WWE & AEW Talent War Could Earn Wrestlers Big Money

WWE is moving on from the Vince McMahon era. The long-time chairman and CEO of the company recently announced his retirement amid a huge hush money scandal. Now, Triple H is in charge of talent relations and creative and his wife, Stephanie McMahon, is co-CEO.

There has been a lot of speculation about what this could mean in terms of talent. Triple H is known to be less picky about certain traits that make up a WWE superstar than Vince McMahon was. The door could be open to wrestlers who would not have previously considered WWE as a career choice.

On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the possibility that there could be moves from AEW to WWE and vice versa. With AEW entering negotiations for a new TV rights deal, he urged wrestlers to be patient before making any long-term decisions. If Tony Khan scores a lucrative deal, the money could be very nice for top talents.

“It’s amazing what you hear and that’s, you know… This is the move and we’re probably going to have, I guess we’re going to have a lot of moves and I think some talent, when their contracts are up, on both sides, especially if AEW gets a good TV renewal. If they don’t, it might not be as much, but if they get a good TV deal, WWE obviously has, you know, hundreds of millions in profit, so, you know, there are going to be wrestlers that are going to be able to, you know, top wrestlers are going to be able to get a lot of money on contract renewals.

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I know that the thing is, for the wrestlers, you know, both companies when they sign these guys are going to want to sign guys for five years or maybe longer. Maybe even in some cases seven years. There might even be some guys, WWE-signed guys for ten years in most cases, but mostly fives. I think Owens was three, but I would tell any wrestler right now who is under contract and the contract’s coming due to, if you’re good and you have confidence, fight like hell to sign a two-year deal. You’re not going to get less than two, but if it’s five, beg for three… If you’re a good wrestler, the more your deal comes up, the more you’re going to be able to escalate your salary, unless AEW is out of business, which I don’t expect to happen.”

Tony Khan noted yesterday that a lot of his wrestlers are already under long-term deals. That doesn’t mean that others won’t consider their options when their contracts are up, and that includes wrestlers in WWE considering jumping to AEW. It could be a very interesting time in wrestling, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1990s.

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Transcription by Ringside News