What Do WWE Superstars Get Paid?

A lot of people want to know what WWE Superstars get paid. The answer may surprise you.

WWE Salaries

WWE superstars are some of the highest-paid athletes in the world. The average WWE superstar made $500,000 in 2018, while the top earners made over $5 million. WWE salaries are based on a variety of factors, including experience, draw, and physicality.

Base Salary

WWE superstars get paid a base salary, as well as royalties and bonuses.

The base salary for WWE superstars ranges from $500,000 to $1 million per year, according to Wrestling Inc. Superstars who are considered the “face of the company” can earn much more than that. For example, John Cena reportedly earned $8 million in 2017, while Brock Lesnar earned $12 million.

In addition to their base salary, WWE superstars receive royalties and bonuses. Royalty payments are based on factors such as merchandise sales and appearances on the WWE Network. Bonuses are given for things like main event matches and winning championships.

Bonuses

In addition to their base salary, WWE superstars also receive a number of bonuses. These bonuses can be awarded for a variety of reasons, such as length of service, merchandise sales, or pay-per-view buys. Bonuses are typically paid out quarterly, and can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

Pay-Per-View Bonuses

WWE Superstars receive a base salary, but they also get paid for every live event they perform at and every Pay-Per-View they are a part of. These bonuses are not made public, but it is estimated that WWE Superstars make an extra $500-$5,000 per live event, and $2,500-$25,000 per Pay-Per-View.

Merchandise Sales Bonuses

In addition to their base salary, many WWE wrestlers receive a percentage of merchandise sales. This bonus, known as a “downside guarantee,” is in place to ensure that the company will generate a certain amount of revenue from each performer’s merchandise. The downside guarantee typically ranges from $500,000 to $1,000,000 per year, with the top earners making closer to the $1 million mark.

WWE Contract Types

There are four different types of contracts that WWE Superstars can have. They are developmental contracts, legends contracts, main roster contracts, and NXT contracts. The developmental contracts are the lowest paying contracts and the legends contracts are the highest paying contracts.

Per Show Contracts

Per Show contracts are where WWE superstars are paid a certain amount of money for each show they appear on. The downside to this type of contract is that if a superstar is not booked for a show, they do not get paid. In order to receive consistent work and payments, most superstars try to negotiate guaranteed money in their contracts.

Show Money can range from $500-$5,000 per appearance, not counting bonuses like win bonuses or appearance fees. For high-level performers that are expected to appear on most if not all episodes of Raw and/or SmackDown and pay-per-views, their base salary can be as high as $1 million per year.

Guaranteed Contracts

Superstars in WWE are paid via a mix of guaranteed money, bonuses, and revenue sharing. In general, the higher up a superstar is on the card, the more they are paid via guarantee, with main eventers being essentially 100% guaranteed. Bonuses are generally given out for things like PPV buys, merchandise sales, and occasionally just to keep a superstar happy if WWE is unable to meet their guarantee for one reason or another. Finally, revenue sharing comes into play via the gates at live events and also via WWE’s share of PPV buys that aren’t attributed to a specific superstar (the “house cut”).

As of 2019, the minimum salary for a WWE performer is $250,000 per year. Salaries increase from there based on experience and seniority, with main eventers making multi-million dollar guarantees per year.

developmental contracts

WWE offers different types of contracts to its Superstars. The most common are developmental contracts, main roster contracts, legends contracts, and part-time performer contracts.

Developmental contracts are for Superstars who have not yet made it to the main roster. These performers train in WWE’s developmental system, NXT, until they are ready for the bright lights of Monday Night Raw or Friday Night SmackDown. The pay per match for developmental contract holders is much lower than for main roster Superstars.

Main roster contracts are for Superstars who have made it to Monday Night Raw or Friday Night SmackDown. These performers appear on WWE’s flagship shows and earn a higher salary than developmental contract holders. Main roster Superstars also receive a larger portion of merchandise sales and Pay-Per-View buys.

Legends contracts are for past WWE Superstars who have been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Legends can return to WWE for special appearances and usually make more money per appearance than active wrestlers.

Part-time performer contracts are reserved for outside talents like Brock Lesnar or Ronda Rousey who do not appear on WWE programming full time. Part-time performers usually make more money per appearance than full-time wrestlers.

WWE Income Streams

WWE superstars are some of the highest-paid athletes in the world. The average WWE wrestler made $500,000 in 2019, but the top-paid superstars can earn upwards of $10 million per year. Much of a WWE superstar’s income comes from their base salary, but there are also several other ways that WWE superstars can earn money. These include merchandise sales, pay-per-view bonuses, and endorsement deals.

Television Rights

The biggest WWE income stream is television rights. In 2019, the WWE signed a 5-year deal with FOX Sports worth $1 billion. This equates to $200 million per year, which is a significant increase from their previous deal with NBCUniversal, worth $180 million per year. The new deal also saw WWE’s flagship shows, Raw and SmackDown, move to different nights on FOX’s main network and FS1.

This increase in television rights has had a knock-on effect on WWE’s other income streams as well. For example, the company’s merchandise sales increased by 10% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. This is because WWE superstars are now appearing on prime-time television on two separate nights, which gives them increased exposure and means more people are aware of them. As a result, more people are buying their merchandise.

Live Event Revenue

Live event revenue is the income stream that WWE superstars receive from appearing at WWE live events. Each superstar is paid a guaranteed amount of money for each live event that they appear at, and this amount varies depending on their position on the card. The main event superstars will typically receive the highest guaranteed amount, while the lower card superstars will receive lower guaranteed amounts. In addition to their guarantee, superstars also receive a percentage of the ticket sales for each live event that they appear at. This percentage is generally much higher for the main event superstars than it is for the lower card superstars.

Network Subscriptions

WWE Network is a streaming service launched in February 2014 that replaced WWE’s standard monthly pay-per-view events with a schedule of live programming o. It is operated by WWE and is available through web browsers, applications on smart TVs, mobile devices, video game consoles and digital media players. A WWE Network subscriber can watch content 24/7 including all live pay-per-view events at no additional cost. In addition, they are able to access a growing library of on-demand content that includes every WWE, WCW and ECW pay-per-view event ever as well as classic matches, original series, reality shows and more.

In May 2014, it was announced that the service had 667,287 subscribers. In January 2015, WWE announced that the number of subscribers had grown to 1 million. As of February 2017, the service has 1.5 million subscribers. In January 2018, it was announced that the service had reached 2 million subscribers.

The main source of revenue for WWE is from monthly subscription fees for the WWE Network and broadcaster fees from NBCUniversal for Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live which are shown on the USA Network in the United States.

Merchandise

Income from merchandise is one of the WWE’s primary sources of revenue. The company sells a wide range of products, including t-shirts, hats, DVDs, and action figures. WWE superstars are often featured on these products, and receive a percentage of the royalties. This can be a very lucrative stream of income for top stars.