Jim Cornette on WWE Royalty Checks

From Episode 367 of the Jim Cornette Experience
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
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[@kRazyyyyyyy]

i miss the times recording stuff on VHS and to see only half of the show, movie or wrestling, because the tape ate half the recording lol. great times

[@JM1993951]

I couldn’t afford all the PPVs so I’d try to get the big 4 and No Way Out whenever I could, and they were usually worth buying. No one in their right mind is going to pay $50 to see a modern show.

[@scorpi972]

I sure wouldn’t if I can go back in time in the 80s I would

[@davidanderson3388]

@Johhny Johnstone Steam It

[@CavemanJesus4Life]

Aren't the PPV's free on the Network though?

[@metalgearsolidsnake6978]

if you rich, 50 $ is nothing

[@yoholmes273]

I appreciate you man..for saying whats got to be said. Fans got screwed sooo many times with terrible ppvs that people paid real money for. Now this podcast exemplifies how the company screws its talent in almost the same exact way.

[@TheAJUniverse]

The drawings of current day Vince always kill me

[@bullock4211]

They're spot on

[@lo1bo2]

@@bullock4211 Yep, strange red lips, surprisingly scrawny neck, and more wrinkles.

[@412StepUp]

It’s seems like a substantial amount of guys start to look like women when they get old, 75 yo and above.

[@theungreatkahli]

Yeah, I mean, when I saw him on a Raw episode after not watching WWE for several years, I was surprised how fucking bad and weird he looked.

[@MBM1117727]

@@theungreatkahli I mean how do you think you'll look when you're 75? lol

[@MilMaska]

"The WWE is getting money of the deal and the boys are getting F ed" - Jim Cornette

[@kenrickeason]

Except Jesse Ventura..

[@shaan1001]

They should be grateful for being on stage

[@honestabe6610]

@@shaan1001 he should be grateful they are willing to get on stage to keep him in business. No wrestlers = you in the comments wishing they were in said ring.

[@regularstan6212]

@@honestabe6610 that's the biggest Garbage I heard. Who is taking the bigger risk Vince or the wrestler? If vince goes under he is DONE! if the wrestler gets fired he goes to AEW, ROH, NJPW and IMPACT.

[@iBMcFly]

So are the fans....

[@xGodofAcidx]

The prestige argument reminds me of Punk being mad that he wasn't in the Wrestlemania main event and Vince pointing to Hunter and saying "What are you talking about? You ARE in the main event, you're wrestling him!" This blur the line shit is nothing new.

[@therealjcon]

There's 4 main events!

[@socalkylex]

“Nattery naybobs of negativity”. The man is truly a genius on the mic

[@itsyourenotyour9101]

Reminds me of Natty Ice. Ah, those were the days of being broke. Still broke, but can afford good beer at least.

[@dxgypsyful]

@@bleeding4721 I was thinking it sounded like a Dr Smith from Lost in Space line.

[@MrDballmoney]

He can talk anyone in or out of anything lol

[@socalkylex]

@@rockoz I’m 36 so no lol.

[@kylemcgill2966]

No I say!

[@Skimer1995]

We need more videos on the financial side of wrestling from corny. (Checks, taxes, funny stories involving pay, biggest/smallest payoff, etc,etc)

[@AJ-xv7oh]

Wrestling has no stars and hasn't for over 10 years so they can't sell PPVs anymore. Look at the UFC, they sell a PPV every month. PPV still works.

[@stephcurrytheg.o.a.t]

I'm pretty sure UFC buy rates aren't that high anymore either. They don't even have a star themselves and ESPN deal is dumb

[@78bcat]

@@stephcurrytheg.o.a.t You're wasting your time. Wrestling people don't ever want to live in reality, certainly don't want to learn a single thing about business. WWE guys have their own buses...think about this: Orton, AJ, etc have personal buses, with a driver...these guys are making a fortune (and not the BS Forbes minimum list) and Corny is desperate to convince us it will forever be 1985. As for the UFC, they took the ESPN deal precisely because their PPV sales were so painfully uneven. They would have loved Fight Pass to be the WWE network, but they don't have the content...and let's be real: UFC fans are the equivalent of country music fans who are still buying CD's. Not the brightest crayons in the box...hence why the UFC ain't going public..

[@stephcurrytheg.o.a.t]

@@78bcat exactly UFC only star is Conor and his hype train has been derailed

[@AJ-xv7oh]

@@stephcurrytheg.o.a.t The UFC don't have a star themselves and are STILL selling PPVs. There last PPV alone did 1.2 million buys. What does that say about professional wrestling?

[@AJ-xv7oh]

@James D, writer of Fahrenheit 1984 An absolute bog standard UFC PPV with zero household names on it, gets a minimum of 250,000 buys.

[@crowhardly]

The last 15 seconds of this video sums up why WWE isn’t as special as it used to be. Well said guys.

[@bogarcia5188]

How

[@avshockey6633]

Wrestling's popularity runs in cycles. In the 50's, it was huge and matches were even on national prime time TV. Then it fell off during the 60's and 70's before making a comeback in the 80's, and exploding into the 90's. It's definitely on a downswing right now and at some point it will bottom out before making another comeback.

[@smurfx]

@@avshockey6633 problem with this is that there is more competition than ever before. Many generations of kids are growing up without having any exposure to wrestling period and wrestling doesn't have any wrestlers that will keep kids away from twitch, youtube and other streaming apps.

[@manuelper]

@@smurfx Yep, this downcycle is different than any other, so I think wrestling will continue to get more niche.

[@theungreatkahli]

Sad, but true. Been like that for a while now, though. The event or show is the thing now, not the stars or attractions (wrestlers). I think in another video, Jim said it's basically Barnum & Bailey circus shit.

