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Through 2025, now under TKO’s rule, the WWE earned $1.7 billion in revenues. If we apply that same 15% rule, the pro wrestlers should earn around $255 million.

Anyone care to bet me that they are NOT earning that?

As we saw in the news, multiple wrestlers were asked to take 50% paycuts. This prompted the New Day to ask for their releases and were granted them, as those longtime WWE employees and actual merchandise sellers were insulted at the notion of taking 50% off of contracts that TKO signed. Reportedly, one longtime wrestler did take the 50%, with some guessing Miz or another wrestler thinking that leaving the WWE would jeopardize his opportunities (LA Knight?) without his trademarked WWE name.

Meanwhile, TKO Executive Chair and CEO Ariel Emanuel received total compensation of $67.4 million while the CFO earned $23.1 million and the COO earned $42.6 million. What, they couldn’t take 50% paycuts themselves? Nick Khan, who is president/CEO of the WWE and also on the TKO board, made over $24 million during 2025.

And before you suggest that these “Chief” positions are doing such a great job, then why does TKO carry almost $5 billion in DEBT despite UFC and WWE having revenues pouring into their coffers? Also, why did the Endeavor corporation have so much debt that it needed Silver Lake to finance them and buy them?

In other words, WWE wrestlers are getting SCREWED on their network while TKO and WWE executives are pulling in the money.

Hell, Triple H is earning $2.8 million according to Sports Illustrated. He’s the Chief Content Officer who actually puts the shows together and then produces them live at the events as well. He’s putting in way more work than those sitting in cushy offices all day, and HHH has to be micro-managed by these TKO fools as well.

As we head into Labor Day, it’s time for WWE wrestlers to STAND UP and stop swallowing the turd sandwiches that WWE, with this TKO corporate daddies, keep serving them.

WWE wrestlers are the ones taking the bumps in the ring, getting thrown through tables, having to travel all over the country or world, work through injuries, be away from their families, and have to do countless charity and personal appearances for TKO and WWE. Furthermore, they are silenced from expressing themselves personally and WWE/TKO owns all of the copyrights that the wrestlers help build up as a solid brand.

What wrestlers don’t realize is that they have all of the power. If each walked out and refused to do a televised wrestling event, which puts the Netflix, USA Network, and ESPN+ deals in jeopardy, the WWE could be in trouble with each of those companies with those television deals. Further, wrestlers need to understand how MAD fans are at TKO right now for price gouging them on live events and merchandise while feeding them to the price gouging streaming wolves with Netflix and ESPN/Disney. If wrestlers were to walk out today, fans would back them because they’ve been pissed at TKO’s corporate antics for the past 2 years.

Yet, the wrestlers are afraid to stand up to these corporate cowards.

And I’m full aware of what the WWE did to keep labor unions away during the Vince McMahon era. Vince liked to push one wrestler really hard, such as Hogan and then Austin/Rock, then Cena, and the eventually Roman Reigns along with supporting others like the Undertaker. By coddling up to the top person on the card, Vince knew that he could keep drawing if the top guy was loyal and therefore made the rest of the roster expendable. Without Vince, Roman Reigns remains the highest paid guy followed by Cody Rhodes, who happens to be represented by WME which serves as an agency where several TKO executives still work as agents (Ari Emanuel, for example, represents Pat McAfee personally).

For a union to actually form in the WWE, they would need the top main eventers to be willing to support the union. Hulk Hogan wouldn’t, as he stooged out Jesse Ventura to Vince McMahon during 1986 (right before Wrestlemania 2) when Jesse tried to suggest that wrestlers unionize and hold up Wrestlemania 2 to accomplish this feat. Once that ended, Vince further demolished the territory competition to make his promotion the #1 in the land and made it difficult to argue. Then, Austin, Rock, Triple H, and Undertaker with John Cena later playing the game came along and accepted being loyal main eventers for Vince.

Personally, I’ve always argued that wrestlers should desire to join the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) which is now called SAG-AFTRA. WWE wrestlers are clearly following scripts both in their promos and how matches are laid out with backstage producers. They are also taking prepared stunts. They are televised each week on Netflix and USA Network, along with PLEs now on ESPN+. WWE has been long established as a form of “entertainment” with an court precedent in place when state athletic commissions tried to regulate pro wrestling during the late 1980s.

