Stevie Richards Reveals He Averaged Less Than $30,000 Per Year Wrestling For WWE
Stevie Richards didn't make as much in WWE as you might expect
Jul 19, 2024
Stevie Richards averaged less than $30,000 per year during his final years with WWE, the man himself revealed in a new video on his YouTube channel.
Richards revealed that his average downside guarantee with WWE was $75,000 per year which meant he averaged around $1,442 per week. All of Richards' expenses, which increased during his final years with the company as he wanted to travel alone, totalled $870 per week leaving him with $572 per week before tax.
His weekly expenses as a pro wrestler in the 2000s accounted for a hotel bill of $280, a $300 bill for a rental car, $100 on fuel, $100 on food, $50 to work out at a gym, and $40 on airport parking. This ultimately left Richards with an average salary from his downside guarantee of $29,744 before tax in his final years with WWE.
"Wrestlers choose to get paid $75,000 a year downside. I chose to have that for the opportunity of hopefully making more or hopefully renegotiating a contract. Whenever I did renegotiate, it always went back down to $75,000. My standard three years was 75(K), 75(K), 125(K). Every time we got towards the end of the second year, I was off TV or something happened and they needed to put me on another 75, 75, 125. Until my last one, which was three years at 75 and a few months later I was gone," Richards said.
Adjusted for inflation, Richards' salary before tax was $43,300. Stevie Richards performed for WWE from 1999 until 2008.
H/T Fightful