Kevin Nash says WWE wrestler who took pay cut still making ‘huge money’
Kevin Nash can understand why at least one WWE wrestler was willing to take a drastic pay cut.
Along with making significant roster cuts after WrestleMania, WWE/TKO approached some wrestlers about restructuring their contracts for less money in lieu of getting released. Exactly how many people were approached is not known, and the identity of anyone who accepted the pay decrease has not been revealed. it is known that The New Day’s Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods declined the offer and chose to depart WWE instead.
Some wrestlers are rumored to have accepted a 50 percent pay cut. But even with that, Nash says he’s heard of one affected wrestler who is still making “huge money.” Nash could not believe how much that person was originally making.
“I’ve got enough moles in the business where — I mean, I know the people that took 50 percent cuts,” Nash said on his Kliq This podcast. “I know one of the guys, and when I found out what the person was making, and after I just picked myself up off the ground that he was making that much money, and then realized that even at 50 percent, he was making huge money.”
Kevin Nash’s criticism of TKO —
Nash made headlines last week when he called for TKO to stay out of creative and let Paul “Triple H” Levesque do his job. On this Kliq This episode, Nash clarified that Levesque did not tell him that TKO was interfering with the creative process. Despite being close friends, Nash and Levesque do not discuss insider business like that.
“One thing Paul and I have never done is we have never talked business. Like, I could not call or text him and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on? Are they f***ing [with you]?’ He would never,” Nash said. “Because that’s our deal. Because that takes away the trust that he has with the people he works for. So that’s always been — it’s none of my business. It’s none of my business who’s involved in Paul’s everyday life that he works with.
“Paul’s a big boy. Paul can take care of himself. I just had heard some things, and I don’t know. Maybe I got pissed off last week. Maybe it was just because I did a lot of driving. Maybe I thought I was a wrestler again. Maybe being in a different hotel five nights in a row in a minivan, putting f***ing heavy ass bags in the back triggered some post-traumatic stress that I was holding out for during the 30-year run.”
Nash also said that Ari Emanuel, the head of TKO, has always been great to him in their personal interactions. Nash does not know any of the other TKO executives.
“The only person I’ve ever met from TKO is Ari. He’s the only one that I’ve ever met,” Nash said. “And he was such a gentleman. He came up, he shook my hand. I’ve never been treated better by anyone in management than the way he treated me. He just said, ‘If there’s anything I could do for you, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ And every time I’ve seen him since — he’s the only person I know. He’s the only one. So the other two cats, I don’t know them. I just wanted to lash out at somebody, so they, I don’t know them, you know?”
As a WWE Hall of Famer with acting experience, Nash has called for pro wrestlers to become union members by joining the Screen Actors Guild. Political figure Andrew Yang sent out a tweet last week supporting that call.
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.