[@Justin-bo5pg]

The wwe had said for many years that their goal was for the name to drive the audience. You're not watching Hogan/Savage, Austin/Michaels, Austin/Rock, Angle/HHH/Eddie/Benoit, Orton/Cena, Punk/Orton. You're watching the wwe. You're watching Raw not to say did you see Austin last night...You're watching because it's Raw. That's why they cut off programs getting over. Do 50/50 booking and have the same set of matches 3 or 4 weeks in a row plus on the network special. They followed the SNL model. They devalued their wrestlers because the guys at the very top didn't need them any more and would leave to go wrestle somewhere else, to make movies, to fight MMA, be a podcast host now. Now guys need the wwe to stay relevant enough to make outside money because they're not well known enough to make money outside of wrestling.

[@patsyparisi3000]

Very well said, Vince hated seeing a wrestler become bigger than the company!

[@CamMacMastermusic]

Great comment ! Well said and so true. .... Greed is just as terrible as it is necessary, for a company to survive.

[@tomascasterwell2279]

The WWE doesn’t matter any to create stars they won’t interchangeable talent. That’s the problem and we are watching for Orton and the stars mentioned. It’s the different personalities people are drawn to. That’s on the talent and the product but I get you. And that’s why WWE has suffered until recently. Even though they still aren’t pushing or making stars look at the hurt business.

[@jrandt08]

It's a lot like how/why these companies are starting their own streaming channels peacock, paramount +, Disney +... universal peacock gets out of paying syndication royalties to its actors of "The Office" by streaming it directly from themselves on Peacock and get to keep 100% the profits, rather than sharing a % with the actor from syndicating it to Netflix. #AmericanGreed

[@isaihvega9928]

Damn hes so right about how wrestlers dont have leverage anymore cause none of them are stars. Its like wwe has been made to resemble a factory. Their system will just allow them to replace any wrestler with another one in minutes. And it doesnt even matter that they dont have new stars cause vince makes more money than ever off of it. The low ratings and low attendances dont even really affect the money. Vince has given himself all of the bargaining power

[@awallner1]

wrestlers have become furniture. You just move them around.

[@stinkypinkeee5085]

@@awallner1 Under that analogy, I would say they used to be real furniture, but now are IKEA...

[@rageholellison7463]

WWE becoming a publicly traded company and going into all those business avenues meant they were going to get further and further separated from wrestlers, commentators, match agents, managers, the talent side, and begin dealing with Wall Street and other business entities. WWE is doing all this money with this business, that business the Saudi Arabia government for hundreds of millions and billions of dollars and what's one piece of talent out of I dunno, 500, 600 people in the company supposed to do? What leverage do they have against FOX, NBC and Wall Street? ZERO! They're just one little cog in a machine too big to fail until it does.

[@chrisgullett4332]

But a lot of them are stars, and are getting paid very well in royalties. You can even go to UPUPDOWNDOWN and find the videos of Miz and Sandow bragging about how much they make in royalties. And Jim is wrong about WCW, cause they do get paid royalties, and in the Sting documentary he talked about how he got royalty checks every 3 months from WWE even though he never worked for them and says it is from his WCW footage. There is a lot of retired wrestlers still making a good chuck of cash from royalties. Guys like Stone Cold are still selling tons of merchandise. Just in the past five years there is New Day, Sasha Banks, Baylee, Rusev, Slater, Sandow etc who all sold lots of merchandise and got paid well

[@shonchon588]

WCW falling also didn’t help. They had leverage then as they could change companies

[@SupermanHopkins]

8:51 "The big fight has always been worth paying to see." That's a fact. Floyd Mayweather sold $1.3 *billion* worth of PPV buys in his last seven fights because of who he was and who he was fighting.

[@slabbusterrtr7690]

He would have to pay ME to watch one of his fights

[@arnabmukhopadhyay7078]

Sometimes I feel there were more scoundrels, weirdos, scumbags, scammers, screwers and leeches in wrestling across history then there were even in organized crime.

[@ohjaeciii]

I miss old Vince this current Vince isn't cosmetically pleasing.

[@mr.mirchenstein6549]

I still buy DVDS, CDS & Records. I like owning the actual items...although I also have the network. So they get me twice lol

[@DecemberGuy77]

Same!

[@29eazy82]

I can relate. I still buy cassettes too

[@WorldTravelA320]

Same

[@j.3.d335]

Same

[@leogetz3570]

And this is why Hulk Hogan did so many TV shows and made for TV movies, and why The Rock got into movies. I want to say that Jesse Ventura had a legal battle (one of them) with Vince over royalties in the 80's once WWF started selling the "Coliseum Videos" series

[@scaryharryflanagan70]

Vince's lipstick is spot on in this illustration.

[@ChaseSchleich]

It's so weird that people defend WWE so vehemently. Go look at Bryan Alvarez's Twitter account whenever he tweets out the ratings or post a link to one of his shows when they're covering something negative about WWE. It's crazy. The product has never been worse and yet people will defend it with their lives.

[@jamestracey2006]

Good point - the defenders are either just deluding themselves, or are just sucking up to WWE! If someone is attacking something you like, you have to defend it in order to justify your liking of it, otherwise you have to admit you have wasted time on it

[@Mister_Phafanapolis]

It cuts both ways; say something even _mildly_ negative about All Elite Wrestling and their Defense Force (R) will be out in full force to call you a Fed Shill and bludgeon you with Le Demo talk and star ratings. Defending *any* company that you don't work for and doesn't even know you exist is cringe.

[@drg5352]

@@jamestracey2006 The "sunk cost" fallacy. They paid in all this time into being a fan, so they feel personally attacked when it's criticized. It's also a sense of "owning" whatever they're fans of. A sense of being part of something.

[@ThaTruth223]

Alvarez isn’t the best source for anything critical of the WWE

[@fishin4bass2002]

Ratings don’t matter like they used to though because a lot of people don’t watch cable and watch streaming services instead.

