Report: WWE Recently Paid $500,000 To Stop Undercard Talent Leaving The Company

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently left the company after his deal expired. Following that, he very quickly signed a contract with All Elite Wrestling in what is being dubbed the “most lucrative deal in commentary history”.

WWE has denied both Harper and Sasha Banks their WWE releases in recent weeks amidst reported interest from the aforementioned AEW. When speaking on Busted Open Radio, Jim Ross spoke about the rather extreme lengths Vince McMahon is now going to in order to ensure talent do not leave the company.

Jim Ross spoke about how he wanted to bring someone from WWE to AEW, but was told that said talent had signed a $500,000 deal with Vince McMahon just to stop him from leaving:

“I heard the other day — someone told me in a meeting because I was asking about some talent — I’m not officially in that department but you know, I’m the senior advisor, so I want to advise. I wanna stick my nose where it doesn’t belong but at least you’re getting my opinion. I asked about one guy in WWE, who’s an undercard guy — been there a while, solid hand, could help the younger guys learn because he’s at that age now, early 30s, and they say, ‘Well he’s not available. He just signed for half-a-million dollars’. He’s not even on television. 500k just to keep him off the streets so to speak. So yeah, I would think there’s a reactionary phase of this deal that, ‘Hey, these guys got some cash and they’re willing to pay people”.

Ross did not specify who said talent was, but it is still interesting to note that Vince McMahon is clearly threatened by AEW that he is being forced into signing talent to massive deals even if they aren’t being used on TV just to ensure that they don’t move to All Elite Wrestling.

Both WWE and AEW have been in the news today with Cody Rhodes responding to comments made by Triple H when he called AEW a “piss-ant” company in his WWE Hall of Fame induction speech.

Thanks to Fightful for the transcription.

WrestleTalk recently launched a new segment called “WrestleTalk Radio” where Greg Lambert will be running through the biggest news stories across the whole world of professional wrestling in audio format. Check out the first episode by clicking here.

Issue 9 of WrestleTalk Magazine is available NOW worldwide. Order your print or digital copy or subscribe to the next six issues at this link

• $500000
• jim ross
• AEW
• wwe

Share this article with friends