Roman Reigns Reveals His Shocking First WWE Salary
Roman Reigns started from the bottom while giving some perspective about what it’s like being a superstar in WWE.
The journey of former 6-time WWE World Champion Roman Reigns has been a long one.
Over the last 15 years, Reigns went from prospect with potential to newcomer on the main roster with The Shield, WrestleMania main eventer for the first time in 2015, and ten years later, Reigns cemented his legacy as one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time.
While many fans might complain about Roman Reigns working a part-time schedule, he has certainly paid his dues like many WWE superstars.
During an appearance on ESPN First Take, Roman Reigns talked about how little he was paid early on in his career.
“Well it’s rough. I mean, when I started, this was years ago, I was making $500 a week in a dirty little dusty Tampa warehouse.
Now, it’s a complete performance center. There’s got to be seven to ten rings ready to go at all times. I mean, the facilities are second to none.”
“It Hurts Every Single Time” – Roman Reigns
Before his WWE career, Reigns was a college football player at Georgia Tech who tried to make it in the NFL. When that didn’t work, he went to WWE and became a legendary wrestler who will be in the WWE Hall of Fame one day.
Reigns brought up his football days while making the point that when you take bumps in pro wrestling, it hurts every time.
“The guys come in and make more money. But that’s how it works. You know, as we grow, as we get bigger and better, the foundation, the starting point’s going to lift up as well. But it’s rough.
I’ve never— the way I explain it, I played football since I was seven years old. If you’re a good football player, you’re winning maybe 70 to 75 percent of the snaps. So you’re doing well, you know what I mean?
Every single time that I fall down on the mat, hit that canvas, I lose 100 percent of the time. It hurts every single time. Some big brother picks you up and throws you down, it does not feel good. There’s a lot of things that we can, you know, make the magic, but when you fall down, you just fall down.”
As for his WWE future, Roman Reigns took a beating on the August 4th edition of Monday Night Raw, and in September, he’s going to film the Street Fighter movie. Reigns has also been advertised for the August 18th edition of Raw, so that’s when he’ll be back to try to get revenge on The Vision group featuring Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, and Paul Heyman.