[@truthtyperii7727]

Corny>>>>>WWE and All Friends Wrestling

[@tibbs3165]

Modern day WrestleMania is like modern day Star Wars. People used to go to see Luke, Han, Vader etc. It felt epic and special. Now people only go because it's Star Wars, regardless of what the story is or who it is.

[@tonware]

Good point with Star Wars. I'm not a Star Wars fan, but even I notice that, of how the lore and world of Star Wars is the seller and not the stars themselves.

[@DanVillainFilms]

Perfect.

[@TheSportsfan35]

@Tibbs316, the problem with WM is now that people are going to be able to watch WM's on Peacock for $5-s10/month, why would anyone spend $1000's of dollars to go to WM, & that's just for tickets & transportation & hotels, that's not counting food & other misc expenses.

[@dekaritheprofessor2631]

Perfectly Stated

[@TheSportsfan35]

@@dekaritheprofessor2631 Are you referring to what I said or what @tonware said?I've never been that big a fan of star wars or star trek to go to 1 of those conventions, BUT when it comes to WM, Vince charges outrageous prices for WM, I mean the dude wants people to pay ten grand for 1 RINGSIDE SEAT. Again, much when it comes to prices for the SB, World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup finals, & even the various boxing & UFC fights,thanks to how cheap it is to watch events on tv or to stream online, eventually people are gonna say no to spending thousands of $ to go to WM or the various All-star games, & the boxing & UFC fights & watch it from home

[@tunedinrealtor]

I'm not a big horror fan, but Travis Heckel's drawings of Vince haunt me in my dreams. 😂

[@wadewilson1312]

Zombie Vince should be a wrestler in the next WWE game for PS5

[@davidmreyes77]

VHS.... growing up and watching Wrestlemania’s 1-7 on Coliseum video I was blown away when I finally saw those first 7 Wrestlemania’s unedited with original theme songs, etc. it was like night and day. Coliseum edited so much out.

[@productreviewproductions439]

WWE still sells dvds acctually , check at any wal mart

[@dr.floridamanphd]

It’s no longer a large part of their revenue stream is his point.

[@productreviewproductions439]

@James D, writer of Fahrenheit 1984 they literally put out the monthly PPVs with a 2 -3 month delay

[@dr.floridamanphd]

@James D, writer of Fahrenheit 1984, that would be copyright and trademarks. Not patents. They have to keep those current for legal purposes. But the fact still stands that their home video business isn’t drawing anywhere near the revenue it was. They rely more on streaming rights digital advertising than video sales.

[@shindean]

They sell dvd's but that doesn't mean the wrestlers are getting paid for them through a retailer. When a product in bulk is sold to walmart, it's a one time payment. If that DVD is about a wrestler, I hope he got paid for it years ago because they ain't getting any royalties now.

[@productreviewproductions439]

@@shindean the way dvds are sold now isnt any different than it always was people just buy less of them

[@SonnyBubba]

Look at the WWE’s financial statement. Only 5% of the revenue comes from live events. About 20% from PPV, and another 55% from the network deals such as Raw & NXT.

[@mmabuff101]

The art work on vince reminds me of how they described president snow in the hunger games, very artificial and smelling of rotting flesh . His portrayal on the big screen was nothing like in the book. Modern day vince is basically president snow with a spray tan

[@MediaM5]

tony atlas mentioned in a youtube video a few days ago on boston wrestling channel that he received his recent royalty check. think he said it was for a whole year or along those lines. tony received a check for $203. thats it. no more than that for all the royalties. tony mentioned about how they own the likeness and whatnot of their wrestlers. however what they pay is a different story. they have to obide by the loyalty royalty check clause or whatnot, but they will pay very very little.

[@drunkenfishfromspace1038]

Dont blame Vince, he needs the money for is reebot of the WBF! Watch out peoples, its coming!

[@chrisr6776]

I want to buy the artwork just to get the wrestlers to sign them. And see their faces.

[@liamnguyen2819]

Now THIS is really interesting. You don't hear from anywhere of what it's like when a talent receives their royalty cheques. I like how Jim breaks down what it says on their statements. Cult of Cornette, we all gotta support Jim directly off his website. Before the WWE completely stops looking out for it's legends anymore.

[@BlameMaxSand]

Peacock comes with my internet package, so I am literally not paying for WWE at all(Comcast is for me) whereas I used to grab the network.....then it became get the network for the big shows, then it became just the Rumble to Mania, then last year it was just Mania and this year if not for the peacock deal it wouldn't have even been that. Shame the talent is getting fucked so bad, but the product also isn't worth my money and I was only paying for it out of habit.

[@yyctallguy2365]

Lmfao” go work for impact and get shot at your own wedding or work for aew and bounce around for a dwarf”. 😂😂

[@davidmiles4678]

Hahaha! I laugh so much I cried when he said this.

[@blkpanther11]

Damn Cornette Is Savage 🤣🤣

[@radalexander7160]

I fucking lost it at that lmfao I forgot about that stupid fucking storyline

[@dadaevan]

Who is the dwarf???

[@JoeCnNd]

@@dadaevan I guess the khans?

[@tuckgraph]

This sounds like what some call "legacy costs," trying to keep the past from being a financial burden as much as possible. And they're constantly creating the past, so it's a mode of operation. It forces talent to make as much money as they can, in the moment. So the company keeps any talent from becoming too big, it's all about the company. That's why a union is public enemy number one to an organization like WWE.

[@madddoggnogood1491]

Totally agree...It's the nfl model . The NFL is the star not the players themselves. Unless you're a QB. But professional wrestling is like the NBA, UFC, MLB or any other non football sport . It's a star driven entity.. People are showing up to see individual stars. People don't show up to see the Milwaukee bucks....they pay to see Giannis. People dont show up to random tennis matches....they show up to see serena, nadal or Djokovic. People dont show up to a random UFC fight....they pay to see McGregor, jones or ronda or brock . Thats why wwe is in the mess it's in . They strip away anything that makes anyone stand out. New Day are the exceptions to the rule. Football fans dont care about individual stars .....the cowboys suck year after year but people still watch them because they love the team.

