The amount of money WWE wrestlers make has been in the news lately after Ridge Holland was released and then went public about his financial issues as a result of taking a paycut and then being let go while injured.
Former WWE wrestler Priscilla Kelly, who wrestled in the promotion as Gigi Dolin, spoke about some misconceptions fans have about how much wrestlers truly earn.
In an interview with Denise Salcedo, Kelly highlighted some advantages of working independently rather than being under contract to WWE including having the ability to make extra revenue through autograph signings and selling your own merchandise going so far as to state that in WWE, you have no freedom at all.
"I can do whatever I want now. I can take signings. I can sell my own merch. I can do whatever I want. And that’s a huge part of it, too. Is in WWE, you don’t have that freedom. You don’t have any freedom, really. Like, they own everything you do. They even took, I think, almost half of my Cameo earnings as well. That was like the one thing that they do allow you to do, is Cameo, and they even take a percentage of that."
Kelly also stated that unlike what wrestling fans may want to believe, not everyone in WWE - specifically NXT - is raking in a significant amount of money to make them a millionaire. Kelly even claimed that some NXT contracts are as low as $30,000 per year and that contracts don't escalate much beyond that.
"The common misconception about, especially NXT performers, is that we’re millionaires, right? A lot of fans for some reason think that if you work in WWE, and you’re under that umbrella, you’re a millionaire, you live in a mansion, you’re driving a Benz, you’ve got it made. That’s not the case. In NXT, there’s contracts as low as $30,000 a year. And they do not go as high as you think."
"You have to live in Florida, which it’s very expensive to live here. Going out to eat just for two people can run you $100+ because everything is marked up from tourism and Florida’s just the hotbed for people. So it’s very expensive living here. Having to pay for new gear all the time and all these expenses, taking care of your body and getting all these little things, like, it all adds up. And at the end of the day, especially because you can’t make money outside of what you make in WWE, you don’t make a lot. I think the common misconception is that we’re all just rich and rolling in money and that’s just not the case."
Kelly then said that most wrestlers who compete on the main brands - Raw or Smackdown - aren't making huge money, pointing to an overhead that eats away at their salary:
"Even main roster talent, like, of course there’s people on main roster that are making the really big, big, big bucks but that’s a small percentage. A lot of people that are up there, like, they make good money, but they’re also paying for every hotel, they’re paying for all of their travel and all the food, everything they need on top of the other expenses of gear and taking care of your body and taking care of your sanity."
Kelly, who was released from WWE earlier this spring, said that taking all these factors into account, she is generating more money now on the indie circuit that she did while under contract (a claim which Scarlett Bordeaux also recently made).
