Predicting 10 Highest WWE Earners In 2016

This past Sunday at Battleground, the Triple Threat main event for the WWE Championship—pitting Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins against one another—was all about one thing; proving who was the best.

But in pro wrestling, sometimes the winners and the holders of title belts aren’t necessarily the absolute best (on-screen storylines and all that jazz). If we want to get a better gauge of who’s really viewed as the top star, we’d be better off looking at pay checks as opposed to performances.

So which WWE Superstars are paid the most?

Luckily, Forbes has taken a very sophisticated stab at answering this, after they recently put together a list of the 10 highest earners in the WWE. The list is based upon hours of research covering court documents, SEC filings, WWE booking contracts as well as input from their sources in the industry.

As excellent as the list is, though, a lot of its numbers are from 2015—and obviously a lot has changed since then.

So how might that list look after this year with all that’s gone down since? With the help of Forbes’ brilliant groundwork, and a little of my own guesswork, this article has a go at answering that question.

We kick off proceedings with AJ Styles—a name who didn’t feature on Forbes' list, because at the time of its publication he had only just signed his WWE contract.

Since then, news has emerged of how much Styles will be earning with the company. Reports have suggested that his “downside guarantee is reportedly in excess of $500K, about $100K more than he made in 2015.” Just a tad more than the $60K they allegedly offered him previously, then.

Still, that’s a lot lower than some of the other guys on Forbes’ list of 2015 figures. Kane and Big Show, for example, were in the top ten with earnings in the low seven figures, thanks largely to their years of service to the company.

But remember, for Styles, that half a million is only a base guarantee. There are loads of bonuses to add on top of that, such as his merchandise sales, the extra income from all the dates he’s worked—one of which included a WrestleMania payday—as well as the current program he’s involved in with John Cena.

When you factor in all of the additional earnings, I feel like Styles will be just about worthy of sneaking a spot on this list.