8 WWE Backstage Powers With Salaries You Won't Believe

4. Paul 'Triple H' Levesque - $550,000 Corporate Contract, $1 Million Dollar On Air Talent Contract, With Bonus Incentives Total $2,511,331 (Actual Earnings For Wrestling Match Payoffs / Merchandise And Licensing Was $1,868,639), $1.57 million Worth Of Stock

As you can see, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque is raking the cash in. This isn't too surprising, as both an on-air character and hugely important executive he's one of the key men in WWE. In saying that, his million dollar talent contract is a bit generous. Sure, he's a big name, he appears weekly, but he only really wrestles a few times a year. Most of the time he just does five minute microphone segments. The fact he gets a million dollars for this (and almost 2 million with associated bonuses) means he is doing almost as good as the very top full time workers in WWE. His corporate contract is less generous at $550,000, a modest wage for a senior corporate executive in a global company. Perhaps this is down to the fact that Triple H is relatively new in his role of Executive Vice President of talent and live events. His bonus incentives and stock worth more than make up for any short fall he may feel in his executive pay - Hunter packs away a total of $2,511,331. You can add to this around $1.57 million worth of WWE stock, 50,764 shares in total. In previous years, back in 2012, Hunter made $2,912,231 ($488,482 in salary as an executive, $305,000 in profit sharing incentive bonuses and $2,118,769 for being a wrestler / PPV payoffs / merchandise); in 2011 he made $336,538 in pay as an executive, $74,100 in stock grants, and $2,074,042 as a wrestler totalling $2,484,680. His downside guarantee on his performer contract was a million dollars with the additional numbers being pay-offs. The conclusion is this: It pays to play the game.