10 Million Dollar Man (in gran parte part time)
Inviato: 01/04/2017, 17:37
La Lucrosa Vostrahttps://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith ... 68490c5cd3
1. Brock Lesnar - $12 million
2. John Cena - $8 million
3. Triple H - $3.8 million
4. Roman Reigns - $3.5 million
5. Dean Ambrose - $2.7 million
6. AJ Styles - $2.4 million
7. Shane McMahon - $2.2 million
8. Undertaker - $2 million
9. Seth Rollins - $2 million
10. Randy Orton - $1.9 million
Wrestling devotees from all over the world are flocking to Orlando, Florida for Sunday's WrestleMania 33. It's the biggest day of the year for wrestling fans, and arguably the nation's biggest annual sports-entertainment event after the Super Bowl. It's also typically the biggest payday of the year for the superstars lucky enough to step through the ropes and onto pro wrestling's grandest stage.
And one of this year's headliners will enter his title match coming off a banner financial year: Brock Lesnar, who faces Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship this weekend, took home $12 million in 2016 along with the title of WWE's highest-paid superstar.
Though we figure Lesnar's WWE pay was down slightly from 2015, when he took on Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania, the squared circle wasn’t the only ring Lesnar stepped into last year: The Beast Incarnate made a much-publicized return to the UFC at July’s UFC 200. He earned a then-record $2.5 million purse for that fight (Conor McGregor later topped that with a $3 million purse at UFC 202). And even with a $250,000 fine for failed drug tests, we estimate that Lesnar’s UFC return net him a cool $6.5 million.
Following Lesnar is the WWE’s previous No. 1 earner, John Cena. We peg Cena’s earnings at $8 million, down from $9.5 million in 2015. The Face That Runs The Place remains the company’s far-and-away top merchandise seller, but his in-ring performance was limited last year. Shoulder surgery cost him the first five months of the year, and he later took off the last three months of 2016 to film the second season of his Fox TV show. He performed at just five pay-per-view events and was in the main event of none.
But there's no real cause for concern for Cena since his time off has often been spent building toward a second act outside of wrestling. Last year that included the debut of American Grit, the Fox reality competition show that Cena hosts, plus emcee roles at the ESPYs and Saturday Night Live. He’s even had a voice acting gig as the talking elephant in TV ads for Wonderful Pistachios. Projects currently in the works include some more voice acting in the title role of Ferdinand, an upcoming animated comedy, plus the second season of American Grit, which airs this summer.
Our earnings numbers are estimates for the 2016 calendar year based on WWE’s public filings, booking contracts and pay documents as well as interviews with industry insiders. Wrestler pay is comprised of base salary as well as bonus payouts for both live performances and merchandise sales. You can check out our full breakdown of WWE contracts from a few years ago for a more detailed explanation, and those interested in digging through some publicly available documents can do so at Chris Harrington's online collection.
On the merchandise side of the formula we figure that last year WWE talent received, in aggregate, royalties worth some $12 million, or 12% of the $108 million WWE generated in revenues from licensing and merchandise sold at venues and through the company’s online store. Most wrestlers receive 25% of licensing and 5% of direct sales profits from the sale of their merchandise (or a share of those amounts in the case of merchandise featuring multiple performers).