The Rock Demanded Double Steve Austin’s Money For WWE Deal
The Rock has revealed the wild tactic he used to negotiate a new deal with WWE as he wanted to make twice as much as the company’s biggest star.
WWE history might indicate that The Rock, Steve Austin, DX, and The Undertaker were the lynchpins of the Attitude Era but one of those stars stood head and shoulders above everyone else and that was the Texas Rattlesnake. But that didn’t mean the others didn’t have designs on the top spot in the company as well.
Speaking to Patrick Bet David, The Rock revealed that his first WWE contract flattered to deceive when broken down on the number of matches he had and when it came time to renegotiate after three years, he was ready to speak for himself:
I was coming up and my very first contract with the WWE with Vince that I signed with him was a five-year contract for $150,000. 150 grand per year is great, [but] when you’re wrestling 250 dates a year, do the math, what you’re getting per match. It was an opportunity for me.
Look, I came from seven bucks, so this is great. It’s time to renegotiate. About three years later, after as I became The Rock, newly minted The Rock, he wanted to renegotiate my contract. A couple of wrestlers at that time had their own agents. I chose not to have an agent. He [Vince] said, ‘Are you going to have an agent? Are you looking for an agent?’ I said, ‘I’m not. I’d like to negotiate with you directly.’
The Rock then revealed he was happy to settle on a deal with a handshake and his demands of Vince McMahon were quite simple if absolutely outrageous as he asked for double what Stone Cold Steve Austin was making:
How we met was with a handshake, and I believe how we’re going to do this is with a handshake. Handshakes are very important to me, as I know everybody in this room. So I always say my handshake is better than anything I ever sign. It’s right here.
So he said, great, I love that. I respect it. He said, ‘What are you thinking?’ And I said, ‘Who’s the highest paid, if you don’t mind me asking, between us, who’s the highest paid on the roster?’ He said ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin.’ I said, Okay. I said ‘If you don’t mind me asking, what’s his guarantee?’ He said ‘A million dollars.’ Okay, I want two.
The Rock Told To Go Away And Learn The Business
Vince McMahon had a surprising reaction to The Rock’s exorbitant demand, as rather than dismiss it out of hand, he told the star to go away and learn about the business side of things and then they’d have another talk over a deal:
[Laughs] I know, the balls on that kid. So he said, ‘Two million?’ I said, Yes. He said, ‘I’m just curious, where do you get that from? What are you figuring out in your mind?’ And I said, ‘Well, I love Steve, I respect him, but if he’s getting a million dollars, where I see myself going is past a million dollars, I think it should be two.’
He went, ‘Okay, I understand that logic. Here’s what I want you to do. I’m going to put you in contact with one of our executives, and I need you to take a couple of months if it takes that long. I need you to understand the business, this side of the business, from top to bottom, all the economics. […]’ Once you learn this business, then you come back to me, and then we’ll talk about what the renegotiation was.
The Rock proved to be a quick learner and was happy to settle for the same guaranteed money as Steve Austin but Vince McMahon still had one more surprise regarding The People Champ’s earning potential as WWE hit a white-hot streak:
[I learned] What the overhead costs are, what the costs are every venue we go into, what the cost of the venue is, what the state tax is, what the allocation for all the wrestlers is going to be, that percentage of what the gate is that particular night. I didn’t take three months. I mean, maybe it was just two weeks, and it was baptism by fire, and I learned to absorb as much as I could about the business.
I went back to Vince, and I thanked him. I gave him a big hug. I said I understand now. I’d like to match it at a million dollars, what Steve is getting. Thank you for taking me through it, and we had a great conversation. And he said, How much do you think you’re going to make this year? I said, ‘Well, if my guarantee is a million. I’ve been going averaging about 50% over my guarantee, so maybe $1.5 [million]?’
He went, ‘Okay, now that you’ve taken yourself through that, now you understand the business, you’re gonna make $15 million this year. He already did the math. He could see where it goes. Wow, I’ll make 15 million! It was crazy, but by the time we hit about 1999 2000 wrestling had a boom period.
Those numbers have been dwarfed by what The Rock now makes since negotiating a deal to join TKO’s Board of Directors as he also got back in the ring for the first time in over a decade at WrestleMania 40.