Performers are entitled to a share of gate receipts for house shows. Those bonuses come in several forms, namely live events and royalties. His booking contract states he has a $1 million base salary, meaning that he earned an additional $650,000 or so - or 65% of his base salary - in bonus payments. We know this because, as noted above, Triple H's total in-ring income was $1.65 million last year. Though there are no specific dollar amounts attached, these bonuses can be valuable. In the event of in-ring injury, all costs of treatment and necessary rehab are paid by WWE.īeyond base salary, wrestlers are entitled to various bonus payments. No such language regarding time missed due to injury appears in Triple H's contract. Chris Kanyon had an eight-week grace period. This language appears in the contracts of Raven, Mike Sanders, Brock Lesnar and Stephanie McMahon. Multiple contracts stipulate that, should a wrestler suffer an in-ring injury that leaves him/her unable to perform for six consecutive weeks, then that wrestler's base salary will be reduced by 0.5% for every house show or TV taping missed thereafter. For every pay-per-view event in which a wrestler is unable to perform after that six week period, minimum pay will be reduced by the average pay received for the three previous PPV events (or 0.5% if the wrestler didn't perform in any). To clarify, the above table includes a one-year extension signed by Owen Hart in November 1997, which immediately raised his base salary from $250,000 to $400,000 per year.Ī wrestler's base salary can be diminished, however, in the event of in-ring injury. Below is a table with the available base salary details. This is the only section of a booking contract in which a portion of a wrestler's income is detailed as a specific dollar amount. In the available contracts, annual base salaries range from $52,000 to $1 million per year, though that's based on a small sample of contracts. Related: Breaking Down How WWE Contracts Work That bonus money is nearly impossible to discern, however, because the wrestlers' share of revenue is allocated as a portion of costs of sales in WWE's financial filings.īut with the information that's available, we can at least shed some light on just how wrestlers are rewarded for the risks they take in the ring. We've managed to acquire about a dozen booking contracts and a handful of other pertinent documents that have been made public over the years thanks to lawsuits and SEC filings - most have been helpfully compiled here - and they illustrate that wrestlers are paid a base salary plus shares of WWE revenue streams like merchandise and gate receipts. the Hard Rock Cafe New York on Apin New York City. Yet that's an estimate that requires a fair amount of guesswork because, as outlined below, the details of a wrestler's pay are ultimately difficult to determine even with a copy of his contract and WWE's public financial information.ĭave Batista, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Daniel Bryan attend the WrestleMania 30 press conference at. If it's the former, then Orton's total pay is likely well in excess of $5 million per year. The report also doesn't clarify whether that figure is base salary or all-inclusive pay. Even when TMZ got a look at Randy Orton's divorce filing, noting that The Viper makes $291,666 per month - or $3.5 million per year - in salary, it was unclear where that number came from. His total take-home of some $2.8 million made him WWE's highest-paid executive last year chairman Vince McMahon made $2.4 million.īut that's a unique example. Last year Levesque made $1.1 million in executive pay, including incentives, plus another $1.65 million from in-ring performances. The only wrestler for which we have a definitive number is Triple H, and only then because he - or, more specifically, executive VP of talent, live events and creative Paul Levesque - is a company exec whose compensation is broken down in WWE's latest proxy, filed earlier this month. Internet rumors pegged one of Lesnar's former contracts at $5 million for a single year, while others say the new one is a three-year deal worth $3 million. But online wrestling news and rumors are notoriously unreliable, so you should be wary of putting too much stock in those numbers. But determining an individual wrestler's pay is far more challenging. WWE says that the average wrestler on the main roster makes $500,000 per year, while top performers make well into the seven figures.
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