• Top Star Says AEW Pays Wrestlers Fairer Share of Revenue Than WWE
WWE has been in a war with AEW since Tony Khan started the Jacksonville-based promotion. There are several things the young company does better than the global giant, which makes it more attractive to wrestlers. But, WWE being a household name gives it a huge advantage against its top rival.
In an interview with Jon-Bernard Kairouz, Bryan Danielson, who has worked for both companies, revealed that AEW pays its stars a fairer share of revenue than WWE, despite the former making less money.
“Wrestlers are being paid more now than ever from a sports rights perspective. So, for example, in most major sports in the United States, the players get anywhere between 40 to 50% of the revenue. WWE was paying their wrestlers nowhere close to that.
Now, keep in mind, they’re still not paying anywhere close to that, but they do have to pay more, because if they don’t, the talent is going to leave and go to AEW. AEW does pay that 40 to 50% of their revenue to their wrestlers. You know, despite making much less money. I mean, our TV rights deal was incredible, but we’re still the challenger brand catching up on however many years WWE has.”
The American Dragon recently questioned why WWE wants to counterprogram AEW, and said that Cody Rhodes would have never become a big star and CM Punk would have never returned to pro wrestling if Tony Khan didn’t start his promotion.
• Triple H Says WWE Has Helped Drive Change For Women In Saudi Arabia
WWE signed a 10-year deal with Saudi Arabia in 2018 under which the company is obligated to hold two Premium Live Events in the kingdom every year. In recent years, they have also held episodes of RAW and SmackDown there.
At the starting of the partnership, women weren’t allowed to compete at the shows in Saudi Arabia. Fortunately, that has changed over the course of time.
Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show this week, WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H said that his company has been a part of creating change for women in Saudi Arabia.
“That’s been their goal since the beginning, to change their perception, to change how they are, to open up that umbrella for women and with the country. It takes time. You can’t just do that stuff all at once, or you alienate all the people that are in front of it and had an old long-standing belief. You’ve got to do it over time.
I truly believe that to initiate change, you got to be a part of it. You can’t just sit back on the sidelines and say, ‘We’re not going to participate in that and these people don’t do things right.’ You need to be there and be part of that change. We’ve been part of that change since the beginning. Proudly been a part of that change.”
WWE will hold Royal Rumble 2026 in Saudi Arabia and is reportedly planning to have WrestleMania 43 there as well.
• TKO Set To Abandon Vince McMahon’s WWE Approach
WWE has broken a lot of records since being bought by TKO. The company has started holding international events frequently, which have been very profitable.
TKO President Mark Shapiro spoke at the Goldman Sachs Conference, where he said that a hike in ticket prices for WWE events is coming as the promotion is way behind UFC, another company under the TKO umbrella.
“WWE is not where the UFC is yet on ticket yields. We have our work to do there. But we’ve seen a meaningful increase as evidenced by the 59% margin 2nd quarter. Ticket yields and site fees play a big part in driving that. We know we have more room to grow. Why do we know that? Because UFC is breaking records everywhere they go.
We know we have a lot of room there because Vince McMahon was primarily pricing tickets for families and wasn’t totally focused on maxing the opportunity there. Now that we’ve seen what we can do with UFC, we’re replicating that in terms of ticket yield and holding back and advance sales when it comes to OnLocation on the WWE side and it’s working out really well.
If we have a St. Louis going up against a Des Moines, Iowa, and you want us back there and you’ve broken records and sold out both your arenas, you have to pay for us to come back or else we’ll take it to another town. And that goes for NXT, RAW and SmackDown on the WWE side.”
WWE is reportedly planning to hold WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia, which could turn out to be the most profitable event in the company’s history.
