WWE: Contract Amounts for Several Top Stars, New Talent Program Launched, New Broken Skull Sessions Episode

WWE

Dec 4, 2021

Brock Lesnar & Roman Reigns Contracts Reportedly Worth Over $5 Million Per Year

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources within WWE stated that the very top tier stars in the company are currently making over $5 million per year on their guaranteed deals. Meltzer reported that this tier mostly would be just Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar.

Meltzer also reported that at least one other top level star is currently making around $4 million per year while a lot of WWE’s other higher level stars are currently making around $2 million to $3 million per year.

WWE Announced New “NIL” Program Recruitment Partnership with College Athletes

WWE recently announced that they are launching a new talent recruitment program called Next In Line (NIL), which will be primarily targeting college athletes interested in a potential career in wrestling after school.

Official press release:

WWE® Launches NIL Program: Next in Line™
12/02/2021
New Program to Provide Clear Pathway from Collegiate Athletics to WWE
STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced the launch of a groundbreaking NIL (Name, Image & Likeness) program that will provide a clear pathway from collegiate athletics to WWE.
Following a historic new policy by the NCAA effective July 1, 2021, which ushered in the NIL era allowing college athletes the ability to monetize their name, image and likeness, WWE has constructed a comprehensive program to recruit and develop potential future Superstars. Dubbed “Next In Line™,” the NIL program aims to enhance the talent development process through collaborative partnerships with college athletes from diverse athletic backgrounds.
“The WWE NIL program has the potential to be transformational to our business,” said Paul Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Global Talent Strategy and Development. “By creating partnerships with elite athletes at all levels across a wide variety of college sports, we will dramatically expand our pool of talent and create a system that readies NCAA competitors for WWE once their collegiate careers come to a close.”
All athlete partnerships will feature access to the state-of-the-art WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., in addition to resources across the organization including brand building, media training, communications, live event promotion, creative writing and community relations. Upon completion of the NIL program, select athletes may earn an exclusive opportunity to be offered a WWE contract.
In September, WWE announced its first NIL deal with heavyweight freestyle wrestler Gable Steveson who captured a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The agreement allowed Steveson to return to the University of Minnesota for his senior season where he is defending his NCAA National Championship while beginning his Superstar training with WWE.
WWE will unveil the first class of NIL partnerships in the coming weeks.

During a recent interview with Fast Company, Paul “Triple H” Levesque gave more details and his thoughts on the creation of WWE’s newest talent recruitment program.

“We immediately saw it as an amazing recruiting tool for us because it allows us to show athletes a path to WWE, and engage with them in a way where they can learn more about it, we can learn more about them, all while working together, and finding out if it’s a good fit before they’re even finished college, and before they need to make any decisions about what they’re going to do in that next stage of their life. In my generation, and even more recently, you sort of had to know someone. We’ve put a lot of effort into recruiting athletes and finding athletes to let them know WWE is a potentially lucrative opportunity for them if they’re interested and passionate about it.”

Upcoming Episode of Broken Skull Sessions to Feature DDP

NBC’s Peacock recently announced that a new episode of the Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions series will be airing on December 19th on their streaming service and the WWE Network.

It was also announced that this upcoming episode will be featuring Diamond Dallas Page as the guest.