How Much Do WWE Wrestlers Make Per Match?

Many people are curious about how much WWE wrestlers make per match. While the answer may vary depending on a wrestler’s experience and status, there are some general guidelines that can give you an idea of how much these athletes earn.

WWE Salaries

The WWE is a publicly traded company, and as such, they are required to disclose the salaries of their top performers. In 2018, the average WWE wrestler made $500,000 per year. The top wrestlers, however, can make much more than that. The top wrestlers in the WWE make millions of dollars per year.

WWE Base Salaries

WWE does not disclose the salaries of their performers to the public, so the exact amount each wrestler makes is unknown. However, we can take a look at some of WWE’s highest paid superstars to get an idea of how much wrestlers can make in a year.

According to Forbes, John Cena was WWE’s highest paid wrestler in 2018, earning $10 million that year. In second place was Brock Lesnar, who made $6.5 million. Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, and The Rock rounded out the top five, each earning $4.5 million.

While these are all very high salaries, it’s important to remember that these are just base salaries. Wrestlers also make additional income from merchandise sales and live event appearance fees. For example, Forbes reported that John Cena topped WWE’s 2018 earnings list with $8 million in base salary and $10 million in total earnings. Brock Lesnar was second with $5.5 million in base salary and $6.5 million in total earnings.

It’s safe to say that the top WWE superstars are making very healthy incomes!

Bonuses and Incentives

WWE wrestlers make a base salary of $250,000 per year, but that number is significantly higher for top stars like John Cena and Brock Lesnar.

Top wrestlers can also earn bonuses and incentives for things like main event matches, title wins, and merchandise sales. For example, John Cena reportedly earns a $500,000 bonus for every main event match he competes in.

Incentives are typically paid out quarterly, so a wrestler who has a strong quarter could potentially earn an additional $1 million or more on top of their base salary.

Main Eventers

WWE superstars who make it to the main event earn a lot more money than wrestlers who are stuck in the midcard. The top wrestlers in the main event can earn millions of dollars per year, while midcard wrestlers may only earn a few hundred thousand dollars.

John Cena

John Cena is one of the top-paid WWE wrestlers, earning a reported $8 million per year. He has won numerous championships, including the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship. Cena is also a successful actor, appearing in films such as “Trainwreck” and “Blockers.”

Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and current WWE Universal Champion. He is one of the most popular and successful wrestlers in the world. Lesnar is a large man, standing at 6’3″ and weighing in at 285 pounds. He is also a very accomplished athlete, having played football in college and later becoming a professional wrestler.

Lesnar’s base salary with the WWE is $5 million per year. In addition to his base salary, Lesnar also receives a percentage of pay-per-view (PPV) revenues. It has been reported that Lesnar’s PPV percentage is anywhere from 10-20%. This means that if a PPV event featuring Lesnar draws 1 million buys, he would earn an additional $100,000-$200,000.

Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns, who is one of the top names in the WWE, reportedly earns $5 million per year, according to Forbes. This includes his base salary and income from various WWE-related licensing and sponsorships. It’s worth noting that Reigns is thought to have a very favorable contract that pays him more than most other WWE superstars.

Mid-Carders

Most WWE superstars make a good living, but the amount of money they earn depends on their position on the card. The top guys on Raw and SmackDown, like Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, make a lot more money than the mid-carders. So, how much do WWE wrestlers make per match?

Seth Rollins

As a former WWE Champion and current Raw Tag Team Champion, Seth Rollins is one of the top mid-carders in WWE today. Rollins is a fan favorite and has held the WWE Championship, United States Championship, and Tag Team Championship titles throughout his career.

According to Wrestling Inc, Seth Rollins is currently earning $4 million per year from his WWE contract. This puts him amongst the highest-paid wrestlers in WWE today. In addition to his base salary, Rollins also receives bonuses for main event matches and pay-per-view appearances.

With WWE contracts typically lasting 3-5 years, Rollins is likely to see a significant raise when he renegotiates his contract in the near future. Based on his current popularity and standing within WWE, Rollins could easily earn $5-6 million per year when he signs his next contract.

Dean Ambrose

Dean Ambrose, whose real name is Jonathan Good, is an American professional wrestler who is currently signed to WWE. He is best known for his time in the company’s developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), under the ring name Jon Moxley. He later debuted on the main roster under his current Ambrose.

Ambrose made his professional wrestling debut in June 2004, working for various promotions in Ohio and Pennsylvania. After signing a developmental contract with WWE in April 2011, he was sent to FCW. In August 2012, WWE rebranded FCW into NXT and Ambrose competed in its first televised show that month. After losing a number one contender’s match to Tyson Kidd on the January 2, 2013 episode of SmackDown, Ambrose formed a tag team with Seth Rollins called The Shield with Roman Reigns; The Shield made their debut on that same episode by attacking Ryback during his match with Kane. They went on to headline several pay-per-view events throughout 2013 and 2014 including Battleground and TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in October 2013 which saw them retained their WWE Tag Team Championships against Rey Mysterio and Big Show in a tag team Tables, Ladders & Chairs match; this event also marked The Shield’s final pay-per-view appearance as a group due to Dean Ambrose turning on Rollins during their match against Kane and The New Age Outlaws at Survivor Series the following month which officially disbanded The Shield.

AJ Styles

AJ Styles, along with Brock Lesnar, are currently the top-paid wrestlers in WWE. As a result, Styles is rumored to make upwards of $500,000 per year with his base salary being $250,000. Furthermore, he reportedly receives $500,000 for every pay-per-view event that he appears in. When all is said and done, AJ Styles could be making close to $1 million per year with WWE.

Lower Carders

Lower carders are the wrestlers that are not as popular as the main eventers. They typically make between $500 and $3,000 per match.

Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler, born Nicholas Theodore Anzures, is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to WWE under the ring name Dolph Ziggler, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Ziggler was previously on the Raw brand.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWE Intercontinental Championship (5 times)
WWE United States Championship (2 times)
World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Hardcore Championship (1 time)
Ohio Valley Wrestling Television Championship (1 time)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Match of the Year (2011) vs. John Morrison
Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2007, 2008)
Rookie of the Year (2006)

The Miz

Miz is currently one of the most popular and highest-paid wrestlers in WWE, earning a base salary of $2.5 million per year. He also receives a substantial amount of money in royalties and bonuses, which push his total earnings up to an estimated $5 million. Miz has been with WWE since 2006 and is currently a WWE Universal Champion.

Rusev

Rusev is a Bulgarian professional wrestler and former powerlifter and rower, who is currently signed to WWE under the ring name Rusev on the Raw brand. Born in Plovdiv, Rusev’s family emigrated to the United States in 1999. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusev_(wrestler)

Tag Teams

WWE Tag Teams are a special type of match that involve two or more wrestlers teaming up to take on another team. These matches are usually fought under special rules, such as only one member of each team being allowed in the ring at a time. Tag teams can be a lot of fun to watch, and they can also be very lucrative for the wrestlers involved.

The New Day

tag team in WWE, composed of Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods. They are currently assigned to the Raw brand. Originally formed in 2014 as a trio of allied fan favorites, they have since become one of the most dominant teams in WWE history. All three members are former WWE Tag Team Champions (with all holding the title on two occasions), while Woods is also a former WWE United States Champion and Kingston is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion.

The Usos

The Usos are a tag team of twin brothers, Jimmy and Jey Uso (born August 22, 1985), who are American professional wrestlers who are signed to WWE and perform on the Raw brand. They are former one-time WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions and two-time WWE Tag Team Champions. They are also former one-time NXT Tag Team Champions, making them the only team to have held all three titles.

In WWE, The Usos are part of The Bloodline faction alongside Roman Reigns, cousins The Rock and Rikishi. Jimmy and Jey made their televised debut as a tag team on November 29, 2010, on the first season of NXT. They defeated Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks in their tag team debut. As of May 2020, they are placed at number four in the top ten list of longest reigning tag teams in WWE history.

Sheamus and Cesaro

Sheamus and Cesaro are a Tag Team on WWE’s RAW brand. They are former WWE Tag Team Champions, having held the title on two occasions. They are also former United States Champions, with Cesaro having held the title once and Sheamus twice.

Sheamus is a native of Dublin, Ireland while Cesaro is a native of Lucerne, Switzerland. They met in 2012 while competing in a WWE tryout camp in London, England. They began teaming together in 2013, first as part of the NXT tag team scene and then on the main roster.

Women’s Division

According to Business Insider, the women in the WWE make a little less than the men. The women on the main roster make an average of $55,000 per year while the men make $500,000. This is because the WWE does not see the women’s division as being on the same level as the men’s.

Charlotte

Elizabeth “Lizzy” Huxtable is an English professional wrestler and actress signed to WWE under the ring name Charlotte, performing on the Raw brand. She is a former NXT Women’s Champion, the final holder of the Divas Championship, and a record-tying three-time WWE Women’s Champion.
Charlotte was born on April 5, 1986, in suburban Tampa, Florida.She joins WWE in 2013 after a successful career as a professional wrestler on the independent circuit. In July 2014, Charlotte made her main roster debut alongside Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks as part of The Three Horsewomen stable. In 2015 at WrestleMania 31, Charlotte debuted her father’s trademark moonsault to win her first WWE Divas Championship.
In 2016 at WrestleMania 32, Charlotte vacated the Divas Championship after successfully defeating banks to become the new WWE Women’s Champion, thus unifying both titles. In 2017 at WrestleMania 33 Charlotte defeated Lynch and Banks in a triple threat match to capture her second SmackDown Women’s Championship.
In 2018 she won her third consecutive women’s title by defeating Asuka at WrestleMania 34 to become both a two-time WWE Raw Women’s Champion and three-time WWE women’s champion, thus making her the first woman in history to hold all three active women’s titles in WWE at once. She held all three titles until Evolution later that year, when she lost the SmackDown title to Lynch.

Sasha Banks

Sasha Banks is an American professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Sasha Banks. She is a former Raw Women’s Champion, a two-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion and a one-time NXT Women’s Champion. She has also won the inaugural Mae Young Classic in 2017.

Banks was born in Fairfield, California and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She began her professional wrestling career in 2010, when she was just eighteen years old. She has wrestled for various independent promotions including Chaotic Wrestling and New England Championship Wrestling. In 2012, she signed with WWE and was assigned to their developmental territory NXT.

Banks made her WWE main roster debut on the July 13, 2015 episode of Raw, where she defeated Charlotte in a singles match. Since then, she has gone on to have several championship reigns including being a two-time Raw Women’s Champion and a one-time NXT Women’s Champion. Banks is also a former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion along with her partner Bayley.

Alexa Bliss

Alexa Bliss is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. She is a former Women’s Champion and currently competes on the Raw brand.

Bliss began her professional wrestling career in 2013, when she was signed by WWE. She made her in-ring debut in 2014, and competed in various singles and tag team matches over the next two years. In 2016, Bliss was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the WWE draft, and went on to win her first Women’s Championship that same year. She has since held the title on two occasions.

In 2017, Bliss was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up, and won her second Women’s Championship that same year. She has since held the title twice more. In addition to her singles success, Bliss is also a former Women’s Tag Team Champion, having held the title with Mickie James.

As of 2020, Alexa Bliss’ net worth is estimated to be $1 million dollars.