Pro Wrestling Contract Season

[WeeAl]

When it was expected Owens was leaving the last time, the contract he's supposed to have signed then was for $2.5Mill a year. Unless WWE willingly let his deal run out (no chance), or offer him a pay cut (unlikely), I can't see AEW being able to offer him more than that. I'd be very surprised if anyone in AEW is on more than $3M a year. (I expect Danielson, Moxley and Copeland, possibly MJF after resigning, are the closest to that). 

Owens should take as short a term deal as he can get out of Tony Khan for a change of scenery and then play the two off against each other in two years again. He'd have that 'new car smell' on him with both the jump to AEW and a WWE return, if he wanted. 

As for Miro, the only question remains why they didn't try to get rid of him sooner. Miro, Andrade, Black, Murphy. . .all colossal wastes of time and money for AEW. They weren't happy and didn't perform.

I understand there's probably a certain amount of not caving to demands for release so as not to set too much of a precedent, but with these fellas? They'd have lost nothing by letting them leave sometime ago, as you couldn't even get them to turn up to do a few jobs. 

[mim731]

Now that's someone who TK would surely be a big fan of, as well as someone with minimal left to do in WWE. Seems like a win all around if AJ fancies it. Get Kenny on the phone and he can finally try and get his dream match with AJ.

 

[Merzbow]

AJ vs Double J in 2025? Yes please.

Have Styles and Hangman ever wrestled?  I wouldn't say Dream Match but it's a feud I'd kill to see.

[The King of Old School]

Could have changed I suppose but pretty sure AJ has come out himself and said he wants to be with WWE until he retires.

[DavidB6937]

AJ's an interesting one. He seems quite settled now, kind of like Nakamura. Not sure there's the desire to go out there and have crazy matches with people and risk himself.

[BomberPat]

18 hours ago, WeeAl said:

I'd be very surprised if anyone in AEW is on more than $3M a year. (I expect Danielson, Moxley and Copeland, possibly MJF after resigning, are the closest to that). 

Mercedes Moné, Swerve Strickland, and Kazuchika Okada are all rumoured to be on more than that. Matching money isn't a problem for AEW, to the point that one of the talking points WWE likes to give its pet journalists is that AEW are over-paying their wrestlers. 

I know people who were offered contracts from AEW and ended up signing with WWE - obviously nothing like for this kind of money - but AEW offered them a lot more in base pay than WWE did. The golden rule, though, is that WWE sell you on opportunity - your base pay might be less, but once you factor in royalties and merch sales, you might make a lot more. 

[WeeAl]

15 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Mercedes Moné, Swerve Strickland, and Kazuchika Okada are all rumoured to be on more than that. Matching money isn't a problem for AEW, to the point that one of the talking points WWE likes to give its pet journalists is that AEW are over-paying their wrestlers. 

I know people who were offered contracts from AEW and ended up signing with WWE - obviously nothing like for this kind of money - but AEW offered them a lot more in base pay than WWE did. The golden rule, though, is that WWE sell you on opportunity - your base pay might be less, but once you factor in royalties and merch sales, you might make a lot more. 

I can see why AEW probably feel the need to offer more for the people they want, but surely there's a point where if you aren't being bid up, you just stop offering more? Only Swerve just signed that new deal, which is probably and should have been a really significant pay rise - before that I can't imagine he was on very much at all considering WWE weren't interested when he'll have signed his original deal? 

Mercedes is a weird one. It didn't seem like WWE were desperate to keep her, but it did feel like Tony was adamant he needed her to come in no matter what, so maybe she's making way more than I'm guessing. 

Okada - I thought the suggestion he was making, what, 4.5M a year? Had been widely laughed at?

[SaitoRyo]

Fresh off his appearance in the Netflix docuseries 'Mr. McMahon', could free agent Shane McMahon be AEW-bound? 

He obviously had that meeting with TK a few months back, but all has been quiet until... 

 

[Infinity Land]

Run up to All In news comes out that the Lucha Bros are looking to leave. WWE interest and AEW trying to re-sign them. Konnan crowing about it and Penta/Fenix having to play dumb on social media to downplay it.

Looks to have been a done deal. Talk that WWE were already getting merch designs ready for their arrival. Not like they are the only ones being talked about with Starks, Miro, Garcia and Malakai Black amongst the handful being talked about recently.

News from WON has Penta with about 2 months on his deal and Fenix having nearly a year added to his deal through injury time added.

 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

They will get paid to do nothing for a year, get really healthy, and turn up in shape for WWE. The only person that looks stupid in this is Tony because this is the sort of stuff WWE would do and AEW are supposed to be better than them. 

Great news for AEW though, Saraya has signed a contract extension. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

CM Punk said Tony wasn’t a real boss because he just wanted to friends with the talent.

WELL LOOK WHAT YOU MADE HIM DO!

It’s a dick move on one hand and something he said they wouldn’t do. On the other, WWE clearly reached out before their contracts were up, apparently have been making merchandise in preparation (including masks which the Luchas wouldn’t give AEW the rights to) so it’s also hilarious.

 

Edited September 28, 2024 by Hannibal Scorch

[JLM]

7 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

 

Great news for AEW though, Saraya has signed a contract extension. 

I am unironically very pleased about this, her double act with Harley Cameron is a delight. Her start with AEW was disastrous, and obviously a mid card comedy act wouldn’t have been the dream scenario when she signed,  but her current run is the most entertaining I’ve ever found her work. 

[LaGoosh]

It's both shitty to keep Fenix on injury time but also WWE are clearly engaging in contract tampering so I can understand why AEW doesn't want to make it easy for them.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

59 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

It's both shitty to keep Fenix on injury time but also WWE are clearly engaging in contract tampering so I can understand why AEW doesn't want to make it easy for them.

The only clear thing seems to be that the Lucha Bros have said they are not going to re-sign for AEW and that TK has added on the injury time. It's not really tampering if someone is coming to the end of their contract to offer them one if they are going to be out of contract soon. When Will Ospreay said he wasn't re-signing for New Japan did Tony tamper with his contract by offering him one?

[Hannibal Scorch]

34 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

When Will Ospreay said he wasn't re-signing for New Japan did Tony tamper with his contract by offering him one?

A couple of things here. Firstly there was already a working agreement between the two companies which would make things easier. But Will also told New Japan he wanted to explore other options and they gave him their blessing to do so. This was talked about at the time. Which is not the same as this.