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one of the things that i've always found the most interesting in professional wrestling is their treatment of money in-universe.

in the real world, professional wrestlers are, legally, independent contractors. basically, they provide the service of wrestling for a company for a fixed amount of time at a fixed salary, and their contract may or may not include side benefits (most commonly merchandising revenue, also may include hotel rooms, flights, whatever). there's also extra cash, like the pay-per-view paycheck (bonus cash for performing on a special PPV show, either in a specific match or as part of a battle royal or whatever).

when a wrestler is suspended, like for drug violations or whatever, they do not get paid for the extent of this suspension. for example, rey mysterio has been suspended recently for violating the wwe's "wellness policy" (durgz). (according to him, it's not his fault and the stuff he was on was completely legal. this is what he looks like.) this means that he's missing two ppv paychecks (given the reasonable assumption he'd appear on them) and a bunch of house show cash, plus the money he'd normally get. however, he will continue to get his merchandising revenue, which is a big goddamn deal for him, because he is huge with the kiddies and his merch sells like a motherfucker.

in the wwe at least, there's also generally a no-compete clause tacked onto every contract - if it gets terminated, that wrestler cannot be contracted to wrestle by any other company for, say, 90 days. this isn't much by way of relevance, it's just a sidenote.

click here for an example list of salaries and benefits.

now, in-universe, money is played completely differently.

two facts are generally accepted to be true:

1. there is a "winner's purse"; that is, if you win matches you get paid bonuses. this is why, for example, heels (bad guys) who are portrayed as being cowards and willing to avoid any sort of physical confrontation with their enemy will still go all-out to win exhibition matches - it's not just pride, it's the cash.
2. wrestlers are on contracts that are negotiated between [x] official in the wwe, and wrestler/their agent.

even given this, it's all up in the air.

for example.

montel vontavious porter - MVP - was introduced in the wwe as a really high-demand 'free agent'. he didn't wrestle on any show, but he showed up with a bodyguard in fly suits with sweet honeys, etc, talking to teddy long (manager of the show) or to his agent on the phone about a killer contract. eventually, after a bit of buildup, he was signed to "the largest contract in smackdown history". it was never explained why he was worth this much money, it just played into his character as this overpaid arrogant punk who was all flash. think terrell owens circa 2004, for those of you who follow nfl.

now, last year, he went on a losing streak that lasted for over five months. this meant that he lost his "contract incentive bonus", among other things - the furniture from his personal in-ring 'talk show' got repo'd, his inflatable tunnel that was part of his entrance got nix'd, dadeda. it also had the side-effect of turning him into a sympathetic character due to the way it was played, but that's neither here nor there. the point is that he was this overpaid punk who got a huge contract while being unproven, then he proved his mettle and became (storyline and irl, too) one of the best young talents on the show, then he went on this losing streak and money became an issue again.

for the record, right now he's just mvp. he wrestles, he gets paid, it's never really mentioned on-screen.

in the same vein, kevin nash (i'm sure some of you will remember him, he's 50 years old and he's been wrestling for 20 of them) has recently come into this thing in tna (rival company) where he is, as they say, "all about the benjamins". wrestling, for him, is all about the cash. titles are good as long as they make him extra money, he'll take matches if they pay right, etc. for example, a few weeks ago - i don't even remember what type of match it was - he negotiated with the manager, basically saying "if you pay me an extra $100,000 to wrestle this match, i'll do it".

NOW.

you may or may not remember "the million dollar man" ted dibiase. why was he the million dollar man? because he was rich before he started wrestling. did wrestling make him any richer? no. did it make him any poorer? no. did wrestling in fact have any effect on his finances? no.

and this is where it stands for most wrestlers. besides the occasional mention of the winner's purse during a match, unless money is directly related to their gimmick, it just doesn't come up. and in a lot of cases, this is for one very simple reason:

it wouldn't make any fucking sense.

the undertaker cannot die. he is a supernatural being with powers over lightning and rain, who brainwashes people to do his bidding, who is a legendary phenom. and what does he do? he wrestles, in matches, like everyone else.

kane is an unholy monster. he has power over fire, is supernaturally strong, likes torturing people with electrical clamps, and is the undertaker's half-brother. what does he do? he wrestles, in matches, like everyone else.

hornswoggle was a leprechaun, then vince mcmahon's bastard son, then finlay's son, and is now... well, presumably still finlay's son, but mainly just an irish midget. what does he do? he wrestles, in matches, like everyone else.

the hurricane, a superhero. isaac yankem, a dentist. irwin r. schyster, a former tax-collector. kizarny, a carny. what do they do? they wrestle, in matches, like everyone else.

this is fine, because it's a wrestling show. what else are they going to do? it just makes sense.

but the idea of them being paid to do it simply doesn't fit with their character. they're wrestling because it's simply what they do - they're a wrestling dentist or tax-collector or talk-show host. so in their matches, with their characters, money never comes up. it can't. they're not professional wrestlers, they're whatever they are who just happen to wrestle, so the concept of them being on a paid contract to wrestle doesn't work. (for the other ones who don't really have any "gimmick", who are just arrogant wrestler #4 or high-flying enthusiastic guy #2, this isn't as much of an issue.)

so you have, within the fictional universe of wrestling (kayfabe), this disparity between wrestlers who wrestle as a job and wrestlers who are there because... well, that's where they are. and then, on top of that, you have the back end of wrestling: the real money management, which has absolutely nothing to do with their on-screen character or titles or anything and is based on (largely) the same factors as sportsmen/stuntmen in real life, like popularity and skill and longevity and whatever.

and then, on top of this, you have 'retired' wrestlers - wrestlers who don't have a job on-screen, but still have jobs backstage. and sometimes these will get recognised, and sometimes they won't, and basically:

since the wrestling universe is completely fake, and tries to blend the real and the fantastic, which itself includes imagining a sort of fake 'real' backstage (a worked shoot) - professional wrestling just makes no fucking sense and when you watch wrestling, make sure to bring a healthy suspension of disbelief along with you, along with a preternatural tolerance for utter crap

that is all