WWE Offering HUGE 5-Year Contracts To New Signings?
WWE are trying to lock Performance Center recruits down for a long, long time.
Competition for signatures is fierce in today's wrestling market and WWE are desperate to hold onto everyone they have in 2019, with All Elite Wrestling's emergence prompting Vince McMahon's promotion to lock their wrestlers down for as long as possible, lest they head elsewhere and become a major asset to a competitor.
This is why performers like Sasha Banks and The Revival weren't allowed to leave the company, and why an extra six months were added to Luke Harper's contract. Now, it looks like the "gotta have 'em all" strategy extends all the way to developmental.
Per Dave Meltzer in this week's edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE are now offering new Performance Center/NXT recruits 5-year contracts rather than the traditional 3-year deals they were being signed to beforehand.
Competition is the driver. Meltzer writes that WWE want to ensure it is a long time before new signings can ever test the free agency market again, meaning that Vince McMahon has control of their careers even if things don't work out for them in Stamford. It's down to the wrestlers to accept, of course, but that WWE contracts offer guaranteed money make them attractive.