It’s Meltzer, so feel free to add your own pinch of salt. The main qoutes are:
“While there have been talks of large numbers asked to take pay cuts, those in a position to know have said that the number is less than a half dozen, and they were people who would have been cut had they not accepted it.“
“They were not the high end players and were people that creative had tabbed little interest in going forward and thus the idea is they could remain under contract while their in-ring aspect of their career would be phased down.“
“There were reports, confirmed to us, that at least one major name wrestler agreed to a 50 percent pay cut. There are wrestlers who would not fit in AEW and are making well into seven figures, many in excess of $2 million per year, who simply couldn’t earn anywhere near $1 million elsewhere, so the leverage isn’t there.”
“The New Day, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods, who were on the list of those without significant future plans, were essentially put in the position where they were going to be cut, but were offered less money to stay, wind down their in-ring careers and finish their current contract doing some in-ring and working in a promotional capacity.”
“They both decided to leave the promotion, given they had signed a five year-contract in 2025 at a certain number and one year in were being asked to have that money cut back while maintaining the rest of the contract.”
The idea that New Day were on that list at all, regardless of its size, is fucking baffling.
And honestly, if this was just a small number of talent that got railroaded like this, it’s even more so. Did they really save that much money with the contract restructuring? Especially compared to all the goodwill they lost in that locker room?
And if it’s only 6 names… Well, we know New Day, Jeff Cobb, and Tanga Loa, and we know that New Day will be eagerly welcomed to AEW and that AEW had a positive relationship with Cobb in the past and would likely be happy to bring him in as a full-timer. So where is this idea that it’s mostly people who wouldn’t fit in well in AEW coming from?
Cutting wrestler pay while the tko top-brass award themselves millions is pretty shady. I don’t think this is to save money, just redirect it to execs.
I think the key aspect is “winding down their career that they really have nothing for them” so think Matt Cardona, R-Truth, Akira Tozawa, LA Knight, Nattie, etc. that’s 5 names right there right off the top of my head that would fit. Those are all names that would desperately want to stay in WWE and probably wouldn’t fit in at AEW or some other promotion. You could also probably add Rusev. If they cut black, they probably wanted to cut him too and he would have agreed to a 50% cut because he likely wouldn’t want to go back to AEW or even be welcomed back.
I think we’re reading that differently. We know that Austin Creed, Kofi Kingston, Jeff Cobb, and Tanga Loa got these offers (and declined them). I was assuming this “less than 6” included those names, and you seem to be assuming it’s “less than 6” in addition to them.
I think what what Meltzer is saying is there are multiple wrestlers in WWE that wouldn’t fit in at AEW, and one of them took a 50% pay cut.
That’s possible. Dave isn’t always the clearest speaker or writer.
Which is a problem for a journalist.
