ROH & Impact Offering Surprising Money With New Contracts

[markymark]

Source: WON

Alvarez: “If you’re an undercard guy like Luke Harper you’re not making $1 million a year in WWE, okay and I realize that historically Impact and Ring Of Honor haven’t paid a ton of money, but I can tell you for a fact that over the last six to eight months people have gotten offers and contracts from Ring Of Honor and Impact Wrestling that would very much surprise you.”

“I mean they’re not $1 million deals or anything like that, but they’re not nothing deals. So there are places for people to work and not only that, but there has never been a better time to make money on the indies. So there are people who are going to wait out their contracts with WWE and leave and one of the reasons for that is because Vince McMahon doesn’t apparently care about AEW, although he should.”

So wrestlenews info about Impact not paying well was bllshit and we already knew ROH had money(The Bucks saying they pay better than NJPW).

[Brandon Walsh is Insane.]

Impact not paying well might go back to the Dixie time period.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

You’ve heard a few wrestlers say recently that impact was willing to shell out big bucks. Kinda assumed it was for negotiating power but...*shrugs* ...Good for dudes getting paid.

[Joe Neglia]

May 30, 2019 16:56:33 GMT -5 Brandon Walsh is Insane. said:

Impact not paying well might go back to the Dixie time period.

Impact, as NWA-TNA, was founded by a guy who used to pay his workers in food stamps.

Food stamps.

They were never well-paying with the exception of a few key people.

[Deleted]

They pretty much have no choice if they plan to survive over the course of the next 5yrs....two billion dollar companies that are actually willing to spend to not just aquire but lockdown talent as well.

But good for guys and gals gettin paid.

[BlackoutCreature]

So I haven't watch Impact since they went to the Pursuit Channel, and haven't really paid attention to anything on their shows in years, but where are they getting the money nowadays to afford paying these contracts? There is no way they're getting anything in the way of television rights fees or advertisement deals on the Pursuit Channel. Their PPV's are few and far between and I can't imagine are doing big buyrates. Are their television tapings actually pulling in decent size paying crowds now? Are they running house shows that are drawing?

[Mister Pigwell]

Glad to hear the guys and girls are getting some competitive pay offers.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Get that chicken

If you can offer guys high enough they will forgo a little more than they could make as long as they are happy

[Deleted]

I'm happy anytime wrestlers can get rich without Vince McMahon.

[HMARK Center]

May 30, 2019 19:02:55 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

So I haven't watch Impact since they went to the Pursuit Channel, and haven't really paid attention to anything on their shows in years, but where are they getting the money nowadays to afford paying these contracts? There is no way they're getting anything in the way of television rights fees or advertisement deals on the Pursuit Channel. Their PPV's are few and far between and I can't imagine are doing big buyrates. Are their television tapings actually pulling in decent size paying crowds now? Are they running house shows that are drawing?

I'll guess a couple possibilities: one is that, yes, the company is finally selling tickets to their tapings and bringing some money in, so there are actual house gates to draw from.

Mainly, though, I'll wager that Anthem is willing to lose some money in the short term while they rebuild Impact's brand image, and hope that the goodwill they've been cultivating will result in a decent TV deal.

Broadly speaking, news like this is encouraging and part of what I'm hoping to see happen with AEW emerging and the smaller promotions continue to grow more. The era of wrestlers building their own brand while WWE is showing less ability/desire to build up new stars is allowing a lot of these wrestlers to increase their value their own way and craft deals more favorable to them either in terms of raw dollars or with flexibility on where they're able to work.

Now, the important part will be these other companies (ROH, Impact, MLW, etc.) working hard to keep their audiences and improving things where possible to keep their market share as a new big player appears on the scene.

[Deleted]

“Vince doesn’t apparently care about AEW” lol. They’ve been shook by them for a while now.

