Mike Pavone, the Executive Vice President of WWE Studios, has left the company, according an article in The Los Angeles Times. The reasoning of other interests is the only statement that has been made at this time regarding Pavone's departure, but the direction WWE studios is moving has been a topic recently in WWE.
During last week's teleconference with WWE stockholders, Vince McMahon discussed the Studios division of the company, pointing out that films such as "That's What I Am" which starred Randy Orton, lost $3.3 million. The film was an award winning film but that the bottom line is what is most important. McMahon noted some planned changes for the WWE Studios such as adjusting the genre of the movie division to fit what WWE audiences expect of their performers. McMahon stated in the meeting that they were going to lower their production budgets.
As noted in the article, while the WWE studios has turned a profit the last few years, it made less than half of a million dollars last year.
Currently WWE has several movies in different stages of post-production to be released in the future. The projects feature such WWE stars as Triple H, Edge, Brodus Clay and others in different roles.
