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The Business Side of WWE

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With their I believe, downside guarentee contracts, I wanted to discuss, because I am curious, how these men and women make money.

 

Beside the contracts, how else do superstars make money? Box office revenue? Pay per view buys? Shirts, figures, DVD's, etc.......

 

Which other source of revenue is the most profitable?

 

Also, does anyone have a list of who currently makes the most from all of those combined? So what we would be looking at here is the overall income from all sources for a wrestler.

 

Some guys always make the video game cuts, while other guys, simple rotate whether being in a game or not.

 

Also, how do the figures works? Do they get a percentage of the Jakks toys?

 

Looking at all these revenue streams, I'm just surprised some stars could blow all their money when their are so many different streams of revenue.

 

I've also wondered what cut the wrestlers get from the DVD's specifically.

 

Any answers and other discussion about the business side of the business is welcome.

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Vince McMahon pays himself as both an executive and a performer. As for who gets paid the most, well, there you go.

 

As for everybody else, it's a combination of a cut of the gate and a cut of merchandise, combined with the annual guaranteed sum. House shows are important to the wrestlers themselves. It's TV deals and PPVs that keep the company afloat but live gate that keeps the wrestlers fed.

 

Though to use that kind of phrase is perhaps a little over the top, wrestlers have been getting a lot more now than they used to because WCW's ginormous guarantees totally threw the market value for everyone out of wack, and they've been slowly chipping away at that over the years.

 

As for who makes the most money, that's difficult to say. Guarantee is generally placed by the spot on the card, and some wrestlers sell a lot of merch even when they're jobbing (Hardys, Mysterio, Cena) while some guys have less merch but are high up enough on the card that it doesn't matter (Orton, Batista.) And then there's guys who are both high on the card and have a lot of merch (Edge, Undertaker, Trips.) The guarantees typically top out at a million a year, though unprecedented 1.2-1.5 million guarantees were tossed out to Hogan and the Outsiders in 2002. Nowadays per-appearance cash is handed to guys like Hogan and Rock, both of whom think it's too small to be worth it (remember when Hogan bitched about his WrestleMania 19 take.)

 

Finally, you have that odd X-factor that Vince McMahon values guys for various reasons including company loyalty and simply liking their look, and throws out different perks for people.

 

So if I had to name who goes home with the most cash each year, I'd wager it's Undertaker. HHH doesn't make as much but his contract includes crazy benefits like a number of flights on the company jet a year.

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From what I remember from Foley's first book, he was paid a certain amount per match he had, but I think that changes depending on how much your used.

 

I think wrestlers are paid a certain amount for working certain type of shows. Like for an example.

 

Dark Match: $500.00

TV: $650.00

PPV: $800.00

Major PPV (Wrestlemania/Royal Rumble/Summerslam): $1,200

 

Also there's a guaranteed amount just in case a wrestler isn't used that much. (Val Venis)

 

and then a wrestler is given a percentage of their merchindise that is sold.

 

And then there's the wrestlers who take side jobs (trainer or something) in the company who get paid for that as well.

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Back in the day, and referenced in Bret Hart's amazing book, McMahon used to pay whatever he felt like for an event.

 

For example, Bret was complaining to George Scott that he got $2,000 for his WrestleMania 2 pay and Bret said he didn't want the money because it was too low. He was lucky that Scott took care of getting Bret's pay bumped to $4,000 because McMahon probably would have fired him.

 

Nowdays, it's different.

 

Batista, for example, according to the latest Observer makes somewhere around $2 million per year. I think that's because he has a decent spot on the card. It's not like he's moving crazy merchandise or anything.

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Back in the day, and referenced in Bret Hart's amazing book, McMahon used to pay whatever he felt like for an event.

 

For example, Bret was complaining to George Scott that he got $2,000 for his WrestleMania 2 pay and Bret said he didn't want the money because it was too low. He was lucky that Scott took care of getting Bret's pay bumped to $4,000 because McMahon probably would have fired him.

 

Nowdays, it's different.

 

Batista, for example, according to the latest Observer makes somewhere around $2 million per year. I think that's because he has a decent spot on the card. It's not like he's moving crazy merchandise or anything.

 

I think you'd be surprised. I think likely outside of Rey Rey and Cena (maybe Taker) he moves the most stuff. Little kids love him.

 

That might just be the wrestling fan family that comes into my work that I try and avoid because they make me look dumber by association of being a wrestling fan loves them because all of their kids are frequently wearing Batista stuff.

