How much $ do wrestlers make?

[newageoutlaw]

If they give a goof like Christy Hemme 250k a year, what's a guy like Spike Dudley make? Or how about Flair or Triple H? What about the Coach? I'm just curious... I remember once on Nitro Bischoff was trying to punish Dean Malenko, and they brought out Barbarian. Bisch was like "What's this guy (Barbarian) make? Half a million? Do you want to double it?" I remember thinking "There is no way that guy makes that much." But, giving that much to Christy makes me think that maybe he did.

[The Happnin' Mojo]

I can tell you that for a fact that X-Pac and Nash charge 3 and 5 thousand a piece for a booking.

How do I know?

Because that's what's on there website....whether anyone besides Dusthteh pays them that is up to you.

[newageoutlaw]

The said:

I can tell you that for a fact that X-Pac and Nash charge 3 and 5 thousand a piece for a booking.

How do I know?

Because that's what's on there website....whether anyone besides Dusthteh pays them that is up to you.

Pac's gotta make those student loan payments for his educated feet!

[jobber2thestars]

This is what I got from WrestlinZone.com, its a bit dated.

$50,000-$99,000 per year

Most performers who are employed just for television, such as Terri Runnels and Tori, are in this wage bracket.


$100,000-$249,000 per year

In this wage bracket are such wrestlers as Jacqueline, Too Cool, Viscera & Midian. Each of these earns in the neighborhood of $200,000 a year.


$250,000-$499,999 per year

This is what most mid-card wrestlers in the WWF earn. In this bracket are Mark Henry ($300,000 per year until 2006), Taka Michinoku ($250,000) , X-Pac, Val Venis, Road Dogg & Chris Jericho.


$500,000-$999,999 per year

This is what some of the bigger stars in the WWF earn. In this bracket are Mankind, The Undertaker & HHH. Also in this bracket is The Rock ($600,000 a year 'downside' until 2005) but his actual earnings exceeded $2 million in 1999.


$ 1 million + per year

These are the big money earners in wrestling. In this bracket are Big Show ($1 million per year until 2009), Ken Shamrock ($1.1 million per year until 2001) & Steve Austin earned over $6 million in 1999.

[stephendame]

last I heard, the minimum downside guarantee in the WWE was $200,000-$250,000 per year. So consider that a minimum wage... that may have gone up or come down since business began to slump, somebody will probably have more up to date info.

Wrestlers are guaranteed to make their downside, plus house show and PPV payoffs and merchanidse sales.

So, the more you work, the more you get over, the more you'll make.

I remember the Meltz reporting that Rock and Austin each earned roughly $500,000 for their WM19 main event when you figured in the PPV payoff, merchandise and their downsides. Not typical of course, but not bad for one nights work.

Back in the territory days, house show payoff's were the big money maker. A recent documentary on Tiger Jeet Signh details the moment that changed his life: he went from making $45 a match to over $6,000 for his first main event at Maple Leaf Gardens against The Sheik. In 1970's dollars, that's roughly $20,000 today.

[shacmasta]

No idea.

Just know that guys like trips, angle, taker make close to a mil.

Guys like jericho, eddie, benoit, JBL, and other upper tier midcarders make close or over 500,000.

Then it goes lower from there.

New guys like orton, cena & batista, even though they main event.....they still probably don't get 'main event' money, but do see money from licensed merchandise. cena probably makes close to a mil combined with his current contract.

Christy makes 250,000.....but remember the percentage the wwe makes off her playboy sales. Last i read it was about 35 to 40 percent. so that bill has been covered for the most part.

[kunswwfmark]

I love telling people who don't watch wrestling and talk crap on it how much wrestlers actually make. People assume that just because they are on TV that they must be making millions and millions of dollars. Although that's true for a select few, the fact that WWE wrestlers have to actually EARN their money is something I love to throw in the face of football, baseball, and basketball fanatics.

