The pro wrestling rumor mill never stops, especially on the weekend of WWE Backlash. Let’s see what today’s rumors are all about.
Top Rumor of the Day: WWE pay cuts
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter was told by people in WWE that the number of wrestlers who were asked to take pay cuts is “less than a half dozen, and they were people who would have been cut had they not accepted it.”
The Observer describes these wrestlers as follows: “They were not the high end players and were people that creative had tabbed little interest in going
forward and thus the idea is they could remain under contract while their in-ring aspect of their career would be phased down.”
As far as the New Day’s release is concerned, WON says they were “on the list of those without significant future plans” in WWE. They had just signed a five year deal with WWE in 2025, but decided to leave after WWE asked them to restructure the deal for less pay. PW Insider adds that there is “a lot of excitement in AEW circles” about the New Day potentially signing with the promotion.
The Observer also confirmed an earlier report that “at least one major name wrestler agreed to a 50 percent pay cut.” The type of WWE wrestler who would accept such a massive pay cut is someone “who would not fit in AEW and are making…in excess of $2 million per year, who simply couldn’t earn anywhere near $1 million elsewhere, so the leverage isn’t there.”
To put some of the numbers in perspective, the Observer claims that “the total compensation of just five of the top executives with TKO in 2025 was just barely under the total salaries for all in-ring talent in the company.”
The rest of the rumors!
- According to WrestleVotes Radio, many people in WWE believe that John Cena’s “history-making news” tonight at Backlash is related to the launch of Club WWE, and not the reveal of a future location for WrestleMania.
- Internal expectations for Club WWE are very high, and the company thinks making Cena the face of this announcement is exactly what the project needs to get off to a hot start.
- The odds at BetOnline indicate that Bron Breakker, IYO SKY, Roman Reigns, Trick Williams, and Danhausen are favored to win their respective matches at WWE Backlash.
- While discussing the story about WWE pulling Roman Reigns from his Raw dates in June, F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer dismissed rumors about there being some kind of a WWE contract dispute or pay cut for Reigns. He said it’s pretty common for WWE to include top stars on these listings for Raw and SmackDown well ahead of time, and adjust it accordingly as creative plans are mapped out. As it stands now, Reigns won’t be on WWE programming after Clash In Italy at the end of this month, but he’ll be back in July for the build to SummerSlam.
- Fightful Select says WWE is sending copyright strikes and taking down streamers and content creators “over clips and reactions” to WWE content. They have hired a company called StreamEnforcement that is using bots to target these creators. F4WOnline’s Bryan Alvarez claims WWE has “totally clamped down” on it this week. People in WWE are “shocked about it” because those videos “did push the product hard to large audiences.”
Discuss these rumors and more in the comments below, Cagesiders, and offer your own take in The Feed!
