Marc Mero reveals $71 WWE royalty check: ‘That’s the reality’
Former WWE Intercontinental Champion Marc Mero revealed his $71.47 royalty check from the promotion as an attempt to educate fans on the “reality” of the business.
On Wednesday, Mero uploaded a post on social media, revealing his WWE royalty earnings from 2019:
“I’ve been asked many times what wrestlers actually make in royalties from the WWE, so let me give you a real example. I left the WWE years ago and more than 20 years later, in 2019, I came across an old royalty statement. When you look at how much money many wrestlers help generate versus how little they’re actually paid, it’s honestly hard to believe,” he wrote.
He further wrote and publicly shared the exact monetary figures he earned. While the total amount of revenue generated was $39,590.81, Mero received $71.47 as his share.
“On this statement, even after being out of wrestling for over two decades, I was still partly responsible for $39,590.81 in revenue. My royalty payment for that? $71.47. That’s the reality for a lot of wrestlers. We helped build the brand, the characters, and the moments fans still watch today, yet the compensation rarely reflects the value that was created.”
Mero was in WWE from 1996 to 1999 before retiring from in-ring action in 2006. Winning titles across both WWE and WCW, Mero was also an amateur boxer and even received the 1991 WON Rookie of the Year.
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
Shounak takes particular interest in soccer, closely following top clubs like Real Madrid and Arsenal. Beyond sports, he enjoys fiction writing, photography, gaming, and cinema.