People divide in opinions considering the WWE participants. Some call them second-rate actors whose fights are nothing else than all-staged performances. Others adore their acting skills and address them as the notable wrestlers of all times. Both viewpoints make sense to some extent. However, the WWE events’ enormous success over the years proves that these wrestlers are more than just ‘second-rate’ actors. Salaries of some of the WWE stars reach six-figure sums.
WWE facts
- Some consider WWE and WrestleMania to be the same, but it’s not so. WWE is a media company that promotes professional wrestling events, including WM.
- Jess McMahon is deemed as a father of modern wrestling. He started the Wrestling Corporation in the early 1920s.
- Mike Tyson made several guest appearances at WrestleMania, beginning from 1998.
- The eminent wrestlers get rewards at the Hall of Fame, but such a land-based institution does not exist.
- The current US President, Donald Trump, is a big fan of WrestleMania. Fans could often witness Donald at various WWE events before his presidency.
- The shortest WWE fight lasted for six seconds, when The Rock Johnson defeated Erick Rowan.
- Blood in the wrestling ring has been a taboo since 2008.
- The WWE last-year income reached more than $116M.
Highest-paid wrestlers in 2020
The Forbes magazine shared a roll of the best-wage wrestlers in 2020. Who are these lucky guys with six-figure salaries?
Brock Lesnar
Lesnar has many talents: he is a pro-wrestler, martial artist, and footballer. Brock has several nicknames; the most well-known are The Beast and The Conqueror. In 2002, the rising star Lesnar defeated the legendary Rock Johnson and got the champion’s title. Brock tops the Forbes list with his $10M profit.
Roman Reigns
Roman comes from the family of eminent wrestlers. Roman’s first name is Leati. Besides wrestling, fans know him as an actor and footballer. He played at the NFL but retired in 2008. Reigns is the one-time Intercontinental champ and two-time Universal champ. According to Forbes, his profit is $5M in 2020.
Randy Orton
Randy also comes from the pro-wrestlers family; his father is the legendary Bob Orton Jr. The boy showed passion for wrestling since his childhood when he watched his dad and grandpa in the ring. He made his outset in pro-wrestling in 2002. Orton is the nine-time WWE champ. He also appeared in numerous TV shows and movies, including The Condemned 2. Orton’s profit in 2020 has reached $4.1M.
Seth Rollins
His original name is Colby Lopez, but the star mostly uses his pseudonym. Seth has German and Irish roots. As a boy, Rollins showed a colossal interest in music and dreamed of becoming a rock-n-roll star. Seth is the five-time world champ. Forbes put him in fourth place in their ranking with an income of $4M.
Triple H
Paul Levesque (known by the pseudonym Triple H) is also a successful businessman and actor. He is an executive of NXT. Paul is a son-in-law of the WWE creator, Vince McMahon. No wonder that he decided to devote his career to professional wrestling. Paul is a fourteen-time world champ. His income in 2020 counts $3.3M.
Best-paid wrestlers of all times
Some of these stars retired from WWE or participate at the show purely for guest appearances, but we think it will be a crime not to mention them in the best-paid wrestlers ranking.
The Rock
A younger generation knows Dwayne Johnson as an eminent actor by his leading roles in Jumanji, Fast Five, and other world hits. However, Dwayne’s devoted fans adore the times of his participation in WrestleMania. No doubt, Johnson is the brightest current star, whose career started in wrestling. Johnson’s reported net worth is over $200M.
John Cena
Cena is esteemed as the most productive wrestler with the winning ratio of 78%. He started his pro-wrestler career in 2001 and held the world champ title 16 times. Currently, John works as an actor and TV presenter. His 2020 net worth counts $44M.
Hulk Hogan
Hogan set the WrestleMania record by the number of titles. He is the most-recognized pro-wrestler worldwide. Hulk and his family got global fame due to their reality show Hogan Knows Best, which aired from 2005 to 2007. Hulk’s net worth in 2020 has reached $20M.
The Undertaker
Mark Calaway, known as The Undertaker, is probably the most fearsome wrestler that we know. The staged legend says that The Undertaker is undefeatable because he rose from the dead. Starting from 1991, Calaway had no failures for more than two decades. In 2017, he lost to Lesnar. His reported net worth is $17M.
Extra sources of income
Indeed, WrestleMania is not the only source of income for pro-wrestlers. Many talented battlers show their exceptional talent in acting. For instance, Dwayne Johnson held the status of the better-paying actor in 2019. The Rock outnumbered such stars as Will Smith, Jackie Chan, and Adam Sandler. The Rocks’ colleagues, John Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton, have also reached success in the acting niche.
Commercials are another stable source of profit. Many wrestlers sign deals with famous brands and earn a hard coin for promoting them in the ad campaigns. One of the funniest and popular commercials features the eminent Hulk Hogan (air conditioner Hitachi). Fans still go crazy, rewatching the clip, where Hulk is singing a cute lullaby.
According to WorldBookmakers, people’s interest in wrestling has grown twice due to the appearance of multiple online platforms, which provide the latest statistics by the events and allow fans to wager on their favorite stars. Moreover, some platforms deliver live broadcasts of the ongoing events, allowing the wrestling enthusiasts to enjoy thrilling fights in full HD. Fans can get expert tips to build their strategies in predicting the wrestle champs.
Summing up
As long as WrestleMania and similar events feature on-air, fans’ engagement in wrestling will keep growing. People may argue about the fight fakeness and accuse wrestlers of staged performances, which have nothing to do with real combats. Still, the immense demand for such sports unveils something unique and tempting in the WWE environment. Maybe wrestlers sometimes overact with their emotions in the ring, but it doesn’t diminish fans’ pleasure from their breathtaking combats. The greatest wrestlers with multi-million incomes give rookies a strong motivation to follow their dreams and climb high in the professional arena.