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My sister bought me a Batista shirt for Christmas because it said "The Animal" which "Animal" was my childhood nickname due to my resemblance of the muppet baby. Yes, I was an ugly child and imagined things in crayon.

 

So I can vouch that he moves merchandise <_<

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Dark Match: $500.00

TV: $650.00

I figured the difference would be much larger than that between those two, since wrestlers used to give such little effort at house shows that they'd sometimes wrestle in their street clothes until the company started promoting a more official dress code.

 

I also remember that there's a financial incentive to being champion, since Lesnar buying a plane clusterfuck involved him wanting to hold onto the belt as long as possible for the extra money.

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from the outsiders shoot they were saying from survivor series 94. they both got 35k and shawn got 50k just for super kicking nash.

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Dark Match: $500.00

TV: $650.00

I figured the difference would be much larger than that between those two, since wrestlers used to give such little effort at house shows that they'd sometimes wrestle in their street clothes until the company started promoting a more official dress code.

 

I also remember that there's a financial incentive to being champion, since Lesnar buying a plane clusterfuck involved him wanting to hold onto the belt as long as possible for the extra money.

I agree that the TV matches get wrestlers higher pay than Dark matches but I was making an example.

 

I heard champions make a little bump in pay as long as their champions but I wasn't to sure if that was just the major champions (WWE, World, ECW (no I'm not gonna argue about the ECW title) world titles) or if it was all champions.

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Dark Match: $500.00

TV: $650.00

I figured the difference would be much larger than that between those two, since wrestlers used to give such little effort at house shows that they'd sometimes wrestle in their street clothes until the company started promoting a more official dress code.

 

Did you just make that up? I've been going to house shows for over a decade and have never seen anything like that.

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Wow! A whole decade?! :rolleyes:

 

I've seen a few occasions where performers wouldn't be in their most-known outfits, but never street clothes. Of course, back in the day, redneck wrestlers (and there were many) ALWAYS wrestled in street clothes :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I think today's WWE wrestlers make a bit for television. For example, Lance Storm, one Figure4 Daily, stated his Royal Rumble '03 pay was 18,000. Today, I'm sure PPV pay isn't as high, considered buyrate predictions effect the pay-outs. Also, according to Dave Meltzer most upper level guys, like Rey, Batista, Jericho, Edge, made well over 1 mil.

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Wow! A whole decade?! :rolleyes:

 

What was the purpose of that smartass comment? I know your gimmick is to be a douchebag, but I've never said anything about you. I was 13 when I went to my first WWF house show in 1997. I had watched the organization for 7 years prior, but could never get my parents to take me to a show since the nearest ones were Champaign (over an hour) and St. Louis (almost 2 hours).

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Dark Match: $500.00

TV: $650.00

I figured the difference would be much larger than that between those two, since wrestlers used to give such little effort at house shows that they'd sometimes wrestle in their street clothes until the company started promoting a more official dress code.

 

Did you just make that up? I've been going to house shows for over a decade and have never seen anything like that.

No, I have seen guys in the big leagues come out in whatever the fuck they were wearing when they came into the arena, and work a match. I've seen Flair do it and one of the big tag team guys of back when, I think one of the Dudleys.

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I had watched the organization for 7 years prior, but could never get my parents to take me to a show since the nearest ones were Champaign (over an hour) and St. Louis (almost 2 hours).

 

No shit? What shows did you see at Assembly Hall?

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I had watched the organization for 7 years prior, but could never get my parents to take me to a show since the nearest ones were Champaign (over an hour) and St. Louis (almost 2 hours).

 

No shit? What shows did you see at Assembly Hall?

 

Starting in 1998, WCW and the WWF started running Springfield again since business was booming, and I was able to travel to St. Louis more often. Thus, the only show I went to at Assembly Hall was on September 27th, 1997. It featured, among other things, a Bret Hart/Undertaker main event for the title, Owen Hart vs. The Patriot, Triple H vs. Mankind, Goldust vs. Brian Pillman, and The New Blackjacks vs. The Godwinns in a country whipping match.

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Thus, the only show I went to at Assembly Hall was on September 27th, 1997. It featured, among other things, a Bret Hart/Undertaker main event for the title, Owen Hart vs. The Patriot, Triple H vs. Mankind, Goldust vs. Brian Pillman, and The New Blackjacks vs. The Godwinns in a country whipping match.

 

Ah, yes. The show that I will forever regret missing out on, as it was one of Brian Pillman's last matches.

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I remember reading that Trish Stratus got a higher cut of her merchandise than everyone else. I think it was around 75%.

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