[mischi3f]

i'm guessing that the average earnings is 300,000, but even so, you gotta figure that they work over 300 days a year, and with injuries, they earn it. Plus the fact that their insurance must be through the roof. And another thing, unless your name's Hogan or Flair, a wrestling career isn't that long. So all in all, they earn it.

[The Happnin' Mojo]

What about travelling, that's something I've always wondered about. Does the WWE pay for it or does the wrestler, same with lodging and meals......

[Deleted]

From what I know developmental workers make $25 000. Then when they are called up, they get bumped to around $75 000(The Heartbreakers, MNM).

But their are exceptions. Brock Lesnar was making $250 000 in OVW and got bumped to a million when he got called up. My guess is it was because WCW was still going strong when he negotiated his contract.

[The Happnin' Mojo]

Brent said:

From what I know developmental workers make $25 000. Then when they are called up, they get bumped to around $75 000(The Heartbreakers, MNM).

But their are exceptions. Brock Lesnar was making $250 000 in OVW and got bumped to a million when he got called up. My guess is it was because WCW was still going strong when he negotiated his contract.

Now he aint making crap......irony.

[newageoutlaw]

The said:

What about travelling, that's something I've always wondered about. Does the WWE pay for it or does the wrestler, same with lodging and meals......

I don't know. I heard a while back that major league baseball players get like $48 bucks per day on the road for meal money. That's nuts. Where are these guys eating? I could eat TWICE at my favorite restaurant (Texas Roadhouse) and still have money left over, just on 1 day's allowance!

[The Happnin' Mojo]

I remember from TE that they had the RAW/SD catered and set up like a buffet, I wonder if that's a regular thing or not........funniest moment was Taz and I think Bubba Ray giving Josh some food because he was so skinny and eating a salad......

[SRX24]

I remember back in Foley's book he talked a lot about how much wrestlers had to save on the road. As in wrestlers would share rooms, give each other tips on the cheapest places to eat and cut costs wherever they could.

This is probably still around, I don't know.

[Iceking251980A]

I heard that the base salary is 75,000 for those starting out in the WWE, plus a while back I heard there were some paycuts, so who knows, I mean the big time stars are probably getting alot. Also heard alot of people were mad that Christy is getting paid 250,000 and that some other chick in the next Diva search will too.

[acsurf3]

They make more money in a night then most do in a year.

[vitamink]

The Diva Search technically isn't $250,000 a year. It's $50,000 a year, and a $200,000 cash prize. If resigned for another year, it's still $50,000 a year.

The average midcard wrestler in WWE makes about $250,000 a year, I've gathered. It may have gone down a little recently due to cutbacks or whatnot, but it's still a hella good amount of money.


I remember arguing with someone on another forum about wrestler's pay. They said that Shannon Moore didn't make more than $25,000 a year in WWE. I don't know how anyone could be that stupid. I stock shelves for a living and I make that much...

[Christianv2]

Hogan earned 15% of all wcw revenue and was piad 300, 000 per appearance. Also he earned 1.7 million for a 6 minute match with the wwe. Andre vs. Hogan?

all of this i have seen on the web so take it however you want to

[nutbunnies]

Boy, I just love how even the biggest stars who work year round earn $1,000,000, while football, basketball, baseball, and hockey players all whine that they have to play for, oh, one season, for millions.

Cocksuckers.

[Hollywood Cthulhu]

According to Scott Keith's latest book:

jobbers get paid $500 per show.

In 2002, the downside guarantee was dropped from 250K to 125K for the low level guys, due to dropping business.

Jericho's downside was 500K in 2002

HHH and the Rock have 1 mil downsides

but u have to realize that that is just the minimum guarantee. The wrestlers all get a piece of the house show gates, a piece of PPV buys variant on their placement on the show (e.g. main eventers get more). But the biggest moneymaker for the wrestlers are their tee-shirts, which is why most workers take a very active role in the design of their merchandise. That is why a guy like Rock always made way more than his downside.