Pro Wrestling Contract Season

[The Dart]

27 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

Thats basically Brock Lesnar money (albeit working a lot more dates) as I think Lesnar was on about $10-12m when he came back to WWE.

That's "8 figures"  over the whole contract I assume, so $2 million a year.   That still seems incredibly high, whether he deserves it or not, whether they should be getting paid as much as basketball players or not....from an industry standard - that is really high.

[LaGoosh]

High for wrestling standards where promotions have been undervaluing them forever. They've never paid the wrestlers what they were actually worth. 

I wish more wrestlers would hang it up early to be honest. So many of the current lot have been on TV for what feels like forever. I'd much rather see them give us 5-6 great years on top then disappear healthy and rich into the sunset and let the new blood take over.

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, The Dart said:

That's "8 figures"  over the whole contract I assume, so $2 million a year.   That still seems incredibly high, whether he deserves it or not, whether they should be getting paid as much as basketball players or not....from an industry standard - that is really high.

Is it high? I'd imagine (or hope) Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk are in that ballpark. You'd imagine Seth Rollins is too given he spends about $1.5m a year on suits. 

Given WWE revenue is about 4x higher than 25 years ago, the fact that we're suggesting earnings around 1/10th of the two biggest stars then is "really high" from an industry standpoint says more about the underpayment of the talent than anything else.

[Mr_Danger]

That’s great for Swerve and anyone else that’s getting paid in AEW. The company might not be massively profitable yet but it definitely won’t get there by underpaying its best and brightest stars. 

[LaGoosh]

21 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

The company might not be massively profitable yet but it definitely won’t get there by underpaying its best and brightest stars. 

The company apparently is massively profitable since the new TV deal, according to Meltzer. 

It's pretty remarkable how poorly wrestlers are paid when you consider they are essentially TV stars who are on one of the biggest shows each week all year long. Their pay per episode must be fairly small compared to your average TV actor.

[The Dart]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

Is it high? I'd imagine (or hope) Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk are in that ballpark. You'd imagine Seth Rollins is too given he spends about $1.5m a year on suits. 

Given WWE revenue is about 4x higher than 25 years ago, the fact that we're suggesting earnings around 1/10th of the two biggest stars then is "really high" from an industry standpoint says more about the underpayment of the talent than anything else.

Maybe I'm underestimating how big of a star Swerve is?  Surely he wasn't signed to $2 million a year when he first joined AEW?

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

The company apparently is massively profitable since the new TV deal, according to Meltzer. 

It's pretty remarkable how poorly wrestlers are paid when you consider they are essentially TV stars who are on one of the biggest shows each week all year long. Their pay per episode must be fairly small compared to your average TV actor.

I don't know how you'd work it out Gooshy to be honest. Is it like shooting an episode of Corrie, which is a 10 hour shooting day and someone like Bill Roache is on about 250 grand a year, so on that basis Swerve is doing pretty well. 

[SuperBacon]

5 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Bill Roache

I think he was booked too strong vs Mike Baldwin by the way.

[wordsfromlee]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

Is it high? I'd imagine (or hope) Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk are in that ballpark. You'd imagine Seth Rollins is too given he spends about $1.5m a year on suits. 

Given WWE revenue is about 4x higher than 25 years ago, the fact that we're suggesting earnings around 1/10th of the two biggest stars then is "really high" from an industry standpoint says more about the underpayment of the talent than anything else.

According to SI (I don't know how reliable they are but other sources seemed to corroborate it) it seems like those guys are all on between $2.5-5m a year.

https://www.si.com/fannation/wrestling/features/10-highest-paid-wwe-wrestlers

I was surprised to see The Miz in the top ten.

[LaGoosh]

11 minutes ago, The Dart said:

Maybe I'm underestimating how big of a star Swerve is?  Surely he wasn't signed to $2 million a year when he first joined AEW?

No, he signed a new contract last year.

[The King Of Swing]

22 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

Mina Shirikawa is joining AEW full-time (link to wrestlinginc) - she’s a good get for them, she’s good in ring and very charismatic - I’ve been impressed by her various appearances and it’s a nice addition to their stacked women’s division. Saraya out, Mina in is a significant trade up.

Not really surprising. Good signing for AEW. 

Despite big improvements as a wrestler, she had clearly hit a ceiling in Stardom.

Even her short white belt run was basically a result of growing fan support after Saya Kamitani, accidentally smashed her teeth in. And even then they could hardly wait to get the belt off of her.

 

 

[Snitsky's back acne]

19 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

That's an absolute steal. It's a disgrace that it isn't the norm.

We're talking an amount across 5 years, that with all their add-ons and endorsements, Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin made in a single year, more than 25 years ago. 

The average salary in NFL, MLB and NBA is around $3.2m, $4.8m and $11m respectively. A top pro-wrestler makes less than half of that MLB number (apparently) and it's "over the odds". 

Still, gotta support those record revenues for the fat cats! 

What revenue is Swerve bringing in to justify that contract? I'm happy for the fella, squeeze all the money you can out of the billionaire, but for the amount he works and the lack of revenue he is generating there is not a company in the world that would say he is an absolute steal. 

[tiger_rick]

6 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

What revenue is Swerve bringing in to justify that contract? 

AEW revenue is at it's highest since the latest TV & Streaming deals. Swerve isn't responsible for that alone but it justifies whatever they are paying all their biggest names. 

It's a competitive marketplace now. The people risking their necks week in and week out are getting paid and deservedly so.

As previously mentioned, it's still only a tenth of what top names were making 25 years ago. It's a steal.

 

[LaGoosh]

How do you determine how a single person draws revenue in modern wrestling? They don't do house shows and live gates are not as vital to the business as they once were. 

The main thing above all else is TV rights. 

Swerve is one of the top characters on their TV show. The TV show would not be as good without him. The PPVs would not be as good without him. It would negatively affect the perception of the company if he was to leave and join the competition. Therefore he justifies his contract. It's as simple as that.

[Tennessee Moltisanti]

7 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

What revenue is Swerve bringing in to justify that contract? I'm happy for the fella, squeeze all the money you can out of the billionaire, but for the amount he works and the lack of revenue he is generating there is not a company in the world that would say he is an absolute steal. 

If he's on the same size of contract as The Miz, over 5 years that takes into 8 figure terroritory, then it's fine. Swerve's pretty much the main face of AEW when it comes to media. Him and Mercedes are the ones doing Breakfast Club interviews, Swerves going onto DJ Vlads podcast (fuck DJ Vlad, but still, it's a big platform). 

And, Swerve moves tickets. They announced him as the challenger for the World Title and they shifted about 2k tickets in a week or so.

There's a lot of untapped potential with Swerve as well, considering how many ties he has with celebrities and artists. They had Floyd Mayweather front row at one of the PPVs that Swerve was headlining (Fuck Floyd Mayweather too, but he's still a big name).

They should put the title back onto Swerve to carry this momentum that they are building, and I hope they do, because of everything I've mentioned above and also, that visual of Nana holding the briefcase open to Swerve and Swerve then lifting the title will have the arena going crazy.