Losing Triple H’s number two on the business side was not a WWE decision.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports the call to let Patrick Dooley go came from the Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro level at TKO, and that people inside WWE were surprised he was cut.
Dooley left quietly in late July. PWInsider broke the news on August 4, describing him as Paul Levesque’s number two on everything outside the creative department. His most recent title was Senior Vice President of Global Strategy and Corporate Development.
The work behind that title is not small. Dooley joined WWE in December 2018 as a Director of Global Strategy and was an SVP within five years. He played a part in WWE’s acquisition of Lucha Libre AAA, in getting AAA onto FOX Latin America, and in returning NXT to Full Sail University. Before WWE, he worked for CA Technologies and the consultancy Oliver Wyman, and he holds an MBA from Wharton.
His exit came alongside several other departures attributed to budget cuts, though reporting has not established whether he was formally part of that round.
It caps a year of turnover. WWE has parted with Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, Kairi Sane, the Wyatt Sicks, the Motor City Machine Guns and the New Day, and Gavin O’Shea left after more than 25 years with the company.