[@markula_4040]

@Randall Glatt He made most of his money in the late 90's actually and as far as working them to exhaustion, most wrestling companies did that back then so it wasn't like Vince invented that evil.

[@maxxdahl6062]

@@markula_4040 No, but he continues the "tradition".

[@dr.floridamanphd]

@Randall Glatt, they only work 1 day a week because of the pandemic. If you don’t think RAW and SmackDown weren’t on tour 250+ days a year before 2020 then I have some beachfront property in New Mexico to sell you.

[@lutherheggs451]

@@maxxdahl6062 So....Then when does the money mark plan to change that "tradition" your speaking of....Oh wait thats right none of the fucking companies are OK with unions.....But its easier since Vince owns his own company and actually makes money on it, unlike Kahn using daddy's money and the wrestler executive VPs who have no desire to change anything either.

[@alangreenway6695]

Yup, wrestling has been devalued. But then the internet devalued music, and then box sets of old tv series, then films, and soon video games with streaming services. When Disney can’t sell DVD’s of their cartoon films and are selling access to the entire library for a flat monthly fee, you know it’s an entertainment industry wide phenomena.

[@AJ-xv7oh]

But it's because they have no stars! The UFC has a PPV every month and they still sell. People will pay to watch stars but wrestling has no stars anymore and hasn't for over 10 years now.

[@maxxdahl6062]

While it has been devalued on new releases, internet has driving up pricing on used markets of such things as video games, SOME dvd's, etc. to an unfathomable level.

[@JM1993951]

The Network is great for the fans. But as incompetent as Vince is I’m always afraid it’ll be taken away. It’s the one good thing WWE has done in 15 years and I know as a wrestling fan we’re not allowed to have nice things for very long.

[@comeatmebr0o]

In a way it’s a shame, the WWE was setting up to be like the governing body of professional wrestling in a way and feature other brands on its wrestling network and then covid happened and they back tracked all that and even sold the company. The fucked up part is WWE has been dramatically better since covid happen then they were going into it.

[@nokintendo9132]

There's no arguing with #JimCornette. This man knows his shit!

[@roberthealey7739]

Somebody needs to tell Jim the wrestling business is O V E R. People still wanna hear the stories but nobody cares about the new matches anymore. Over

[@lazyboy8187]

on god . 😂😂😂😂 for realz .

[@kingrama2727]

So true

[@TheMartinTD]

Wrestling has been dead for years now

[@SimplyChaotic98]

What its become is sad. Its just bad. Really bad

[@TheMartinTD]

@@SimplyChaotic98 to think what it was like in the 80’s and 90’s to what it is now is actually unbelievable really.

[@GutsofEclipse]

Modern western corporate culture has a fantasy (and that's exactly what it is: a fantasy) of an environment where all workers are interchangeable, nobody has the leverage to demand a big paycheck, leave for greener pastures, or just retire altogether, and product quality along with sustainable profits from actual end-consumers don't take a massive hit. Vince would rather pay twenty indie nobodies who are deliberately held down than one Rock and one Stone Cold. These executives will regret it in ten years, probably while remaining in denial about why everything is falling apart. Ten years might seem like a long ways off, but just like the now-unemployed American comic book pros who believed the Marxist rhetoric about corporations owning customers in 2010, the day where they've ended their careers with their refusal to live in reality will arrive.

[@jpowers55]

Sasha v. Bianca can main event Wrestlemania and still get paid the same if they were in the opening match. 😂😂😂😂😂

[@hotr400]

that's fucked up

[@andrebryant5081]

@@hotr400 That's good now

[@lutherheggs451]

Yep neither Sasha or Bianca are fucking Austin, Taker, Triple H, The Rock, Hogan, Savage, Warrior, Lesnar etc......Guess what......In reality at companies a manager makes more than a regular employee, the general manager makes more than the manager, the VP of the company makes more than the general manager weird how reality works.

[@wadewilson1312]

@@lutherheggs451 Everyone knows managers get paid more than employees. The General Managers are a fake role in WWE and have been for years dude

[@jimmyv3170]

Legit. WWE could have somebody defecate in the ring as the main event of Wrestlemania and they'll still make the same amount of money regardless. It applies to the TV shows as well.

[@CollinCreek]

Vince's face! Like marker on mashed potatoes

[@kylemcgill2966]

Amazing. 😂😂😂

[@kylemcgill2966]

I can hear that in Cornys voice.

[@arturoalmazan5262]

the talent is getting fucked over. i rarely see wwe dvds at Walmart or best buy. I used to buy all the rise and fall of ECW, wcw ; the monday night wars all of that shit. Cornette is speaking the truth. The talent is not being paid for royalties and now with that peacock deal ; is gonna get worse

[@vannavanity1195]

Are they getting screwed? The Miz has a home worth $6 million that was on sale. A lot of guys who aren't main event guys now make a million a year easily. The Rock & Roll Express made $150,000 in their prime. In the late 90s pre-Attitude Era, was anyone other than Bret Hart making a million annually? Even then, he would have benefited from contract inflation from WCW. Sure, they might not get great royalties but they still have toys and games. But WWE guys who aren't anywhere near main event status are making 7 figures. Dean Ambrose comes to mind Besides, Cornette wouldn't know what they make nowadays

[@redvisitor9432]

i see some dvd's at walmart. However, the last two I got were at a garage sale.

