Staggering Sums Of Money Involved In Sasha Banks’ Deal With NJPW
A new report has shed light on the massive amounts of money involved in bringing Sasha Banks into New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Sasha Banks has been the talk of the wrestling world since it emerged that she is scheduled to make an appearance for NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on the 4th of January 2023. There has been no confirmation as to Banks’ WWE status, meaning the deal has created a lot of questions surrounding her future.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer gave more insight into Sasha Banks’ deal with New Japan Pro Wrestling and the huge amounts of money involved:
“Voices of Wrestling said it’s a per appearance deal at the highest price that Bushiroad [NJPW’s parent company] has ever paid anyone and they said it was more than Chris Jericho. Which, to me, sounds, I don’t know. Chris Jericho ended up being worth $100,000 which is what – Chris Jericho made $100,000 a shot when he was working for New Japan. $100,000 a shot, with Chris Jericho he was actually underpaid because of how much revenue he drove between New Japan World and ticket sales at the different shows and things like that. But I don’t see her driving that revenue but I guess we’ll see.”
“The Tokyo Dome may be one thing but for other shows, and a lot of them in the United States, I don’t see where she’s gonna drive $100,000 of extra revenue but time will tell. I think everyone in the world expects she’s gonna confront KAIRI after the KAIRI/Tam Nakano match and set up an IWGP Women’s Championship match, I mean I can’t say that’s gonna happen but that’s certainly the speculation.”
“This was a [Bushiroad Director] Takaaki Kidani move […] he wanted a big WWE star and was willing to pay a lot of money. Whatever the number is, it’s a lot, a lot, a lot of money. On a per appearance basis, tonnes more than she’d have made in WWE but in total, they’re not gonna book her on enough shows to where she would make in the long run what she would make in WWE but it’s only a few shows and she has plenty of time to do other projects, perhaps work for AEW.”
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