WWE was at its most successful during the Attitude Era and, for many fans, the company has never quite managed to reach the same heights. Financially, WWE is doing better than ever, but wrestlers certainly don't seem to be making what they once were (unless we're talking about the likes of Roman Reigns, John Cena, and Brock Lesnar).
During a recent edition of his podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and AEW Dynamite commentator Jim Ross reflected on signing Chris Jericho and revealed just how much some members of the roster were earning.
"$450K is a good starting salary. I thought we were being very fair," he said of what WWE initially offered Y2J. "The key component of that was convincing him that our incentive program, in other words, getting paid on the house, old school, commission so to speak, payoff, was real. Without naming names, I gave him some illustrations of, this guy has a $300,000 downside, but last year, he made $1.8 million. At one time, we had 20-something guys on our roster that were making over a million."
"That’s incredible. They got that million dollar number by productivity. They sold tickets, PPVs, and merchandise. I think that was part of the only hurdle we had to overcome that it was really a true payoff system."
"We had a great meeting, he, Jerry (Brisco) and I. He was a fan of the Briscos and a student of the game. We both loved him. We both thought he can work heel or babyface. I love the fact that he was durable. It was a great meeting. Soon thereafter, guess what? We signed him. When his contract was over, and he didn’t renew there at WCW, we closed the deal very quickly."
Make sure to check out the full podcast below for more from Ross on Jericho's WWE debut!