[@arturoalmazan5262]

@@vannavanity1195were not in the 90s anymore. when wrestling was at its peak from 95 to 98 . the wrestlers like The ones you mentioned hart ; Hogan , nash ; Goldberg sting of course they still make big royalty checks but what about the rest like the mid card level talent like. I'm sure they get 0 compared to those guys

[@vannavanity1195]

@@arturoalmazan5262 That's the point I'm making. From a purely monetary standpoint, no wrestler would choose anything but modern WWE. Period. I mean, maybe lower card talent got more opportunities then, and that's speculative. But no one from 1995-98 was making a million annually unless they had a case of artificial inflation like Bret Hart did, or they were signed to Time Warner. I would say Dean Ambrose was about as important to the company as Jeff Jarrett was. His interview after leaving gave away that he was making more than a million annually. He was comfortable enough to leave. In 1999, was Jeff Jarrett even making $400,000 annually in a very good year with nightly sell outs at live events? Look, Cornette is one of those guys who likes to act like he's in the know. Honestly, I think his business sense is pretty horrid. 1999 WWF ran 12 PPVs annually, maybe did two international tours a year, a great merchandise line like always, same with video games, nightly live event sell outs. Modern WWE runs maybe 16 big events a year, same international tours in addition to Saudi Arabia (I'd imagine opening acts walk away with $20,000 minimum, which would be double Hogan in his prime at MSG), their Mattel toy line is so much bigger than anything the company has ever done, their games are far superior, they run a lot more nightly shows even if they draw less Proof in the pudding is that modern WWE employs, it seems to me, well over a hundred wrestlers easily. I might be wrong. Even with Attitude Era money, WWE couldn't even afford to buy out the Time Warner contracts without risking significant main event inflation (not that that would have been a good deal or investment) Cornette is just one of those rednecks who thinks that wrestling boils down to ticket sales and key climax events. He never seems to understand that WWE is so much bigger than that. They're meant to churn content and tons of it. It doesn't have to be good. They have their audience. But from the vantage point of making a living doing simulated fighting, it's a hell of a time to be in the business. Even a lot of midcard acts are making a good million. They'd benefit little from royalties at this stage. Cornette is talking in an anachronism, and if they were still paying massive royalties, WWE couldn't come close to affording that roster, since their network is so much part of the package to have the company be taken seriously I'm not just picking on Cornette. Jim Ross is the same way. A lot of old-timer wrestling carnies are. I think only Bruce Prichard grasps the bigger picture of WWE as a massive entertainment juggernaut, and that's just grasping it. He doesn't work the books, isn't the CFO, or stockholder Do I like modern WWE? No. But even if WWE could command 6 million viewers per week, they would still make only a small fraction of what the company is worth today. The idea that wrestlers aren't well cared for is silly. Midcarders are making more in one year than Cornette made in his entire wrestling career combined. For a guy who fixates on money in rational choice theory on questions in relation to what Bret Hart should have done with WCW's offer, Cornette is inconsistent and even schizophrenic. I don't like WWE's product but you'd be a fool not to be capitivated by the machine that that company is. Like WOW. And no one else in wrestling could have pulled that off but McMahon

[@vannavanity1195]

@@arturoalmazan5262 Here's a quick response to your other topic. Cornette doesn't know what midcard royalties are given out either or what is negotiated. How would he? He is assuming so. Cornette was a pretty irrelevant manager in arguably the worst period in company history. I liked him but he wasn't exactly selling tickets. In footage between Yokozuna and the Undertaker, how much camera time is he really getting? Keep in mind that managers were paid what maybe the Bastion Booger was. That's the value WWE saw in them. Cornette also doesn't know how these checks get computed. Is it linear? Compounded? He doesn't know. As far as Alundra Blayze goes, I'm a woman and never liked her or her hideous outfits. I liked the Jumping Bomb Angels though!! She was so irrelevant that WWE fired her without bothering to take the belt from her. Of course her royalty check is going to be small lol. Get serious But Cornette thinks she "loves the biz" so he emotionally thinks she should get more than, say, Sable. Sable was relevant to the company, even for a brief time. Blayze was a bigger fail than Taka Michinoku since the latter at least kept being employed even after the division built around him failed. Maybe Cornette should ask Billy Gunn what he gets: not main event, hardly ever in a headline PPV match, relevant employee, around for a long time, commanded a decent salary. I'd imagine Billy Gunn would get enough of a royalty to cover a decent McMansion mortgage for the rest of his life. No?

[@dustinrhodes4793]

"Nobody buys dvds anymore".... I do lol

[@jpowers55]

Why unless you're buying stuff that's not on the network.

[@dustinrhodes4793]

@@jpowers55 Don't have cable or wifi. Only internet I have is on my phone. I prefer physical blu ray/DVDs anyway. Not really a fan of streaming

[@Chaz4543]

Bluerays and dvds arent the same thing. If they were dvd players would play blurays. Now they have 4k dvds which only play on 4k players. Its all too much.

[@dustinrhodes4793]

@@Chaz4543 Playstation and Xbox plays all of them lol. But to each their own. I just prefer physical media

[@kingrama2727]

Loser

[@markledger7627]

Lol what it's worth, wouldn't the best interest of the boys to try and join the SAG union? I mean if Vince is going to treat them as performers, as actors, it seems like he's inviting a stronger union to get involved than the one's he stopped 😂

[@lutherheggs451]

LMFAO its still hilarious when "special" people try to pretend its just the big bad WWE...Completely ignoring that AEW, Impact etc are treating their wrestlers exactly the same way...Even more fucking hilarious since AEW is ran by a money mark and 1 actual wrestler and 3 cosplay performance artists, yet I don't see those 4 VP looking to treat the roster any different than Impact or WWE......

[@markledger7627]

@@lutherheggs451 missing the point, if WWE's roster, which is larger and more prominent, does so it would put more pressure on the likes of AEW, IMPACT, RoH, etc. to follow suit. You can put the strawman away now 😝

[@vanderful2397]

@@markledger7627 Aren't Khans wealthier than Mcmahons, so it should be easier for them .

[@markledger7627]

@@vanderful2397 oh agreed, think Sinclair Broadcasting who owns RoH are as well. Going to guess the sports group that owns IMPACT may be also. Think they all should and those in the larger companies should contribute to a pool for small indy promotions. The reason I bring up SAG is that would give the wrestlers a lot more leverage than they have on their own.

