As noted, WWE executives Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and John Laurinaitis all issued Twitter statements this evening in response to former WWE star Mickie James revealing how some of her belongings were sent to her in a trash bag by the company. They confirmed that the employee responsible has been fired, and Stephanie personally apologized, and apologized on behalf of the company. You can click here for our latest report on the “care package” with full details.
In an update, Fightful Select reports that Talent Relations head Laurinaitis has been calling several of the released stars to apologize personally as this apparently happened with more than one of the recently released wrestlers. We noted earlier how Maria Kanellis tweeted that she received a similar shipment in 2020 after she was cut.
This report noted that the finger was being pointed at Mark Carrano in some of the calls, while other calls were a simple apology. Carrano had been the head of Talent Relations until Laurinaitis took back over in early March, but Carrano is still working in the department.
UPDATE: Carrano has been fired.
It was also said that WWE usually does return belongings to released talents, but word in the past was that they’d return them in a box after multiple people would be tasked with gathering the items. It was also noted that members of the active roster accidentally had their items sent to one of the released wrestlers multiple times this year, and had to arrange to have them sent back.
On a related note, we reported tonight on a recent shake-up in the WWE Talent Relations department. It was noted that Nicole Zeoli had been released from her job as Director of Talent Relations. She had been with WWE for more than 11 years, and started working that role in February 2018. It was also reported that longtime WWE referee John Cone had been released from his job as Senior Manager of Talent Relations, but he remains with the company as a referee. You can click here for that report.
In an update on that report, Fightful reports that referee Dan Engler was also released from his Talent Relations job. There was no confirmation on if Engler is staying with the company as a referee.
Stay tuned for more.
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