wrestling / News

New Feature Reveals How Much WWE Developmental Talent Is Paid

April 17, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
WWE Performance Center Canyon Ceman, Ace Steel, NXT logo, Valerie Loureda, Melanie Brzezinski Image Credit: WWE

– A new feature article on WWE’s developmental system has revealed the standard contract pay for developmental talent. Sports Business Journal reports that contracts for new developmental talent pay between $50,000 to $150,000 per year, with an average pay standing at about $80,000 per year.

Triple H spoke with SBJ for the piece and detailed how talent is trained once they come into WWE, noting that they focus on technique, timing, camera awareness and presence, and how to avoid injury. Triple H said that the tryout process is about testing talent, noting, “What we’re really looking for, though, when they start to break down is, ‘how do you really act?’ Are you the type of person that when you’re tired and exhausted puts the other person down to get in front of them, or are you the type of person that looks to the person next to you and picks them up and says, ‘Come on, let’s go, we’re going to finish this.’ Because you can’t do it by yourself in this business. So you have to be that emergent leader.”

He added, “Charisma is king, or queen. That X factor that as you walk into the room makes people turn their heads and ask, ‘Who’s that?’”

Triple H added that training talent once they get to the PC is about “the emotional storytelling. We are way more akin to ‘Rocky’ the movie than boxing, from the shooting and production of it.”

The article notes that top names in WWE can earn in the seven-figure range.