WWE released a bunch of wrestlers over the past few weeks, with some of them given a choice of staying by taking a significant pay cut or if they didn't accept the cut, being given their release. The New Day - Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston - were two names were offered a spot with the promotion if they agreed to take a pay cut, which they declined.
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that people with direct knowledge of the situation have stated that the number of talent who were asked to take a cut was "less than a half dozen" and that those wrestlers would have been included in the list of releases if they didn't accept.
Meltzer added that the wrestlers in question were not "high end players" but rather talent that the creative team had labeled as having little interest in for in storylines moving forward. It was then that the idea came up within WWE that they could remain under contract, get paid less and have their in-ring careers wind down.
On the rumor of a "major name" agreeing to a 50% cut, Meltzer confirmed that report is current and noted that it is believed that the wrestler in question was not a fit with AEW and thus, didn't have a lot of leverage. This wrestler (and possibly others) were making into the seven-figures perhaps even excess of $2 million per year who simply couldn't do any better than than $1 million on the open market so without leverage, made sense for them to accept the slash in pay.
