WWE offered former AEW champion $60,000 contract to retire & become a referee
According to former AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa, WWE offered her a $60,000/year referee deal in 2019, but she would have had to retire from in-ring competition.
Speaking on The Cruz Show on REAL 92.3 LA, Rosa described attending WrestleMania 25 and how the experience changed her perspective toward WWE in comparison to the TNA Knockouts matches she used to watch.
Cruz asked Rosa about her planned WWE tryout in 2019 which is where she revealed the company’s offer. Rosa claimed it was an impossible task as she was already struggling to make ends meet.
“In 2019, (WWE) called me and they were like, ‘Are you ready to hang up the boots?’ I was like, ‘Well, you know, I need money.’ So I was like, ‘I need steady money’ because, brother, being an independent professional wrestler is, when you’re talking about hustle, it’s a hustle.
“I had a job when I was in the Bay Area, but when I decided to do wrestling full time, I was depending on my ex-husband and my hustle,” stated Rosa. “I was hustling all the time and I was tired. Like hustling after seven years, you’re like, man, I need a job or something.”
Rosa revealed the yearly salary WWE was offering her, but harsh weather conditions postponed the tryout that eventually fell through which detoured her to sign an MMA contract with Combate instead.
“And (WWE) offered me like $60,000 a year, which at the time it was like, ‘All right, it’s better than what I was making.’ There was a hurricane that happened and then they just kept pushing my tryout and then, it never happened. But it was meant to be that way and that’s when I made the decision to jump into MMA, because they offered me a $3,000 contract.”
Rosa signed with AEW in 2020 and won the Women’s World Championship two years later in a steel cage match with Britt Baker. She had to relinquish the title in November 2022 due to a serious back injury. It was also around the same time she announced her retirement from MMA.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.