AEW Spends A Crazy Amount On Talent Annually

In recent weeks, payroll of wrestling stars has been a hot topic, and now we know AEW spends a crazy amount on talent annually.

Read More : What Is A WWE Superstar’s Base Salary?

AEW is a younger company than WWE, of course. Triple H recently confirmed that a Superstar salary, for an “entry level” deal, would be $250,000 per year. Not a bad deal if you can get it. This surely made people wonder what the going rate is for an AEW talent, and now we may have that answer.

Tony Khan has long been known to be loose with his wallet. Early on, his bank account helped AEW secure some major names. Of course, the major names haven’t translated into major ratings or commercial success, but that may be a different story for another time. On the heels of Hunter’s sharing, we have an idea of what AEW spends on talent annually.

How Big Is The Bill?

According to the Wrestling Observer , it is believed that the total payroll for AEW in-ring talent comes out to just about $104 million. The report indicates that there could be some wiggle to that, but it seems pretty close to it. Using that approximate total salary cost, and understanding that AEW has roughly 192 talents under contract? It’s an average salary of over half a million dollars per year. Granted, that number is skewed because there are quite a few talents with huge salaries.

Factoring that line item into things, it is believed that AEW would need roughly $125 million per year from the impending Warner Brothers-Discovery television deal. That deal has not been signed as of yet. But reports indicate it should be done in a matter of time. Of course, there can be questions about if the company generates that much interest and business. But with a couple weekly shows allowing for a decent amount of ad buys? It seems possible that it would work out, and WBD would not be in business with AEW if it wasn’t.

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