Kevin Nash Recalls How He & Scott Hall Changed Wrestler’s Pay In WCW

On the latest episode of Kliq This, Kevin Nash explained how he and Scott Hall did more than secure their own guaranteed contracts in WCW. Hall famously had favored nations deals in his contracts that said that if WCW were able to sign WWE stars at bigger contracts, he got a higher pay.

Hall and Nash negotiated for better deals which in turn helped other talent get better deals, something MJF recently cited as a big influence on wrestlers being better taken care of in the modern era. You can check out some highlights below:

On Changing Wrestler Pay:

“If we didn’t push for guaranteed money and favored nations, if we didn’t do all those things — and the key is, it wasn’t the fact that we got the deals. It was the fact that we went into the WCW locker room and made our deals well known to every top guy in that locker room. That’s the difference. People have always gotten paid, but nobody knew what Hogan got. They could always suspect, but we went to the guys, and I would just say, ‘Dude, how much are you making? I’m making 800. I’m making this — you need a f**king raise, we’re working in the same f**king matches.

“So no, it wouldn’t have happened. Because once WCW was dead, if we hadn’t made sure everybody was smartened up, then it would have gone back to WWE being the only game in town.”

On Pay in WWE at the Time:

“It was always the like, Hulk got 10% of the gate and everybody else got [whatever] – that was always the rumor. I looked at it and went, ‘No, there’s a three-way cut on top of of of three guys making the same amount of money.’ And I had absolutely no problem with Bret, or Taker, or Scott — we could have all been like a Magic Mike, where we all make the same 250, and it wouldn’t have mattered to me, because everybody was busting their ass.”

On Having Too Many Guys Go For a Few Spots:

“I just remember sitting there watching that, going, ‘Wow.’ And people can say whatever they want about WCW. But you know what? There’s a lot of guys busting their asses. And yeah, was it political? There’s never, ever going to be that many stars, that many Hall of Fame guys, on a roster fighting for f**king six spots. It just ain’t gonna happen. You just flip that over to Steve and Rock and Hunter and those guys, during that whole Monday Night War, those two crews were just stacked.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Kliq This an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.