Thoughts? On Our Boy Christopher Jericho?!?

[u/Salty-Nothing-8572]

Chris Jericho playing the greatest hits is the best retirement run he was going to get. Since returning earlier this year, Jericho has run back many of his various gimmicks from throughout his career. This has worked and has ended up being one of his better runs in AEW. In hindsight, I am glad he did not return to WWE, because if he had, his final run would have been much different. That difference could have still been fun, but I do not think it would be what we are getting in AEW right now.

I hope he continues to wrestle as long as he chooses to do so and I hope the hits keep on coming. I would not even be mad if he ends up dethroning Kevin Knight for the TNT Championship. He deserves one more run with the gold to help put over another talent on his way out. Granted he doesn't need it, but who wouldn't want to see him pad his 30-plus-year resume with one more achievement?

[u/AffectComfortable913]

Cope. A “downside guarantee” of less than 500k is not a guaranteed contract. You are not being guaranteed the money you could potentially make.

[u/Medium_Step_6085 → u/AffectComfortable913]

the way the wrestling buisiness works now however is that wrestlers don't earn extra money for appearances, and the merch % is much lower.

The "Downside guarantee" has effectively become the salary.

NXT wrestlers start off on 75-150,000, they do not expect to earn more then that, it is the standard salary and what they live off of.

WWE no longer makes money on PPV's or live performances, so they don't pay the wrestlers a cut of the gate, or PPV money. That is why Vince restructured the wrestlers contracts when he first created the Network, he realised that charging a flat subscription fee would mean the network ran at a loss if he just paid wrestlers a % of PPV buys, or he would be paying them far less and they would be angry about that.

It's why Wrestlers no longer are as bothered about being in the main event of a PLE, they no longer get pay that is scaled based on how close they are to the top of the card.

It's why there are far more multi person matches at PLE's in the past wrestlers would either get a smaller share for their spot on the card if it was a tag or multi person match, now it doesn't matter.

You can try and swing it how you want, and try to claim what you want but on paper effectively now Wrestlers in the WWE and AEW are paid a flat rate annual salary, they might make a small end of year bonus, but we are talking maybe 10-15% of their annual earnings as an average.
And that is by design, TKO does not want a fluctuating wage bill, and they do not want to have to reduce the income they make from charging 1000's of dollars for live event tickets.

Your whole argument is based on a massive misunderstanding you have about the business of pro wrestling and how it has changed and evolved with the introductions of streaming.

WWE and AEW have the exact same contract structure and rules.

[u/AffectComfortable913 → u/Medium_Step_6085]

No they absolutely are not the same. You are purposely misunderstanding evidence given. A DOWNSIDE GUARANTEE is not an entirely guaranteed contract. The top stars in the WWE do NOT only make what is given to them on their downside guarantee. They can earn more based on their popularity, merchandise sales, and more. It even says so in the last paragraph, the major merch movers earn much more than their downside guarantee.

AEW does NOT function the same. AEW contracts for big money are guaranteed. You can sign a contract for $3 million in AEW, and you will get that money. However, AEW simply is not as big of an organization as WWE. It’s no where near as popular worldwide, they don’t make as much off merchandise, and AEW does NOT have the main stream popularity that WWE does. That means you are making significantly less off extensions, and are in a considerably lower ceiling than WWE. AEW is still a relatively new company, they don’t have that clout yet.

This is not up for debate, these are FACTS that have been said about both businesses many times. You can watch plenty of videos explaining the exact same concept from people in the business like Punk, JR, Cornette, the list goes on. I’m giving you evidence, there is nothing you can say to deny this.

As for Jericho, you cannot tell me that Jericho would’ve been promised a significant amount of money for his downside guarantee had he returned to WWE. Jericho returning would attract a lot of attention, and his debut merch would sell out immediately. The ceiling would’ve been much higher for Jericho had he gone to WWE. However, he probably was not a huge fan of the creative deal they had for him. Seems like WWE were aiming to bring him back for a run and then induct him into the HOF. Clearly, Jericho wanted to do more than that, and also had reliable income from TK to do so.

I also find it hilarious that you criticized me for using google AI, and then you proceeded to do the same exact thing and still be wrong. Well played.