WWE stars are being asked to take up to 50% pay cuts amidst ludicrous corporate greed
OMAHA, NEBRASKA - MAY 4: Finn Balor makes his entrance during Monday Night RAW at the CHI Health Center on May 4, 2026 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Rich Wade/WWE via Getty Images) | WWE via Getty Images The weeks following WrestleMania are traditionally a time that WWE retools its roster for the upcoming year and beyond. Despite there not being a true “offseason” in professional wrestling, like any sport the time between WrestleMania and SummerSlam is when new talent is pushed up the card, old faces are scaled back, and unfortunately some wrestlers are released all together.
That indeed happened, with WWE releasing upwards of 20 wrestlers in last week , but on the tail of that news something entirely different has emerged: Corporate greed. Reports emerged this week that there were superstars inside the company who weren’t subject to the yearly releases, but instead given ultimatums to either re-work their contracts and accept pay cuts of up to 50% or be let go. This occurred with both Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, both of whom decided to leave the company, rather than reduce their rate.
Veteran wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer is also reporting that there are some inside WWE who accepted the ultimatum and signed new, reduced contracts as a result of the strong-arm tactics. It’s certainly not usual to see pay scales change over time in professional wrestling, moving both up and down as a result of a wrestler’s position inside the company, but it is unheard of that talent has been asked to take massive pay reductions while under contract in an effort to push them into lower-paying roles. Especially when pay at the TKO executive level (WWE’s parent company) has exploded to double, and even triple their multi-million dollar salaries.
Amid reports some WWE talent were asked to take pay cuts by as much as 50%, how are some top TKO & WWE executives compensated YOY (determined by TKO Board comp committee)? 2025 vs. 2024: Ari Emanuel: +272%, $18M➡️$67M Mark Shapiro: +33%, $32M➡️$43M Nick Khan: +304%, $6M➡️$24M pic.
twitter. com/5GQR61d6Oc — Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) May 5, 2026 This is not a case of cutting pay because the business is changing, or that wrestling revenue is down, but rather the end-game of making payroll as cheap as possible, following the UFC model of grossly underpaying talent. The core difference is that MMA fighters are allowed to pursue and sign their own independent sponsorship deals to bolster their earnings, which WWE wrestlers cannot.