MVP is giving fans a look at how WWE contracts can work behind the scenes, and his biggest issue is simple: the wrestler can be locked in for years while the company still holds most of the leverage.
During Marking Out with MVP and Dwayne “Swayze,” MVP was asked about WWE approaching veteran talent about restructuring existing deals. He said his understanding is that Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods had already signed lucrative contracts before management later came back looking to renegotiate them at a much lower number.
“As I understand it, Kofi and Woods had just signed a new deal, and a very lucrative deal, which they more than deserve for all the money that they generated. And, like, just a year after, the people at the top of the ladder wanted to renegotiate their deal. And as I understand it, they wanted them to take half. They want a 50% pay cut. Fifty percent is what I’m hearing.”
MVP said that under TKO, wrestlers are not necessarily involved while those decisions are being made. He understands the corporate logic of wanting to move younger talent up as veterans get older, but said wrestling is not a normal business where executives can simply look at numbers on a spreadsheet.
“I understand from a corporate, from a business aspect, you have older talent that are starting to age out. You have younger talent that, you know, you want to advance and push up. However, the wrestling business is different, man. It’s different. And with TKO management, to your question, no, talent’s not in the room. These are stuffed suits moving pennies around, deciding who’s worth it, who’s not. These decisions are made without the knowledge of the talent involved. And then once the decision’s made, then the talent, as I understand it, is contacted and saying, ‘Hey guys, want to talk to you about your contract.’”
That led MVP into how WWE contracts themselves are structured. Based on the deals he signed during his own time with the company, MVP said the agreements were heavily tilted in WWE’s favor, to the point that lawyers who later reviewed his contracts could not believe what he had signed.
“What people don’t understand about professional wrestling contracts, especially with the WWE when I was there, you can sign a 50-year contract. The way those contracts were structured, they were horribly, horribly one-sided, notoriously one-sided. Every lawyer that I’ve ever shown my old WWE contracts to, they look at it like, ‘I could never let you sign this.’ They look at it like, ‘This is disgusting.’ But when you’re the only game in town, right? The only place that can pay, that can make you rich, well, what are you going to do? You can’t say, ‘No, I’m not going to take that.’ You take what they give you.”
MVP then explained what he sees as the biggest imbalance. A wrestler can sign a five-year WWE deal and be expected to honor all five years, while WWE can potentially release that person and only owe 90 days of pay.
“You as talent have a 90-day out. So, at any given time, WWE can release you. They just got to pay you 90 days. So, you’re obligated to WWE for the duration of your commitment. You sign a five-year deal, you’re obligated to them for five years. At any point, they’re only obligated to you for 90 days. They can fire you whenever they want. They’re only obligated to pay you for 90 days. So, your commitment is for whatever you signed for, their commitment is for 90 days.”
MVP did acknowledge that major box-office stars can have different contracts, using Brock Lesnar as an example of someone he would expect to have stronger protections. Still, his point was that the standard structure gives WWE far more flexibility than the wrestler signing the deal.
For talent, that means a long-term WWE contract may not come with the same long-term commitment from the company, especially when management can later attempt to renegotiate terms or move on with only a limited financial obligation.
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What do you think about the way WWE contracts are structured? Should talent have more protection when signing multi-year deals? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