[Mozenrath]

May 30, 2019 20:19:06 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

May 30, 2019 19:02:55 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

So I haven't watch Impact since they went to the Pursuit Channel, and haven't really paid attention to anything on their shows in years, but where are they getting the money nowadays to afford paying these contracts? There is no way they're getting anything in the way of television rights fees or advertisement deals on the Pursuit Channel. Their PPV's are few and far between and I can't imagine are doing big buyrates. Are their television tapings actually pulling in decent size paying crowds now? Are they running house shows that are drawing?

I'll guess a couple possibilities: one is that, yes, the company is finally selling tickets to their tapings and bringing some money in, so there are actual house gates to draw from.

Mainly, though, I'll wager that Anthem is willing to lose some money in the short term while they rebuild Impact's brand image, and hope that the goodwill they've been cultivating will result in a decent TV deal.

Broadly speaking, news like this is encouraging and part of what I'm hoping to see happen with AEW emerging and the smaller promotions continue to grow more. The era of wrestlers building their own brand while WWE is showing less ability/desire to build up new stars is allowing a lot of these wrestlers to increase their value their own way and craft deals more favorable to them either in terms of raw dollars or with flexibility on where they're able to work.

Now, the important part will be these other companies (ROH, Impact, MLW, etc.) working hard to keep their audiences and improving things where possible to keep their market share as a new big player appears on the scene.

Yeah, Impact's apparently been doing significantly better on gates than the last few Dixie years. Not sure about merch, but I think they'd probably be doing a bit better there, too, if only since more people going to see them live would imply the latter.

I think you're probably right about them being willing to operate at a loss within reason, but so far, they've already been seeing some promising results in terms of reputation repair.

[héad.casé]

Does this mean that Anthem are actually gonna put more cash into Impact?

[clifford]

May 30, 2019 20:10:13 GMT -5 @therealoblivion said:

I'm happy anytime wrestlers can get rich without Vince McMahon.

I know, right?

Imagine if 2 years down the line you had WWE and AEW as the big 2, with Impact and ROH doing well for themselves as well, with all 4 companies paying their talent well and being comfortable doing so, and Triple H running things in the WWE as Vince is consumed with the XFL. Hey, a man can dream ok?

[HMARK Center]

May 31, 2019 5:47:57 GMT -5 clifford said:

May 30, 2019 20:10:13 GMT -5 @therealoblivion said:

I'm happy anytime wrestlers can get rich without Vince McMahon.

I know, right?

Imagine if 2 years down the line you had WWE and AEW as the big 2, with Impact and ROH doing well for themselves as well, with all 4 companies paying their talent well and being comfortable doing so, and Triple H running things in the WWE as Vince is consumed with the XFL. Hey, a man can dream ok?

And that'd be to say nothing of the international scene still looking pretty healthy, as well; NJPW's growth continues both domestically and in the west while other puro promotions are increasing their exposure, AEW could prove to be a force in bringing joshi wrestling into the North American mainstream, the British scene, despite the NXT-UK controversies, hasn't slowed down much at all, Mexico remains a viable option for wrestlers, and even Oceania is growing as a pro wrestling go-to spot.

There could eventually wind up being almost too many options for a lot of them to remain viable, so it'll be a delicate balance, but it's something I've thought about before, that the days of a promotion getting something like what WWE or WCW used to get in ratings and whatnot may just be in the past at this point, and instead we're in an age where there'll be numerous smaller promotions, instead, ranging from the kind that can still fill a big stadium a couple of times a year to those that just draw 500-2,000 on the regular and make a tidy sum off that.

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

If at the very least AEW being on the scene means these guys can make more money in the smaller feds then that is good news.

[ianriccaboni]

My contracts have always been extremely generous. I can't speak for everyone but this has been true for quite a while.

[eJm]

May 31, 2019 6:53:07 GMT -5 ianriccaboni said:

My contracts have always been extremely generous. I can't speak for everyone but this has been true for quite a while.

Not to pry too much, and I think I speak for everyone when I say your input’s always greatly appreciated, has any improvements come from around the time AEW started up or WWE started more aggressively going for talents?

If you can’t say, that’s completely understandable but I was curious.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Always kind of assumed the top guys in each company were getting decent six figure deals while the guys at the low end were being paid in “exposure”.