[Rocky Mark]

An average of 12 million dollars a year. Man what a shame, with all that money he could've been set for life, without the need to work another day just like Austin and Rock are today even though he was making in WCW double what they were making in WWE's most successful years. If he was more mature and played his cards right he wouldn't need that silly TNA run or any of the sporadic appearances, he could've had his 2002-2003 run with WWE and bowed out after his bout with Vince at WM 19, and just spend the rest of his years living in luxury and kicking it by the beach. Instead he chose to muck all that up with lawsuits and all his ridiculous stunts. He truly is the Suge Knight of wrestling.

 

[Dark Paladin]

Re: WOW was Hulk Hogan even worth this?

Yeah And then Austin & The Rock started kicking their asses and I bet you they didn't even make near that much!!

I read an article that stated Austin made over $15m in 1999, mainly through merchandise sales.

Also, regardless of the expenses WCW made, Hogan was worth it at the time of the signing, so it wasn't completely unrealistic to see why they went to the lengths they did to sign him.

 

[5 Star Giulia ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐]

How did he go broke :drake1? Divorces doing that much damage guarantees I sign a prenup.

 

[El Verruckt Grande]

How did he go broke :drake1?

his wife hit him with the divorcenator and then pinned him for a 3 count

hogan couldnt even hulk up after that

 

[MeanDeanAmbrose]

To bad his nasty slut ex wife took a lot of that money

 

[wjd1989]

Only fools think he's broke: you just know that he has money tied up and hidden away (wasn't there a rumour that he turned assets over to Eric Bischoff in order to protect them?). He had a net worth of around $50m pre-divorce, according to Forbes. He almost certainly earned more than double that during his career from wrestling alone.

 

[dougfisher_05]

This really is a great piece of pro wrestling history, particularly dealing with backstage stuff.

It's mind boggling to see those numbers.

In contrast it is believed that Austin made between $5-$6 million per year during his 98 and 99 run, although his ex wife Debra claims its closer to $12 million. I'm not trying to turn this into a Austin vs Hogan war by the way, just trying to do an apples to apples comparison. Based off this, Hogan clearly made a shit pile of money for four years.

 

[Ratedr4life]

Let's do the math:

- 2 Million signing bonus
- 25% of all ticket revenue - Let's say Hogan worked every Nitro in a year, 52 X 10,000 fans on a given night at let's say $50.00 per ticket, that's $6.5M minimum
- $20,000 per month - easy $240,000
- 15% of PPV sales - Let's say an average buy of 250,000 and that's a lowball number for the late 90's, PPV's at the time were around $40, so that's $18M minimum
- 50% of all merchandise relating to him - Let's say they made $10M a year in NWO/Hogan related merchandise, that's $5M in his pocket minimum

Let's add it up - $6.5M + $240,000 + $18M + $5M = $29,740,000 per year (on the low end) plus a $2M signing bonus

Those were the days brother

:hogan

 

[The5150]

Let's do the math:

- 2 Million signing bonus
- 25% of all ticket revenue - Let's say Hogan worked every Nitro in a year, 52 X 10,000 fans on a given night at let's say $50.00 per ticket, that's $6.5M minimum
- $20,000 per month - easy $240,000
- 15% of PPV sales - Let's say an average buy of 250,000 and that's a lowball number for the late 90's, PPV's at the time were around $40, so that's $18M minimum
- 50% of all merchandise relating to him - Let's say they made $10M a year in NWO/Hogan related merchandise, that's $5M in his pocket minimum

Let's add it up - $6.5M + $240,000 + $18M + $5M = $29,740,000 per year (on the low end) plus a $2M signing bonus

Those were the days brother

:hogan

Alrighty I'm off. Time to find a Wrestling School.

 

[Frost99]

FUCK

I'm not even mad, just sad, sad that MOST stars in today's industry may look at those numbers and think I came into the biz a little late. I'm sure Vince would sell his left nut for HALF of some of those %'s if biz was booming like it was then, booming and MAINSTREAM......

