What is being said about TKO’s perspective on restructuring WWE talent contracts
On May 2nd 2026, it was reported that The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) mutually agreed to part ways with WWE. It was noted by Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline that the two men “were asked to restructure” their contracts, but they didn’t like the deals, so they were then granted their release.
During Wrestling Observer Live, Alvarez went into more details about the perspective of WWE’s parent company TKO…
“These people who have been asked to restructure their deals are people who are upper midcard-ish, maybe even higher than that. And the ones I’ve heard, you know, they’ve been around for a long time, and they were making a lot of money.
And we’re not talking a guy like Roman Reigns or a guy like Seth Rollins. You know, those guys—the very tippy-top main eventers—they’re not going to be asking those tippy-top main eventers to restructure their deals.
If you are low on the card, you’re probably not making enough that they’re going to bother. So the reason that there’s a specific window, it appears, of people that are being asked to restructure is because, you know, these people signed pretty big money deals quite a while ago, and they’ve been making that money for quite a while. And, you know, now they’re not where they were.”
Alvarez continued…
“Their justification is, things are very different now than when you signed this deal. Like, yes, we are asking you to take less money, but their argument is, you are doing significantly less now. You’re not doing four house shows a week. You’re not on the road four days a week paying for your transportation and your hotel and your this and your that. You’re on the road one day a week. You’re wrestling maybe twice a month. And, you know, this is—we want to pay you less because you’re doing less now. That is their mindset.”