[@danielwilson9724]

Khans are the only wrestling family richer thn the McMahons

[@DecemberGuy77]

Do people like Howard Finkel and Lillian Garcia get royalties for the millions of matches they were in?

[@ozzy6994]

Howard Finkel is dead dude...

[@SegaDream131]

That would make BUFFER A BILLIONAIRE...

[@RFSpadeDan]

4:19 I did the math. It’s actually closer to $20 than $3. 0.0264% of $75k = $19.80.

[@markula_4040]

Every time they released something on VHS or DVD back in the day, they probably made a list of who gets royalties for that release at the time it's been made. There's no way they are going to go back and do something similar for all the old stuff on the network like Raws and Smackdowns and other WWE programming that didn't see home releases. And I don't blame them. Unless they are required by law, who's going to take the time and effort to do that?

[@dales616]

Living in the UK we only had to pay for those shit ppvs when they'd come over here. We had it free for YEARS on cable. Literally the entire attitude era including the wrestlemanias

[@tempestfennac9687]

I thought only some PPVs were available via Sky Sports? I remember taping WrestleMania 20 but I own WM21 on DVD due to that not being aired for free.

[@AJ-xv7oh]

@@tempestfennac9687 I think it was free during the Attitude Era. They started charging around 2002. I'm probably wrong though.

[@tempestfennac9687]

@@AJ-xv7oh That explains it thanks. I stopped watching in '98 a little bit after Wrestlemania for some reason.

[@dales616]

Last thing I remember staying up for was Brock Vs Rock. Years later they wanted to charge for a smackdown ppv main evented by King Booker. I laughed cus I saw KOTR 98 live and free. I won't complain now because I did a network trial and got hooked on Bret Harts full 1997 heel turn. The way I don't have to rewind or even remember anything is awesome

[@bignewman256]

With the sky sports package throughout the 90s you had every live ppv and raw on Friday nights and then smackdown on Saturday but in 2000 and 2001 ch4 got Sunday night heat and 4 ppvs Royal rumble backlash fully loaded/invasion armageddon/vengeance when those 4 ppvs came back to sky in 2002 the wankers started charging full ppv price for those 4 ppvs which eventually led to every ppv I think 2005 or 6

[@phippsb]

Very enlightening on the pay structure of WWE! I was very confused when I heard Peacock had WWE Network for $5 a month coming soon

[@lutherheggs451]

its $5 with ads, its $10 for ad-free

[@moses0686]

Unless you have a deak with the streaming platform or a previous deal with that carries over platform to platform you're screwed.

[@Sideshownicful]

This was part of what the writer's strike in 2007-2008 was about. Writers weren't being paid for streaming media. The difference is that the writers guild had leverage. The wrestlers will never get paid for network/peacock stuff cause they have no leverage.

[@gene8172]

Jesse Ventura tried to get the boys to for a Union but Hogan squealed to Vince and that was that.

[@wloffblizz]

Yup -- the writers didn't get nearly everything they wanted out of that strike, but they did set a very important precedent that writers needed to be entitled to SOME residuals from streaming media. Exactly what wrestlers are getting screwed over right now. WWE really has managed to get the best of both worlds, from their point of view... there's no more world-class superstars with enough leverage to negotiate crazy deals for themselves, but the "ensemble cast" that is the WWE roster today isn't organized or unionized either, so they have no leverage as a collective. As a result, WWE can pretty much just dictate everything just the way they want, and ain't nothing anyone can do about it unless they're looking for a change of career.

[@chadzeiders8293]

They need to unionize and that's all that's to it

[@gene8172]

@@chadzeiders8293 They had their chance back in the 80s and 90s when Vince had major competition and the wrestlers had leverage. Now Vince doesn’t have any marketplace competition and can let all but the top echelon walk without any impact on his business.

[@frankunodostres473]

the only thing that's left are the merch sales right?

[@grundlebutter5624]

$5 bucks a month for 17 PPVs per year is a hell of a deal, plus every ECW, WCW, and WWE PPV ever produced. I'm no math wizard, but $60 bucks a year is a pretty sweet deal Ally McBeal...

[@lutherheggs451]

IF you like ads, its $10 bucks a month ad free, which they know people will pay when they start running commercials during PPVs

[@grundlebutter5624]

@@lutherheggs451 I was gifted a lifetime free version, ad free, so I'm good, but you're right...

[@Coyote-wm5op]

WWE died the night of Goldberg vs Taker. Nobody cares about wrestling today except for podcasts about stars from the past, the dark side of the ring, and the library.

[@marioa.8131]

It died WAY before that lol

[@danielwilson9724]

Theres always still good wrestling going on.. WWE may be considered dead for the most part but like so many times before they can come back for a new great era out of nowhere.. New Japan is great wrestling! Always has been, always will be.

[@ccie12933]

I'm here for the Spiro Agnew quotes

[@only1icon1801]

There should be a royalty from viewing via streaming as they can easily see which is the most watched event/special/superstar. A union would be the best way for the talent to get any advantage over WWE but as said before by Cornette "The boys are their own worst enemies"

[@TheSportsfan35]

@Keith1974 Jesse Ventura tried to get a union for the talent going back at WM3 & Hogan went to Vince & put Jesse under the bus which is why today there's no union, even Cena thinks "there's no reason for a union". His words.

[@SonnyBubba]

A union doesn’t help the guys on top. Unions are more effective when the workers are interchangeable parts.

[@cosmoissleeping]

Just remember 40 year old virgins, your heroes who do bouncy castle moves are getting totally screwed

[@patrickdoran180]

Somebody needs to show Jim a current picture of Pam.

[@truthtella2661]

you can't go off views for a subscription. It's a flat fee for a network. Price doesn't go up if you are watching a certain match. So it's nor ordered by section

[@ASEEER818]

Music streams like Spotify pay royalties to the artists, it’s a shitty percentage for the amount of streams some artists get. I’m assuming they could do something similar with the network if they wanted to

[@ChristopherJames1993]

@@ASEEER818 no they couldn't. Because music artists own their own rights whereas WWE own everything you see on any wrestling show they put on. The wrestlers don't own anything.

