Jinder Mahal aka Raj Dhesi explains how contracts work in WWE

So take your downside guarantee of $1 million divided by 52 for 52 weeks.

Your weekly check will be $19,230. For the sake of this example, let’s round it up to $20,000. Now with a downside guarantee, that $20,000 check will come in regardless if you are injured or if you wrestle 7 days a week.

Same amount every single week.

Now, can a WWE wrestler out-earn their downside guarantee? Absolutely. A downside guarantee is only a minimum. There is no maximum. There is no set maximum.

So what WWE uses is what’s called a bucket system. Now, the bucket system is imaginary in nature. It is essentially off the books. You will receive the same amount every single week, but what the bucket does is it keeps track of how much money is going out and how much money you are actually earning.

Television tapings, live events, pay-per-views, merchandise, everything goes into this bucket. So let’s start the bucket off, obviously week 1 at zero. $20,000 goes out, you wrestled on Raw, you got $5,000, imaginary number. All of these numbers are imaginary. Your balance in the bucket is negative $15,000 after week 1. Don’t let it scare you, your weekly amount remains the same.

Week 2, same thing, minus $20,000 for your weekly pay, you brought in $5,000 for Raw. You’re now negative $30,000. Don’t let it scare you, same amount hits your bank account.

Week 3, $20,000 goes out. You work a pay-per-view, you get $50,000. You wrestle on Raw, $10,000. You were in the main event, uh, and it was a sold-out arena.

You are now positive $10,000 in this bucket. That doesn’t mean you get $10,000. Again, this is imaginary.

It’s plus $10,000, but your weekly check remains the same. And if it was in the negative, you do not owe WWE money. This is imaginary in nature for now.

Week 4, $20,000 goes out. You wrestle on Raw, $5,000. You get a $100,000 merchandise check, except you do not receive the check. It goes into the bucket. In your bucket, you are up $95,000.

Now what happens when a wrestler gets injured or they’re no longer being used on television? Same thing. Your weekly check remains the same, but you will notice your bucket amount, your balance, will start to decrease. If you were in the positive, you could soon be in the negative. You— if you were already in the negative, you could be further in the negative.

Again, don’t be alarmed by the negative amount. You do you do not owe WWE this money. Let me explain.

So week 30, 6 months later, you come back and you main event WrestleMania. You earn $500,000, except you do not get paid $500,000. It goes into the bucket. Whatever you were negative by, this will offset it.

Now let’s assume for the rest of the year I was wrestling on Raw regularly, I got merchandise, and I had a few pay-per-view matches.

At week 52, I am positive $325,000 in my bucket. And by week 52, I will have received $1 million of my downside guarantee, and this amount of $325,000 will essentially be a bonus. So the total amount that I made for that year would be $1.35 million.

Now, for most wrestlers, I would say over 90% of wrestlers, this number is going to be in the negative. And if it’s in the negative, does not matter, because after week 52, we go back to week 1, and your balance starts at zero. You do not owe WWE any money.

Year 2 starts on this 3-year contract. You will make another million dollars guaranteed.”