Admittedly, there are economic consequences of unions, historically speaking…

– Unions work in strength in numbers, even with a portion of those numbers are weaker performers.

– Pay for union workers is often due to seniority and not just merit or performance.

– If current workforce shrinks, then ability to fund benefits, such as retirements and pensions on a pay-as-you-go system becomes a major financial problem.

– Labor stoppages, such as strikes or lockouts could occur when a contract is up or nearly up or if there’s a new disagreement between the parties.

Right now, both the NBA and NFL split revenues almost halfway between the ownership and players. 50%, compared to wrestlers earning 15% on contracts that can be cancelled at any point. NBA contracts are fully guaranteed, while NFL contracts are mostly guaranteed and are often subject to renegotiation if a player outperforms their current deal.

One could argue “well, if the wrestlers get paid more and take in more revenues, then TKO will raise its prices”.

Great argument… BUT TKO IS ALREADY RAISING THEIR PRICES!!!!!!

They’ve been gouging fans HARD over the past 3 years… Know what is causing them to price gouge? Total greed, as top executives are pulling in 8 figures a year and laughing as the wrestlers take the bumps on their behalf.

It’s now or never, WWE wrestlers. If you want to be pawns for the WWE brand that TKO wants you to be, then keep working under the current terms and they’ll pick you off individually one-by-one. Otherwise, take ownership of yourselves as a locker room and hold greedy TKO executives accountable.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

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Is Ospreay one of the greatest artists in professional wrestling, or does his style rely too heavily on athleticism and spectacular moves? Join us for a passionate debate about one of wrestling’s most talked-about performers!

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After Flair himself responded to this on Twitter, I felt like he had a point and that it would make a great subject for a column. So while I could weigh in on which match was better, I would rather write about why I don’t think we can really compare matches from the territory days to modern wrestling.

This column will be separated into three categories: the crowds, the schedule, and the presentation.

So let’s start with point number one: the crowds.

When you compare crowds from the ’80s and early ’90s to modern crowds, it’s really a very different experience.

When you look at crowds during the era of Flair and Steamboat, it was a crowd that kind of knew the matches were predetermined, but at the same time, they continued to believe that what they saw was real. Kayfabe was still a big thing, and when they watched a match like Flair vs. Steamboat, they really thought that Steamboat hated Flair and that Flair was a bad guy who was willing to do anything to keep his championship.

You rarely saw a face vs. face or heel vs. heel match because you knew that these matches wouldn’t draw and could confuse fans. Heels would also never go out in public with babyfaces.

Fans back then believed so strongly that what they saw was real that they were ready to try to attack the heel because they hated him so much. Jim Cornette has told so many stories about fans trying to stab him or attack him in parking lots, and he’s certainly not the only wrestler from that era with stories like that.

Now, modern fans, for the most part, especially those watching AEW, are smart fans. They clearly know that wrestling is predetermined, that the two wrestlers are cooperating, and that in reality, they may be best friends backstage.

Because of that, the believability of the match is hurt. Fans are going to react more to the big spots in the ring than to the story being told.

So because of that, the experience isn’t the same, and you really can’t compare those two experiences.

2. The Schedule

This really has nothing to do with how good a match is, but I thought it was worth mentioning because the schedules are completely different.

Back in the day, wrestling was much more of a live-event business, so guys, especially the top stars, needed to wrestle a ridiculous schedule to actually make money.

When Flair said that he would wrestle twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday, he wasn’t kidding. That was how ridiculous the schedule was. Wrestlers, especially top guys, would wrestle a show on Friday, then do an afternoon show in another market on Saturday before traveling to another show that evening in a different market, and then repeat the same thing on Sunday.

That’s without even talking about TV tapings, which could be marathon tapings, especially in WWE, as well as special events and the fact that wrestlers would have to work holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, which were often some of the biggest-paying shows of the year.

So let’s just say that wrestlers back then knew how to keep matches simple to make sure they wouldn’t get hurt and lose a big payday.

These days, most wrestlers, especially those at the top, have guaranteed-money contracts, which means they get paid the same amount of money regardless of how much they wrestle.

Those who work for AEW or WWE and are top guys like Omega and Ospreay only have to wrestle a few times a month and have the rest of the time off. That makes it easier for them to go all out and do really dangerous spots because they know they can take it easy afterward and have time to recover.