[@ASEEER818]

@@ChristopherJames1993 that’s my point, they basically took the royalties away when they moved to streaming. It could be worked out if the company wanted to, in this case WWE doesn’t.

[@CamaroAmx]

@@ChristopherJames1993 in most cases the artist doesn’t own their music, the label or publishing company does. Sometimes artists will start their own labels (usually as a subsidiary of a major one) or their own publishing company that holds the rights to the music. If not then the artist gets paid a percentage of the profits after all other expenses are paid. And you better have a damned good experienced artist lawyer with you when you work out your record deal. In most cases artists don’t get paid anything until the record label gets paid enough to cover expenses (the recoding time, the manufacture of the records, the cost of the music videos, the marketing, the advance, ect). Same goes with touring. The artist receives a percentage of the ticket sales after the cost of the tour is covered. There are plenty of stories of number 1 artists who are flat broke. TLC had 2 number one albums and 4 number 1 hits in a row and had to fill for bankruptcy while having a number 1 album due to not making enough to pay it all back, a crappy contract and some poor accounting.

[@jamesstewart8377]

I’ve got that Undertakers greatest matches DVD. I can say with confidence that they are not his greatest matches. They are some of his worst actually.

[@knightfall209]

Damn Jim is on point with all this lol!

[@SupermanHopkins]

Why they got Vince McMahon out there looking like that? 😂😭

[@mykoniichistorychannel]

That’s what he looks like nowadays. Lol.

[@Exiled_Rouge]

"Order the same show on the network"... what in the actual fuck.

[@arkangel7819]

It’s sad to see the WWE wrestlers still being relegated to essentially “Gig” employees like Uber or Lyft drivers.

[@lrc2k8]

Why does Vince have lipstick on? 😂

[@Kwall4life]

@1:40 Musicians like myself are getting screwed as well since users can listen to anything for $10 a month and not have to purchase any music on iTunes. The rich get richer off us. We can't even tour lately due to restrictions

[@PauseUn-Pause]

Well hey there Gene Simmons

[@tripvic7629]

LoL... weird joke tho

[@damonodell9125]

Good musicians are degenerate maggots and deserve nothing.

[@georgejackson4426]

That's why when WWE announced the Fox Deal or The Peacock Deal the wrestlers should have unionized and said we aren't working until we get a piece of those deals. The wrestlers ALL OF THEM need to grab WWE by the short hairs a couple of weeks before WrestleMania and say come to the table to negotiate or hire Indy guys to work for your biggest show of the year. Remember they're Independent Contractors and at will employees.

[@SimplyChaotic98]

Theyre all marks now. Itll never happen. Theyll take care of Brock, Reigns, Orton, maybe 2 more, and fuck the rest

[@CamaroAmx]

Then they will be all tossed from the company or offered crappier contracts the next go around and/or feature you less and less.

[@mistermann3225]

@@CamaroAmx that's the thing if everybody gets involved they can't do that to everyone and they wouldn't have any Talent. And people aren't going to watch if it's absolutely no talent to watch

[@CamaroAmx]

@@mistermann3225 there’s always more talent that’s yearning to make more then $25 a spot show.

[@mistermann3225]

@@CamaroAmx yeah, but will people watch them?

[@MoWeinerIV]

Is that Vince or Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

[@williamarmstrong8722]

Don't F the talent that works for you

[@kinginblack3321]

Jim cornette is a wordsmith

[@psychobluesfxt]

Rey seems pleased with recent developments when he talked about it with Konnan a few months ago, said WWE gave them higher downside guarantees if they survived the COVID cuts and now the travel schedule is way easier. Vince being able to placate talent has always been a big reason why he has outlasted his rivals.

[@DecemberGuy77]

For the Rey Mysterios of the world. Not so much for the Ricochets...

[@psychobluesfxt]

@@DecemberGuy77 Ricochet seems happy where he’s at and the higher downside + lighter schedule was company wide not just because of clout but because no house shows = part timer type schedule anyway.

[@danielwilson9724]

@@DecemberGuy77 but Richocet don't deserve Rey Mysterio money. Thats the thing I agree with Vince on..u gotta be worth it

[@damonodell9125]

Ricochet is a jobber and always will be

[@chrishollister80]

Why would WWE put out their best product every month when they don't have to worry about pay-per-view buy rates or arena show tickets? They should give a damn, but of course, they don't.

[@elijahadkins4224]

Well if this how they wanna do it royaltie wise, you probably just have to do a fixed rate where every talent gets 1,200-5,000 a month depending on the talent, and exposure

[@swlabretwquint1311]

mmmmm …….. depends on what age Pam Anderson is Jim ……

[@tylerflemming7059]

Just here to hear Jim Cornette say.....Their exposing the business

[@jaytrace1006]

I’d give the Pamela Anderson thing a shot, in the interests of science.

[@focusedonfuture3255]

He is right and everybody knows it. The real problem here is the real problem in our society. "Yes you are right, it just doesnt matter that you are." Thats the problem. He is right but it doesnt matter that he is.

[@villainouschrisk2709]

they can absolutely track how often a particular show is watched by how many people. how else would they determine what to keep available and what to remove? there is no doubt that was one of the very first things they calculated for.

[@ozzy6994]

How did Vince age 10 more years in just 3 years?! Man he looks bad

[@jamesreding6336]

Yes yes yes save your money just in case thas why you never know when you need it

[@uclaomega]

would be nice if they could get a stream royalty rate similar to the music industry

[@CamaroAmx]

Great idea. For every match they are in they get paid $.0001. Taylor Swift was the highest played artist on Spotify a few years ago with 500+ million streams. She then revealed her royalty check for it, less then a $50k for that year.

