WWE wrestlers salaries

[canis582]

It should be noted that the source on this is "some message board"

http://the-w.com/thread.php/id=29173

JBL held the Smackdown strap for most of 2004.

Also, many wrestlers die young not only from roid abuse, but also from pain killers, etc.

This is an awesome book about pro wrestling:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...60846?v=glance

[-Skeme-]

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How often do these guys perform in a typical year?

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A LOT.

[fryKing]

the guys make the really low salaries are kind of like actors making scale. You could replace them with another unknowm wrestler, and hardly any fans would even notice or care. They also aren't on the big shows and don't have any merchandise.

This has nothing to do with how talented they are at their job, hitting it big in wrestling is mostly a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

[fryKing]

these make sense to me. HHH makes the most becaue he's married to the bosses daughter. Undertaker makes the second most because he's been around forever. He also probably works the lightest schedule of any major wrestler. Cena makes a lot because he's their newest "star" and sells a ton of merchandise, has a record album, etc.
The salaries are lower than you might think in general, because there's no other wrestling company that's competition, and also business has been down the last 4 or 5 years. The company itself is fairly profitable despite that because they have been able to keep costs down.

In "the good old days", I would guess Steve Austin made closer to $10m/year in around 99-2000.

[fryKing]

probably about 150 shows a year.

[Jack of Arcades]

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Are all these guys on roids and going to die early like World's Strongest Man competitors?

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pretty much. it's obvious even the smaller guys like rey are roiding. eddie guerrero was disgusting how much he was juicing.

[Soul Daddy]

Also, those on the true low end of the scale are valets, jobbers, or people that haven't been with the company for the entire year. A decent chunk of the payoffs come in the form of a PPV bonus, where if you wrestle on the PPV you get money. The higher your profile on the PPV, the higher your payment. Obviously, those that don't wrestle on the PPV get zip.

[The DaveR]

Seems low, particularly if most are paying their own travel expenses. What's the average career length? Can't be more than a half dozen years, right?

[unlucky513]

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HHH is actually married to Stephanie McMahon who is currently pregnant with their first child. HHH is the most brilliant backstage politician since Hulk Hogan and will probably break Flair's record of 16 World Titles because of it. I would say he probably deserves what he gets paid. But yeah, he is a douche.

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IIRC, HHH is from the "mean streets" of Greenwich, as are the McMahon's. Is his marriage to Stephanie/relationship with Vince the reason he is the "#1 star" and makes so much? Is he even still #1?

I haven't watched wrastlin in YEARS.

[Soul Daddy]

Good question. I'd suspect that it's higher, just because most of these guys seem to stick around FOREVER. If not in the big leagues then elsewhere. Lengthening their career clearly takes its toll on their life expectancy though.