How much do WWE wrestlers earn?

SummerSlam, one of WWE’s biggest events of the year, will play out on 3 August in Cleveland

SummerSlam is just around the corner, with one of WWE’s biggest shows of the year scheduled for 3 August in Cleveland.

The event will feature major stars Cody Rhodes and Rhea Ripley, with other big names like Logan Paul and CM Punk expected to be involved – and potentially even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

SummerSlam follows the most successful edition of WrestleMania in history, after The Rock’s involvement and some creative storytelling guaranteed significant financial success for WWE and its parent company Endeavor.

But what about the wrestlers themselves?

The specifics of WWE contracts have long been hard to ascertain. However, WWE star-turned-executive Triple H (real name Paul Levesque) told The Athletic in 2022 that $250,000 is the minimum base salary for wrestlers in the company.

That figure might have risen since, of course, and it reportedly only applied to members of the Smackdown Live and Raw rosters – not wrestlers on NXT, which is WWE’s developmental show.

However, wrestlers’ wages are boosted by merchandise sales and, it is believed, by cuts of pay-per-view sales as well. Of course, merchandise sales are likely to be significant on a SummerSlam weekend, as well as pay-per-view sales, so 3 August could be the most lucrative days of the year for most WWE wrestlers.

Last August, The Mirror reported some of the highest WWE wages as these: Roman Reigns $5m per year; Randy Orton $5m per year; Seth Rollins $3.5m per year; Cody Rhodes $3m per year; Logan Paul $2m per year. These figures reportedly don’t include bonuses.