Kevin Nash Weighs In CM Punk’s Comments About Guaranteed Contracts

On the latest episode of Kliq This, Kevin Nash discussed CM Punk’s recent comments about the shift in pay structure in professional wrestling. Punk had noted that while guaranteed contracts are good for financial security, they have removed the “ambition” that came from pay being predicated on house show gates and ticket sales. You can check out some highlights below:

On Punk’s Comments:

“I mean, yeah, absolutely. If you go back to like ’99 NWO, I don’t think Scott and I had a f**king match we gave a s**t about because we knew we were gonna get our guaranteed money… ‘Brother, we already got their money.’ No, I understand that. I understand what CM Punk is saying.

“But we still — like, Scott and I still went out there. Nitros were what they were. You had to have been there, and thank God we had the stroke we did and we’re getting paid. Because there were so many times man, that we didn’t have a finish to the main event going out to the ring. Because — you can’t have anybody that has creative control that’s in between those ropes. You just can’t do that..”

On Financial Implications For Top In the Modern Era:

“I think Roman is the top-paid guy at 12. I think Phil makes 10 or 9. So you just came back, and you’re in the top five paid guys. It tells me why our royalties are what they are. Because you used to f**king — it was a million dollars downside, and you worked off that million dollars to make more than a million dollars. And that included your royalties. So if you made $700,000 in royalties, and you made $1.9 million live gate, then that was what you made.

“But since you’ve got a guarantee now, and it doesn’t go against what you f**king earn as far as your f**king merch, now that whole f**king wheel has been f**king up. So it’s the guy that’s still in the f**king old f**king system that’s getting f**ked. You’re not getting f**ked, Phil. I’ll take the guarantee.”

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