Last week, WWE made changes to their WWE Network pre-shows and dropped Jerry Lawler and Lita from their panels. Lita shortly thereafter left the company entirely, but Lawler is sticking around on his joint announcer/Legends contract. There was some speculation about why WWE made the moves, but Lawler himself has stepped forward to clear the air.
On the Cerrito Live podcast, Lawler explained that the pre-show changes came as a cost-cutting measure for the Network.
“Well, I got a call last week from (Kevin Dunn) … he’s one of the guys that makes the decisions when it comes to TV. He is the guy that is in charge of WWE TV and has been for years. … I got a call from him and basically — I don’t want to say anything talking out of school or anything like that — when you’re a publicly traded company everything comes down to dollars and cents. Apparently once they moved my job over to the pre-shows and the pre-shows had to absorb my salary and my pay, it made it a very expensive show to produce every week. I guess, as Kevin explained to me, they decided to cut back on the pre-show because it was costing them too much money at the time.”
Lawler explained that his current contract is up in January, but he’ll likely sign a new one at that time, which will be lower-paying. However, he said that Vince McMahon told him he may end up working more than ever on the new deal, and further told him that he has a job for life, if he wants it.
(Transcript via Cageside Seats)
