Below are some top AEW & WWE news stories of the day.
• Chris Jericho has been a cornerstone of AEW since joining the company in 2019, and his move had a significant impact on the wrestling world—including WWE. Now, Jericho is claiming that WWE’s top stars are making $30–40 million a year, a massive jump from what wrestlers were earning before AEW’s rise.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Jericho explained that WWE previously had a structured salary system, capping guaranteed contracts at $1 million per year. While wrestlers could make more through bonuses and merchandise sales, that base salary was the limit.
However, Jericho believes his decision to leave WWE for AEW changed the game. He claimed that salaries skyrocketed in response, with even lower-card wrestlers now making $1 million annually, while top stars like Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes are reportedly earning anywhere from $30–40 million. He also noted that some performers make around $15–20 million, a pay scale that, in his view, only exists because AEW’s presence forced WWE to increase its financial offers.
Here’s what Y2J said:
“The moment I left to go to AEW, suddenly the entire salary structure changed. For years working in WWE, Vince’s magic number was $1 million a year—nobody got more than that guaranteed. You might make more if you were working on top with pay-per-view bonuses and merch sales, but on paper, $1 million was the max.
Now, opening match guys are getting $1 million a year, and top guys are making $30–40 million a year. You’d be surprised—yes, not all of them, but a few. Even $15 million, $20 million. I don’t think that would have happened if AEW hadn’t scared WWE into paying people more.”
Also Read: Trish Stratus’ WWE Future Revealed After Royal Rumble Return
• During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Chris Jericho revealed that WWE wanted him to return to the company in 2022 with his “The List” gimmick:
“I never wanted to be a nostalgia act, still don’t. It’s one of the reasons I went to AEW in the first place in 2019, I didn’t want to go back to WWE and do The List. Which I knew they wanted me to do, and this is 3 years later and the List was not a thing for me back then.
You want to continue to push and grow and evolve and stay as relevant as possible and still build the business and build other guys and you can do all those things as long as you understand what the business is all about.”
