Baron Corbin Agreed to Major Pay Cut to Stay in WWE’s NXT Brand

Baron Corbin’s NXT run was a career reset that turned him into a fan favorite, but it came at a huge cost—literally. Corbin recently revealed that he took a major pay cut to make it happen, and at one point, he even thought WWE was about to fire him.

Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Corbin shared that he received a call from WWE on the same day multiple wrestlers were being released. When he saw a missed call from Dan, the man handling talent cuts, he assumed the worst.

“I went down to NXT on the day they were releasing everybody. A guy named Dan was in charge of all that, and I had no idea they were letting people go. I saw that I had a missed call from Dan. He called me and said, ‘Hey, I think you’ve seen we’ve been releasing people today.’ I said, ‘No, I had no idea.'”

At that moment, Corbin thought it was the end of his WWE career, but instead, he got a different kind of news—his salary was about to take a serious hit.

“Then he told me, ‘We can’t keep paying you what we’re paying you for what you’re doing in NXT.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ He continued, ‘You’re going to have to take a significant pay cut.’ I said, ‘Okay, so what are we talking about?’ Again, I was fine with it because I understand business. You can’t be paying me a main roster contract—what I thought was a monster contract—while I’m in NXT working maybe one day a week.”

At the time, Corbin was living in Tampa and driving to Orlando, which made his NXT schedule pretty easy to manage. However, WWE didn’t give him an actual contract offer until months later, which threw him off.

“That was a great, cushy life. So I asked, ‘What’s the offer?’ He said, ‘I don’t know yet. We’ll be in touch.’ Then three or four months went by, and I think it got all the way to December before they made the offer. It was not what I expected.”

Feeling unsure about signing a new deal, Corbin consulted his wife, but it was Shawn Michaels who ultimately convinced him to stay.

“I told them, ‘I don’t know, man. I can’t do that right now. Let me talk to my wife, blah blah blah.’ But Shawn Michaels was the one who actually talked me into it. He said, ‘You know, you can make as much money as you want in this business. In a sense, you’re in control. You can out-earn.’

Michaels also pitched a potential feud with Bron Breakker, which helped sway Corbin’s decision.

“Shawn kind of convinced me, and they told me the plan of potentially working with Bron. So I thought, ‘Alright, money isn’t everything.’ My wife can help, and I control everything myself when it comes to finances.”

In the end, Corbin signed the deal, despite knowing it wasn’t in his favor financially.

“I keep that separate because I just want to provide for my family. My wife is a boss and does well on her own. So, in the end, I signed. I understand how contracts work. Sometimes they’re fair, sometimes they’re not, but they’re necessary to protect people.”

Since then, Corbin has left WWE and rebranded himself as Bishop Dyer, looking to carve out his next chapter in pro wrestling. While fans respect him for taking a risk in NXT, they’re now waiting to see if 2025 will be his biggest year yet.

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