Backstage News On WWE's Reported Hiring Freeze

Fightful Select has shared backstage news regarding WWE and hiring new talent. According to the report, the talent that spoke with Fightful are claiming that the company is going through a "hiring freeze," because so far this year, the promotion has not been hiring any main roster talent.

The sources that spoke with Fightful have speculated that Vince McMahon's return and talks about the impending sale were just a few reasons behind the so-called "freeze." WWE's sale was made official on April 3 — the promotion was purchased by Ari Emanuel's Endeavor Group. Since the sale, it appears that McMahon has found himself back in with creative. As reported earlier this week, he was "personally and heavily involved" with this week's episode of "WWE Raw," which resulted in him wanting rewrites of the script only minutes before the show began.

Fightful was told that Triple H wanted to have former NWA World Champion Nick Aldis join the company, but like other potential hires before him, including names like Tama Tonga and Brian Cage – has been "left out in the cold," right when McMahon returned as the Executive Chairman of WWE.

The firing of James Kimball was another reason why several that were on WWE's radar had no contact after the company had shown interest. Kimball had been WWE's Senior Vice President of Talent Operations and Strategy, before the company let him go back in February, due to an undisclosed HR violation. Kimball had been with the company since 2020.