[@FloridaManRacer]

I can tell you the model they should be using for royalties on the network. It's a sliding scale. If you have 1 million subs on average over a fiscal quarter to the WWE Network and 300,000 accounts view the content that fiscal quarter, you have a 30% viewership rate. based on their scale, 30% = X royalty rate etc... It's not that freaking hard. But this is what happens when businesses go public and turn into Corporations. They fuck the avg worker as hard as possible as often as possible to put more money in the company's hands... It's pathetic.

[@timbailey4055]

Look how Walking Dead died after Rick left. Now it has become a Virtue Signaling Circus Act

[@pams.2285]

Blue check mark on social media alone makes up for royalty checks man. One tweet could make more than a royalty check.

[@danielwilson9724]

Thts not the point though.. Its the fact tht they deserve royalties. They didn't do all tht shit and think years from now as long as I get a blue checkmark on this thing called social media to hell with royalties. Lol

[@emobassist]

At first i was excited when the network came out and. I could get ppvs for 10 bucks a month but now i realize it iust makes for a shitty ppv and its nothing like it used to be. And now ppvs are ruined because no one will pay 60 dollars for a ppv anymore because they could get the same thing for a fraction of that and the whole ppv system is fucked

[@MonkeyBone316v1]

That's all some messed up stuff. With all the insane matches that various wrestlers have done for different promotions, the body being broken down over time, concussion damages, out of pocket medical expenses, etc. and being screwed out of royalties, why even become a wrestler? You literally give your blood, sweat, and your body for an industry that doesn't care about you, at all. I used to be a huge wrestling fan. I started watching wrestling when I was a little boy. I stopped well into adulthood when, WWE, Impact, and AEW kept doing dumb storylines. I still try and keep up with the news from time to time, though, and watch various channels about what's going on in wrestling. I used to dream about being a wrestler, when I was younger. Now, being much older, and everything I've researched about the business, I don't see why anyone would want to.

[@danielwilson9724]

To be millionaires.. People like Greg Valentine have a 15mill net worth!! If u are good& know how to save you'll retire rich.

[@whippany]

My aunt Debra is my mom's cousin It's an Italian thing 😊😊😊

[@jeffmac9642]

My cousins are Anunziata. Originally from New Jersey. Uncle Rich passed a few years back . We might be releated 🤣😂😁👍

[@shindean]

You're preaching to the choir Jim😔 The wwe fans who should listen to this are so obsessed and devoid of any reason that they don't care. Roman Reigns being heel is their dream come true! Not realizing that Vince didnt listen to fans, he just listened to the shareholders.

[@jeremybeechum6907]

Mr. Cornette you absolutely correct. PPV are ridiculous they don't even try to build it up. You would thought they would have learned from the attitude era that people buy personalities.

[@jonathan.s993]

As far as I know the only two Wrestlers that I know that are still being paid Royalty checks are Jessie the Body Ventura and cm punk.

[@coryshannon3815]

The thing that could give wrestlers an advantage to negotiate on royalties from the network: a union. I know it won't happen though.

[@CamaroAmx]

@Keith1974 not to mention since a wrestler’s star power is so reduced anymore, it wouldn’t hurt the company to release those wrestlers that try to unionize and get new wrestlers. And VM has no issue in devaluing a wrestler before they leave as well so they are worth less outside the WWE. Devaluing could mean the wrestler is put into a degrading storyline or even a controversial storyline that makes that wrestler look as bad as possible.

[@PhinneusPrune]

Here is where Cornette is off with his number. The thinking at $10 a month was you get the library. A library that was dormant and people stopped buying DVD for years ago because of KZbin. And every PPV. The thought is that most people get 1 or 2 PPVs a year. $30 to $60 total. But that isn't a 10th of the fans. But now you present a deal like this. You get 20 times the amount of people buying all PPVs paying $120 a year. So in the end. By volume alone. You increased revenue over the older PPV model. Its a win win

[@fergalstackstreams]

He's off with his movie analogy too. There are plenty of people who don't give two shits who stars in a movie. The main concern is a) does the story look intriguing? and b) if it's a sequel or remake, did I like the previous one?

[@maxxdahl6062]

@@fergalstackstreams If there's an actor that I despise in a movie, I'm likely not to watch it no matter the story or if it's a sequel or remake.

[@dustincutshall1021]

Honestly no bonuses for wrestlers means huge bonuses for Vince and family.

[@sugartbube]

lot of information on royalities here good info

[@nevermindgaming6848]

They have to relay on the video games or action figures if they sell

[@johnnyizquierdo9022]

Brady 7 rings babyyyyyyyyyy

[@Surferjo]

The Boys & Girls should still get paid no matter what very sad :( Love the show TY

[@metalgearsolidsnake6978]

Mcmahon is a billionair, so he can pay more if he wants to

[@CHIPKIPOFFICIAL]

You expect us to pay over $600 a year to WATCH wrestling you’re crazy

[@mikemiller539]

$600?

[@CHIPKIPOFFICIAL]

@@mikemiller539 $50 a month ppv

[@mikemiller539]

@@CHIPKIPOFFICIAL I didn’t watch this whole thing but the wwe network is only 10$ a month soon to be 5$ when it moves to peacock .

[@WNC411]

$200 (in Tony Atlas voice)

[@danieldimino4622]

If like to see one of Stone Colds royalty checks I bet they're crazy big ..a few mill a year maybe idk but that's my guess

[@RelaxingGhost]

Do u know what were the highest selling WWE DVDs

[@adamlane6453]

No do u?

[@madamefeast4824]

No, what?

[@paulweston8408]

Not sure but I think the Rise and Fall of ECW and the first Ric Flair DVD were big sellers.

[@mrshi29]

The Rise and Fall of ECW I think is their best ever at one point. But that may may changed....

[@williammcmillan-johnstone3962]

The pillmann one wasnta big seller but is great should check it out