They may still have their jobs. But are they willing to work for less pay? They have to be, or else they know where the door is. Every WWE Superstar received a cut of PPV takings when they wrestled on Pay Per View. Those events were sold for upwards of 40 and 50 dollars each and the further up your place on the card, the higher your bonus. So when WWE suddenly starts streaming their own events in house, for only $9.99, those bonuses suddenly disappear. Of course for many (John Cena, Triple H and Brock Lesnar for starters) this won't hurt their bank accounts too much. But for a majority of WWEs midcard and undercard, this drop in PPV revenue is going to make a big difference to both income and morale. They train and travel for hundreds of hours a week, and put their bodies at risk to sell these events, let alone get a spot on them, and now the events are only worth $9.99! There is even speculation that the decrease in PPV bonuses was one of the (many) reasons CM Punk quit back in January. Keep in mind, they would have lost their bonuses even if the Network was a rousing success. So how must they feel, knowing that they sacrificed their monthly bonus for a complete bomb?
As a wrestling fan I've flown across the Atlantic for the last five years specifically to attend WrestleMania (28 and 30) as well as TNA, ROH, Evolve, Chikara and most recently PWG.
I may have a problem!
But if you're reading my work then you probably love wrestling too, so lets focus on that!
