10 Mind-Blowing Wrestler Salaries WWE Couldn't Afford

4. Goldberg - Salary Expectations $2 Million And Reduced Schedule

You can bet that Vince McMahon wanted to get Bill Goldberg badly from 1998 onwards. When he then got that opportunity, in 2001 when WCW collapsed, he found that he couldn't afford Goldberg's contract. The megastar of the southern brand was on a cool $2 million per a year, benefiting from the fact that he was the only real star WCW ever produced. The other thing about Goldberg, is that he never wanted to take a full time schedule on. In WCW he had been used to a cushy schedule compared to the WWF's regular shows. He was rich enough, and a big enough star, to reason that the WWF would only be worth it if the money was high and the dates were low. As a result, McMahon and Goldberg didn't get a deal done in 2001. McMahon couldn't afford to pay a WCW guy $2 million, it would have created a riot in the locker room. Instead, Goldberg ended up taking time out from the business, then went to Japan to work a few dates for All Japan. Eventually, WWE and Goldberg reached a compromise in 2003. He would come in for $1 million (half of what he'd been on in WCW) but would have a lighter schedule that was mostly television and pay per view dates. He signed, provoking a monstrous resentment in the WWE locker room! One year later, he was gone.