• Eric Bischoff On Who Were The Highest Paid Wrestlers In WCW
During the first edition of his 83 Weeks podcast, former WCW president Eric Bischoff talked about the highest paid stars in WCW, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall working a much easier schedule in WCW than WWF, and more.
Below are the highlights:
On the highest paid stars in WCW:
“It was never a thing with me. We had a budget in place that had been approved the year before by Turner Broadcasting Finance Committee, so I knew the parameters that I had to work with. I knew that politically, from a locker room prospective, I knew that there was no way that I can bring these new guys in and make more money than Ric Flair. Nor did I wanted to put them at the level, even if Ric Flair hadn’t been there, I didn’t want to pay them at Sting’s rate.
Sting was the highest paid guy. We were all comfortable with that, the rest of the talent was comfortable with that, but I never used it as a barometer publicly. I knew that within my budget, and Sting being the highest paid guy, along with Ric Flair and a few below him, again, the questions that I did have with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, especially with Kevin because I talked with him more based on our previous relationship with him.”
On Kevin Nash and Scott Hall working a much easier schedule in WCW than WWF:
“Kevin made it clear to me, we put a maximum of 180 dates, WWE was at 250, we may be splitting hairs to a degree, but it wasn’t half the dates. It may have felt that way to Scott and Kevin, but we had a maximum of 180 dates, we never hit the maximum dates, it was around 125-130 dates a year, so it was definitely a lot less of a load than what they were used to.
Kevin was expecting his very first child at that time, and in WWE he would have been on the road, add the travel that they worked along with the front and back end of traveling back home and leaving again they were probably gone 300 days a year, so it was a much lighter load. Add the income from pay-per-views, house shows, and all the profit shares, they were probably making $500,000 or more, but they had to work hard to get it, but they both expressed to me, especially with Kevin, it was much of a lifestyle consideration as it was a financial one.”
• New SmackDown Live Wrestler To Face Problems On The Main Roster Due To His Size?
Brad Shepard recently noted on his ‘Backstage In WWE’ podcast that new SmackDown Live wrestler Andrade “Cien” Almas might face problems on the main roster due to his size.
While Almas isn’t as small as some of WWE’s top stars like Finn Balor & Daniel Bryan, Shepard is saying that WWE officials might think he isn’t tall enough (Almas is 5’9 – although he doesn’t look that short standing next to Zelina Vega who’s 5’1).
With WWE giving pushes to smaller guys too nowadays (for example: On last week’s RAW, a 170 lbs Finn Balor was giving a hard time to 340 lbs Braun Strowman in their main event match) and WWE in need of a big Latino star, it doesn’t look like Almas would struggle for a push on the main roster, but this is the WWE – anything can happen.
The coming months will tell a lot about former NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas and his future on the SmackDown Live brand.