Again, when you compare this to how wrestling was back then, I feel like today’s wrestlers would have a hard time having long careers if they had to work the type of schedule the old-timers did.

3. The Presentation

This is the most important point and the main reason why I don’t think you can compare matches from the territory days to modern wrestling matches.

Back in the territory days, most wrestlers were able to call their matches in the ring. A match like Steamboat vs. Flair was 100% called in the ring. The only things they knew beforehand were the finish, how much time they had, and who was winning.

Outside of that, the entire body of the match was improvised in the ring. Normally, it was the heel—in this instance, Flair—who would call the spots depending on how the crowd was reacting.

That made for a more spontaneous feeling and gave the wrestlers a lot more freedom. If they botched a spot, they would be able to improvise and do something else.

In modern wrestling, everything is written down and overproduced. Wrestlers will plan everything before the match and practice it a few times before going out and having the match in the ring.

This gives them a lot less freedom during the match because those wrestlers are so focused on getting every single spot right that if something goes wrong, instead of improvising and moving on to the next part of the match, they go on a hard reset and go back to do the spot they botched.

That can hurt the fluidity of the match and make the wrestlers look rehearsed.

My big question based on this is: Would Omega and Ospreay be able to have the same type of five-star matches if they had to call the entire match in the ring instead of having everything predetermined and practiced?

I don’t think they would, and that’s why I don’t think you can compare matches from both eras.

As Flair said, comparing a match like Omega vs. Ospreay to a match like Steamboat vs. Flair is like comparing a river to an ocean.

It’s a completely different way of preparing a match, and you also have to consider that Omega vs. Ospreay only had three matches together, while Steamboat and Flair had around 100 matches together that were all different.

Conclusion

When you look at both eras, the ’80s were based on a completely different mindset from today. So how can you compare matches from that era to modern wrestling?

The reason we, as fans, still remember those classics from that era is because the athletes knew how to listen to the crowd and tell a story based on how we reacted.

Would we remember modern five-star matches like Omega vs. Ospreay 30 or 40 years from now?

I doubt it.

The post Why we really can’t compared modern wrestling matches to classic matches appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Can’t we just agree that each match was great for their era?

Geesh.

For one, let’s disqualify a few opinions first… Ric Flair was in the actual match with Ricky Steamboat, so obviously, he’s biased. Dave Meltzer is totally IN THE BAG for All Elite Wrestling and anyone who works for New Japan, so obviously, he’s very biased. One is protecting his legacy and the other is protecting his hidden ties to AEW.

But the rest of you fighting in the trenches… Who cares? Who cares which match is better? What are you trying to prove with online fights?!?

Steamboat vs. Flair happened in 1989, while Ospreay vs. Omega happened in 2026… That’s a 37 year difference, and that’s older than one of the wrestlers discussed (Will Ospreay is 33, born in 1993).

It’s like the same idiotic argument of which athlete from this era of MLB, NBA, or NFL is better, despite being decades apart or never having played each other. Like the Michael Jordan vs. Lebron James debate. Who cares? Just admire that both human beings were very talented and won multiple titles each. Sure, they did it different ways, but the leagues conditions for each era provides context.

Or even worse, the old Joe Montana vs. Tom Brady debate. Brady had to get 4 titles to even be included in the debate, but even that was enough. Tom getting 7 Super Bowl titles still isn’t enough in this lame debate. Who cares? Both were great in their era and both will be Hall of Famers when Tom gets in soon.

Then you have “any player today” versus Babe Ruth debate, as if Babe Ruth wouldn’t dominate with late 20th century or early 21st century medicine, performance enhancers, and nutrition if he played today.

Notice how I didn’t mention NHL… Nobody disputes Wayne Gretzky as the G.O.A.T there… I painfully admit that as a diehard Pittsburgh Penguins and Mario Lemieux fan.

But this debate that everyone is having is STUPID, especially since Ospreay vs. Omega from AEW All In 2026 JUST HAPPENED. Why can’t we let the damn paint dry before we see it’s long-term impact? Ospreay/Omega happened 5 days ago, while Flair and Steamboat happened 37 years ago.

