Ryback Reveals How His Bonuses Decreased After WWE Network Move, How Superstars Are Compensated for Their Merchandise, Addresses Lars Sullivan Controversy

– WrestlingInc.com recently interviewed former WWE Superstar Ryback for the WINCLY podcast. During the interview, he openly addressed WWE bonus payouts, how they decreased after the WWE Network move, and how Superstars get money off of their merchandise. Below are some highlights, courtesy of WrestlingInc.com.

Ryback on how the WWE contracts and numbers they receive for merchandise are horrible: “The numbers are in the contract and the numbers are completely screwed up, the numbers are horrible. Now, outside of someone like Brock that negotiated a better deal and owns his name, trademarks, different things and was able to negotiate a better deal, 90 percent of the talent does not have the power to negotiate a better deal. And, they keep them in a position where they don’t have any negotiating power. If you do question your percentages, they will just pick someone else. The thing is a $30 t-shirt they are selling, you’re making a dollar or under a dollar a shirt, somewhere in that vicinity. Wrestlers, as independent contractors should be able to negotiate. WWE will say anyone can negotiate, I can tell you first hand that if you do that, you’re not going to make any money and you’re not going to be used. So, everybody signs the contract and just goes along with it because that is what everyone else has done.”

Ryback on how WWE will not pay for hotel and travel expenses unless you are part of NXT roster: “One of the reasons they say they do that is to ease the expenses of the new talent, to get them adjusted to life on the road. It’s kind of a way to trick your talent. It’s not just NXT, that has been around for a long time. When we came up in Nexus we all had that. When I came back as Ryback, I didn’t have that. It’s a way to not show talent the evil side of what their expenses are going to be. Then when they renegotiate a contract, the talent doesn’t have an idea how much that money is going to be and what that is going to cost them. So, they don’t negotiate for a higher contract. They Just look and go ‘Woah, I’m making this right now and I’m going to get $60 thousand more.’ That $60 thousand is going to go to your expenses. There is always a rhyme and a reason to everything they do there and that is one of them.”

Ryback on WWE’s handling of Lars Sullivan for his online forum comments: “You cannot condone that behavior. But WWE was aware of that behavior beforehand. Here is why I tell people raising awareness is so key with their sponsors. Because they will listen to sponsors and TV networks. They were aware of the comments beforehand. But they were like ‘Oh, we can make money off this guy’ but now they are getting a little bit of backlash to do something extreme. It is unfortunate for Lars, I’m not defending him at all. He probably shouldn’t even be there with everything going on mentally and how that place is. WWE, that’s great you’re going to fine him, but that money best not be going back to the WWE. I would publicly like to see them pick a charity, maybe something in a mental health capacity, social media behavior, something that will benefit other people from him learning this lesson, rather than them just keeping this money. I do not know if they have made mention of that or not, but I would hope as a company, if you fine this talent, you sure as hell do something good with the money.”

Ryback on how pay went down for bonuses after the WWE Network move for pay-per-view: “They held a meeting for that (when the network first started) and pay went down drastically. Eventually, it went back up but we were told payouts were going to be based of previous years pay-per-views or previous years. Those numbers were not made available to the talent. You were not given any numbers to reference it off, you have no idea what the network is doing. It is something I brought up as well.”

Ryback on how WrestleMania bonuses decreased after the Network move: “My first WrestleMania against Mark Henry I was paid $70-$74 thousand range, which by far was my highest payday for a single wrestling match. I just remember I was in the main event right off the bat and my paydays were, what I considered anyway, to be great. But, I had nothing to compare it to. The next year in the tag with RybAxel (first WrestleMania on the network) I believe I made $35 thousand, it was my lowest pay-per-view pay of the year and I was never told why.”