How Fox Executives Felt About CM Punk’s WWE Backstage Contract

FS1 made the decision to trim some of their original programs. WWE Backstage was a part of those cuts. The show likely won’t be back, but they do have the ability to bring the concept back on a rare occasion.

WWE Backstage’s cancellation means that CM Punk no longer has that show. Now he can stop watching pro wrestling again because he won’t need to commentate on it as part of his job.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that the size of CM Punk’s contract was substantial. Fox believed that they “had pulled a great coup” when getting him on the show in the first place.

A number of employees that worked in production on the shows were let go, and it also costs the FOX jobs for people like Renee Young (who still has her WWE job), Booker T, C.M. Punk (who got a big contract for very little work since FOX execs believed they had pulled a great coup in getting him back on wrestling programming)

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WWE Backstage had its fans, but viewership fluctuated greatly through the show’s run. It was a good experiment while it lasted, but COVID-19 had other plans.

WWE Backstage eventually evolved into a webcam based show. Then it was simply too expensive to keep going considering the return on Fox’s investment.