supporters pushing for him. It’s also said that Triple H is high on Nick Aldis, who recently ended his relationship with the NWA, but that seems to be on hold if the hiring freeze is indeed happening.

Now, there are also reportedly talents that were signed in 2022 and haven’t been used yet, so we could still see some returns, but they aren’t new signings in 2023. WWE recently announced its sale to Endeavor, so now that the deal is official, perhaps that hiring freeze will be lifted sooner than later. WWE has yet to officially comment on this and probably won’t, but if they do we’ll let you know.

Triple H did recently announce the return of the WWE Draft on this week’s SmackDown. If we were to see the debuts of other signed talents that were brought in last year, the week of the Draft would certainly be the time for those to be revealed. There’s no official date yet for the WWE Draft, though a new report suggests it will happen in early May, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

What do you think is going on with WWE and hiring new talent? Let us know in the comments!