There’s no doubt WWE stars are well paid, but how well paid are we talking?
According to WWE president Nick Khan in a recent interview with Max Kellerman, the top stars in the business today are ‘getting rich’, but the rest of the card are not.
“So, if it’s a meritocracy — if you make it to the top and you’re marketable — you get paid. That’s how any job should be.
“Your job, my job, any job. Similarly, in WWE, if you’re Roman Reigns, if you’re Brock Lesnar, if you’re Cody Rhodes — all the guys at the top of our game, CM Punk — they’re getting rich.
“If you’re in the middle, you’re not getting rich, but you have a really good life.”
Even superstars on the lower end of the card, they are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The only problem is, they are largely expected to cover their expenses domestically.
That’s food, travel and hotels. Whenever they head outside of the States, food and travel are taken care of and there’s generally catering.
The way business is done has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades.
At the turn of the millennium, the onus was on putting butts in seats and selling pay-per-views. The pay-offs from WrestleMania at the time could equate to what some performers make in a year.
Then you’ve got merchandise where even though the superstars generally get a fraction of what the company make, Jim Ross has been on record suggesting he saw Stone Cold Steve Austin get a million dollar cheque for his Austin 3:16 shirt – and that was for once month.
But, he was the top star. When he was on top, The Rock, Hulk Hogan and so on, they drew the house and thus, they earned the most.
That’s why being the champion used to carry so much weight. You would generally main event shows and you are the draw. Therefore, you earn the best money of your career.
As WWE moved away from the pay-per-view model and guaranteed money became mandatory, the big bonuses began to cease.
The company moving to a streaming model with the WWE Network further changed things as fans began paying a monthly price for pay-per-views rather than buying each event.
And of course, WWE has a ton of different revenues from TV deals now and special events. They will earn $1 billion from the shows they run in Saudi over 10-year deal that started in 2018.
ESPN just paid $1.6b for a five-year deal. Netflix is paying $5b for the next 10 years. Of course, the biggest adjustment to WWE business is the fact that TKO now owns the company since 2023.
Last year, Sports Illustrated estimated that Roman Reigns is making around $5 million a year as a basic salary with WWE, but after merchandise and big show bonuses – which aren’t calibrated by buys anymore – he took home closer to $15m.
Other superstars believed to be making north of $1m a year before bonuses include Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles, The Miz, Kevin Owens and Drew McIntyre.