What wrestling fans need to realize that Flair vs. Steamboat was through 1989 was an actual exception to what pro wrestling was back then. You didn’t see hyper-athletic matches like that back then because most of the fanbase believed that pro wrestling was real and wrestlers could do more with psychology or gesturing with fans during the match. With the fans emotionally invested already, they didn’t have to perform high risk moves or show extreme athleticism. Thus, why wrestlers could actually perform over 300 times per year back then because they just had to work the crowds who already believed what they were seeing was real. This is why Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat at Wrestlemania 3 was so unique for its time and then why Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair stood out in 1989. Those matches were complete outliers for their athleticism in comparison to other matches back then.

Fast forward to 2026. 37 years later, wrestlers are influenced by what Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and a metric ton of cruiserweight wrestlers and international wrestlers have put on for decades. Because kayfabe was shattered, wrestlers since the late 1980s had to TRY HARDER with their matches to keep the crowds interested. Hence why you saw workrate increasing by the year through what we see now with 2026. Sadly, along the way, too, we had ECW to influence everybody flying through tables or jumping off ladders.

Flair vs. Steamboat (specifically the WrestleWar 89 match) was the best match that we’ve ever seen until 1997 when Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin happened at Wrestlemania 13. THINK ABOUT THAT, folks… It took 8 freakin’ years for another epic 5-star match the equivalent of Flair vs. Steamboat to happen.

But then, through the late 1990s, guys like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Brian Pillman, and many other international wrestlers arrived to really speed up the tempo of the matches. Main eventers like the Rock, Austin, Undertaker, John Cena, Batista, and Brock Lesnar actually adjusted their own styles to match the faster paced style. With time, wrestling schedules were reduced from 300+ nights pear year to around 150, if that. Wrestlers are working less, so thus they put more effort into the bigger televised matches than ever.

Again, wrestlers of today HAVE TO because putting their bodies on the line is the only way to keep the fans interested because fans know everything is scripted.

Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair stood out because there were no other matches like it, and nothing close to it until the late 1990s.

With Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega, we’ve seen many high impact, high energy, and high risk matches like it. Hell, there are other Omega vs. Ospeay matches that are equally as good as what you just saw at All In 2026. Both Omega and Ospreay have had many great matches with other opponents, notably Okada in the past or with other various opponents in New Japan. AEW often has 10-15 matches on their Pay Per Views and they are full of high energy and high impact matches that are receiving higher star ratings from fans and critics alike. Let’s not discount WWE… Their workrate is way up, as even Dave Meltzer had to give Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk at Wrestlemania 42 a 5-star rating.

The problem with Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega is that it’s in a much more crowded field, and thus can be forgotten in a short while. If you were a wrestling fan since the 1980s, you remembered 1989 with those 3 televised Steamboat vs. Flair matches and you never forgot about them. Then, it took about 8 years for any match to even be the equivalent of quality to that match.

Then I’m seeing stuff like “Ospreay vs. Omega drew over 40,000, which was higher than anything drawing in 1989 for WCW”. Yeah, well, WCW had more eyeballs watching their shows back then and that Clash of the Champions event in New Orleans drew poorly because it was given away for free on television. There’s a bigger population now, and plus for All In, they had a hometown kid winning the AEW Title. WWE drew strongly in Wembley with SummerSlam 1992 because British Bulldog was going for the Intercontinental Title.

Y’all are just in a worthless pissing match… This is apples and oranges. Flair vs. Steamboat was quality in an era of quantity of matches that didn’t require major athletic effort because fans were emotionally involved. Now, however, there’s too much quantity of quality matches and wrestlers have to work harder to earn fans’ attention.

Just be happy with the abundance of great matches today, but thank building blocks like Flair vs. Steamboat that helped influence what you’re seeing now.

STOP WASTING YOUR TIME arguing this crap online. It’s not good for your health and speaking through your fingers is worthless versus actually talking to and conversing with real human beings in-person.

Both Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat and Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega were great for their eras and years… Very simple premise to agree on.

That said, I’ve watched both matches and I’ll hand it to Flair vs. Steamboat. Why? Because Flair and Steamboat didn’t have to nearly injure themselves with higher risk moves than what Kenny and Will had to do. I don’t know how Kenny Omega’s neck isn’t badly injured after that match, while I believe that Steamboat and Flair were chilling comfortably after their matches in 1989.

