10 Rare Wrestling Contract Clauses You Never Knew

WCW didn’t have the best relationship with money.

Just look to signing Tank Abbott to a $650,000 per year deal when he had little charisma, zero wrestling knowledge and a sketchy win-loss MMA record. Or Sub-Zero-reject Glacier’s laser light show entrance which cost nearly half a million dollars to produce. Or buying airline tickets for their entire roster to fly to TV weekly even though only a fraction of them were used on screen.

They could burn through money at times, with a complex clause in some of their talent contracts costing them a lot of cash too. The ‘Favoured Nations’ clause in contracts stipulates no one for the company you work for can make more money than you. These contracts aren’t exclusive to wrestling and have been widely used in entertainment. It was only in WCW that they became popular in pro wrestling.

There were rumours Scott Hall and Kevin Nash shrewdly secured themselves the clause after defecting from the WWF thanks to their renowned agent Barry Bloom. It meant in theory if WCW singed Roddy Piper to a big money deal then it worked in Hall and Nash’s favour as it meant their pay could be increased. Eric Bischoff confirmed as much, noting on his 83 Weeks podcast that the Favoured Nations clauses came up in negotiations when Bill Goldberg and Bret Hart brought agents and managers.