Ernest ‘The Cat’ Miller Reveals ‘Lowball’ WWE Contract Offer

There are quite a few professional wrestlers in WCW who eventually made their way to WWE once the company folded. This included even Ernest ”The Cat” Miller, who went to WWE for a brief run. Now, he revealed the contract that WWE offered him, calling it a ‘lowball.’

Miller became a fixture on WCW television in the promotion’s final years, serving as the on-screen commissioner. “The Cat” actively participated in numerous segments with various wrestlers throughout the show.

Following WCW’s closure in 2001, “The Cat” spent some time on the sidelines before making a transition to WWE. In 2002, he competed in a couple of dark matches and later wrestled two television matches in 2004, including an appearance in the 2004 Royal Rumble.

While speaking to Jeremy Lambert & Stephen Jensen on The Spotlight, the former WCW Superstar talked about making his way from WCW to WWE. Miller revealed that WWE offered him a $220K a year contract, which he felt was a lowball.

“Those four or five years I was in WCW, I made a hell of a lot of money. I made enough money to where I said, ‘This is enough, I can leave wrestling now.’ When they decided to sell to WWE, I got paid another three years just to sit at home. I had three years of payment. That was enough money from wrestling to where I could go back in, teach karate, have money set aside for retirement and everything. Out of nowhere, Johnny Ace gave me a call and said, ‘You need to come up to WWE.

There is an opportunity up here. I think they’ll like you up here.’ I said, ‘I don’t know if that’s what I want to do. If they like me, they know who I am.’ Johnny Ace [John Laurinaitis] said, ‘Vince [Vince McMahon] doesn’t know who you are.’ ‘Vince knows who I am.’ We talked a couple more times. They offered me a real kind of low-ball, wasn’t a lot of money, not enough money to make me come there and be happy. It was about $220,000 a year. I was making that in one month in WCW. I said, that’s bottom pay, but you get pay-per-view and all this stuff I used to get in WCW. If you hit this rating, you get a bump up and they give you a little more money. He talked me into it. I said, ‘I’m going to go up there so I can say I worked in the two largest companies in wrestling.”’

After his appearance at the 2004 Royal Rumble, “The Cat” also took part in the subsequent episode of WWE SmackDown in another royal rumble, which was his only other televised appearance in WWE. While he has wrestled sporadically on the independents over the years, “The Cat” remains active in karate and that’s all that matters to him right now.

What do you make of what Ernest Miller had to say? Do you think he should return to WWE one day? Let us know in the comments section below!