Plus, again, Flair vs. Steamboat were the diamond in the rough back then… Now, we’re creating too many artificial diamonds that are drowning out the quality.

Gotta try harder to impress fans when you flush kayfabe down the toilet…

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

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So yeah I thoroughly enjoyed All In. I never got around to watching NXT Heatwave or the Triple A show. There was some news coming out of that double shot over the weekend. According to Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer , the WWE essentially underestimated Triple A thinking NXT would be the bigger show of the two. All I can think of that is the word stupid

Of course Triple A was going to be seen as the bigger show. The WWE is vastly underestimating the drawing power of Lucha Libre in the United States. Triple A should be seen as much more than a pawn for the WWE. Oh we need to leech off AEW again…let’s throw a Triple A show up against it. At least Triplemania 34 (which is in a couple of weeks) will get time to shine on it’s own with a huge Friday night show on September 11th in Las Vegas and night two in Mexico City on September 13th. I’m honestly more interested in the second night because that is the night we will see Dominik Mysterio defend the Triple A MEGA Championship against El Grande Americano. Americano has become almost a folk hero in Mexico so it has to be almost a lock that he would win the title.

But I want to go back to AEW today because I honestly haven’t written enough about them in a while. As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed All In: London. The match everyone is talking about is of course Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega. I loved everything about this match from the pre match introduction narrated by Will’s own mother and then set to “Baba O’Reily” by The Who. It just was everything I love about a “pure sports build” in pro wrestling. But as much as I loved the match, I’m not going to say something crazy and be like “Oh it was the best match ever”. Surely a match of the year candidate regardless of the promotion.

Over on twitter/X, someone randomly tweeted at Darius Rucker (country singer/formerly of Hootie & The Blowfish) that Omega vs. Ospreay was the greatest match of all time. Darius responded simply by saying “You obviously never saw Flair vs. Steamboat”. Now, it’s well known that Rucker is a Flair fanboy. I mean hell, he owns I believe two of Flair’s actual robes. But he wasn’t wrong to state that if you think Omega vs. Ospreay was great, you’ve never seen Flair vs. Steamboat. Enter Dave Meltzer into the discussion.

“I saw countless Flair-Steamboat matches. Seriously, Ospreay vs, Omega had more emotion than any Flair-Steamboat match and Flair-Steamboat was state of the art from 1977 to 1989.”

I like Dave, I really do. But Ospreay vs. Omega did not have more emotion than ANY Flair-Steamboat match. Like I said it was a really good match, but if you’re comparing it to Flair and Steamboat…that is a bridge too far. Of course it didn’t take too long for Ric Flair to chime in about it over on Twitter and it’s a doozy from Ol’ Nat’ch.

“No one has more respect for Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay than me! But to compare them to Steamboat and I is like comparing the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean! When they have a great match 300 times a year and 200-hour broadways, get back to me! Until then, there is no problem with being number two. You are great young talent, but let’s get serious, kids! You should only hope that you have people talking about your matches 37 years later! WOOOOO!”

Now, I sense a tad bit exaggerating from Ric because I’m pretty sure he and Steamboat did not wrestle each other 300 times a year. The 200 hour long broadways is probably true. But that’s over a span of decades. I honestly believe that Kenny’s matches with Okada will be discussed in the same vein as Flair and Steamboat down the line. Those were epic matches that should be talked about decades to come. But this match with Omega and Ospreay, while pretty damn good…it was not a Flair vs. Steamboat encounter.

In the end like I said, it might be a match of the year. Hell, I’ll even say it could be a top ten match of the decade. But I just don’t see people talking about this match like a Flair/Steamboat match. Right now the all time series between Kenny and Will is tied at two wins apiece. Will said on Dynamite he’s happy with being equal with Kenny Omega. But if he ever wants to go again…game on. I do hope that fifth and probable final match between Omega and Ospreay does happen. Now if that match happens, that will probably have a lot of emotion to it because it’s pretty clear right now Kenny Omega is on the last lap of his career. Does Omega go out with a win or does he fall just short one last time? That’s a story right there AEW could do.

On that note I am done for this week. I apologize for any delay with my column. The world of wrestling moves faster than I can type sometimes. As always you can leave feedback down below, over on Twitter or email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com

The post The Phantom Rant: Was Omega vs. Ospreay better than Flair vs. Steamboat? appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

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