Before we discuss the money that circulates between WWE and professional wrestlers, we need to examine their unique business relationship. The wrestlers are self-employed who sign exclusive binding contracts with the World Wrestling Entertainment corporation. While under contract, the wrestlers cannot participate in other promotions on the market, something in which WWE is very strict and does not hesitate to start a legal battle against them.
WWE owns the rights to a wrestler’s ring name, image, persona, character, caricatures, costumes, mannerisms, and even the legal name for the life of a contract. If the wrestler wishes to use the character in an endeavor outside of wrestling, they must be granted those rights in a sublicense agreement.
WWE wrestler contracts
Contract prevalence also distinguishes between wrestler intellectual property and new intellectual property. The former includes rights that will revert to the performer upon fulfillment of their agreement (or, where applicable, the stated termination period). Although those rights revert to the artist, WWE and its sublicensees retain the rights to use images of a wrestler’s possession. New intellectual property, trademarks, and other property developed by WWE during a wrestler’s term of employment are retained by WWE in perpetuity.. The main exceptions are when a fighter’s legal and ring names are identical (as in the cases of Brock Lesnar or John Cena)..
The contracts generally give wrestlers a base salary plus a portion of other sources of income, such as merchandise sales and ticketing. Wrestlers on WWE’s main roster earn an average of $500,000 a year, while the best are in the seven figures. But specifying the payment of an individual fighter is much more challenging. Internet reports pegged one of Lesnar’s previous contracts at $5 million for a single year, while other rumors indicate the new one is a three-year deal worth $3 million.
During that time, some contracts acquired by the press as part of the legal documents in some of the WWE court cases illustrated that wrestlers are paid a base salary plus shares from WWE revenue streamssuch as merchandise and receipts. However, that bonus money is nearly impossible to discern because wrestlers’ revenue share is allocated as a portion of cost of sales in WWE’s financial files. In available contracts, annual base salaries range from $52,000 to $1 million per yearalthough they are based on a small sample.
The only wrestler we have an absolute number for is Triple H (Paul Levesque), who also serves as WWE’s vice president of talent, live events and chief creative officer, a company executive who submitted his payroll earlier this month. Levesque earned $1.1 million in executive pay, including incentives, plus another $1.65 million for in-ring performances. His total income of about $2.8 million made him the highest-paid executive in WWE last year; Chairman Vince McMahon earned $2.4 million.