Actor Paul Walter Hauser explains his wrestling pay: ‘Differs based on the company’
Paul Walter Hauser’s wrestling pay can vary widely based on the type of company that he’s working for.
An Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor, Hauser has now worked more than 20 matches in addition to his Hollywood work. He’s wrestled on the indies, had an ROH match, and contributes to MLW in the ring as a wrestler and behind the scenes as an executive producer.
Hauser told Chris Van Vliet on a new episode of Insight that, when he’s working a show for a small indie company, he’ll only request a few hundred dollars for the date. But if he were to work for a larger promotion like TNA where his presence is bringing viewers and interest, his request would be significantly more.
“My pay differs based on the company too. If I were to do something with TNA, say. And they were like, ‘Hey, come do a match with AJ Francis. Or a tag match, you’re going to be paired with The Rascalz against three heels.’ I would want, you know, 10 grand for that match, because, to me, you’re also getting eyeballs and press and whatever else comes with it, and I’m going to go out of my way to make it as good as it possibly can be, at the risk of hurting myself,” Hauser said.
“But if Action Wrestling down in Georgia is like, ‘Hey, do you want to come fight, take an L to Adam Priest or tag with your buddy Darian Bengston?’ I’m not going to charge them more than 300 or 400 bucks. I still got to drive down there and drive back. And I don’t know if I’m selling merch or not. They’re not going to have catering, catering. There’s X amount of things that you give up to just wrestle and have fun.”
Hauser said he wrestles because he loves it just like he acts because he loves it. He feels he needs to get more reps in, which can be tricky given his busy schedule.
“So it’s tricky, but I do hope to get to a point where I can be in the ring and work a little more safely,” Hauser said. “I’ve never hurt anybody else in the ring. I’m proud of that, but I have hurt myself two or three times and that sucks.”
Wrestling is a dream for Hauser, and he wants to represent himself well. Whenever he’s done in the ring, he hopes his body of work blows past what other celebrity wrestlers have done.
“I care too much about wrestling and have way too much pride that I want to go off ladders, go through tables, go through thumbtacks, get piledriven by Adam Priest in Vegas. Those are things that have happened,” Hauser said. “And I’m proud of that and I hold myself to a standard, not that I’m ever going to be as good as a Kyle O’Reilly or something. I’m not an idiot. I’m not Kyle Fletcher.
“But I’m also more than ready to say when my run is done, whether that’s in two years or 10, I guarantee if someone is looking at statistics on paper and they’re being logistical and realistic, there is no way in hell they’re going to say that Bad Bunny and… Pat McAfee, Bad Bunny, and say Stephen Amell, like, I’m going to blow past them if I haven’t already for some people. And that doesn’t mean I have something against them. It just means like, this is competition. I’m playing for keeps. I’m trying to make an impact. I’m trying to get eyeballs on the product. It’s not a cameo where I just kind of pop in and pop out and make a bag of money. It’s real.”
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.