10 Wrestlers Who Had To Deal With Major Pay Cuts

4. Alex Shelley

A few years ago one half of the Motor City Machine Guns Alex Shelley shared some dirt on his time spent working for TNA in a series of revealing tweets. He would divulge he was one of the numerous wrestlers working for the company that had to suffer a crushing pay cut when TNA were suffering more financial issues than usual in 2012.

Shelly posted a picture from around this time period with Kazuchika Okada, Brian Kendrick and The Young Bucks posing with the X Division title outside the Impact Zone in Universal Studios Florida, which he said they did ‘as a total p*** take’ after all of them weren’t booked for that day’s set of tapings. Giving more context on the photo, he noted how TNA routinely sent a runner out at the theme park to attract tourists to be audience members in the Impact Zone by offering a photo op with the X Division belt. It turns out the runner had no idea who any of the wrestlers were, which tells you everything you need to know about the disarray and disorder behind the scenes in TNA.

Shelley further claimed ‘No room for us on the show though, too busy with Nasty Boys and Orlando Jordan pantomiming ejaculation with lotion while watching Rob Terry wrestle. No offense to The Nasty Boys or Orlando Jordan. All the offense to whomever decided to not have us wrestle, cut our pay, and overlook us. Over and over and over again.’

Shelley disclosed the pay cuts and the way TNA treated him and his friends was enough for him to go back to school so he ‘didn’t have to put up with such moronic decisions controlling my future, financially or emotionally.’