#ThemGLORYDAYS

 

[MKCS]

I guarantee you Lesnar doesn't get close to what Hulk did when he first signed with WCW.

Details about Hulk's original contact with WCW have emerged over the years. One of which was that he was pocketing $250k each week with them, basic?- before bonuses.

Ain't nobody bests that.

To be fair Lesnar is working a lot less of a schedule and still allegedly makes 1 million USD a year. This year he's worked 7 matches whilst last year he just worked 4.

I don't really follow the WWE but would it be safe to say Lesnar makes about 25-30 appearances a year strictly on PPV/TV?

Compare it to Hogan who in 1998 wrestled 40 matches and regularly appeared on Nitro and even occasionally appeared on Thunder. He also made 5 House Show appearances during 1998.

250,000 a week in base pay is incorrect. A recent Eric Bischoff shoot had Eric admit that Hogan's original deal in 1994 was about 2 million a year not including bonuses. To suggest that 4 years later he was making an extra 10 million dollars is crazy.

 

[KO Bossy]

And somehow, Hogan is always in financial peril these days...

 

[The Ultimate Warrior]

Somebody stupid offers you $XXX a year with applicable bonuses would you refuse? No you wouldn't. Not all Hogan's fault

 

[wjd1989]

250,000 a week in base pay is incorrect. A recent Eric Bischoff shoot had Eric admit that Hogan's original deal in 1994 was about 2 million a year not including bonuses. To suggest that 4 years later he was making an extra 10 million dollars is crazy.

You think Hulk Hogan in 1994, signing what was the biggest contract in the history of sports entertainment, was only getting $40k per week - the same as what TNA paid him in 2009 through 2011? He was making more than double that with the WWE in the 80s.

The WCW deal involves Hogan appearing on three Clashes and four pay-per-views at a reported $300,000 for each of the seven shows. Hogan will also receive 25 percent of any pay-per-view revenue increase based on the current average revenues. He will also wrestle on one tour of Europe and perhaps a half dozen U.S. house shows and television tapings. The details of merchandising, which sources say were the sticking points in negotiations, originally gave Hogan 65 percent of merchandising income. That percentage may have changed since WCW, after the arenas' 30 percent cut (assuming it is sold at arenas, not through mail order) and cost of merchandising and royalties, would have lost money if that percentage were agreed to.

The bottom line minimum Hogan will earn is apparently $2.1 million in guarantees. If the average buyrates double to a 1.0 percent buyrate (regarded as an extremely generous figure), Hogan's cut would be $300,000 per show, or $1.2 million for all four shows. Merchandising is the X-factor in the deal which could significantly increase (or not increase much at all) Hogan's eventual take from his six months with WCW.

Hogan, the biggest wrestling star of the '80s and arguably of all time, left the WWF in June of last year on what appeared to be relatively good terms. Hogan, at the time, had other irons in the fire, including a movie to publicize and a television pilot to concentrate on. Hogan's last run in the WWF was considered a flop within the industry. His return to the WWF had little impact on arena event business between winning the WWF Title at Wrestlemania IX and losing the title at King of the Ring less than three months later. Also, the buyrate at King of the Ring was below that of SummerSlam two months later, an event where Lex Luger replaced Hogan on top.

I think this is the number you're quoting - $2.1m from 7 shows minimum was his guaranteed pay in his first 6 months.

 

[Kowalski's Killer]

To be fair Lesnar is working a lot less of a schedule and still allegedly makes 1 million USD a year. This year he's worked 7 matches whilst last year he just worked 4.

I don't really follow the WWE but would it be safe to say Lesnar makes about 25-30 appearances a year strictly on PPV/TV?

Compare it to Hogan who in 1998 wrestled 40 matches and regularly appeared on Nitro and even occasionally appeared on Thunder. He also made 5 House Show appearances during 1998.

250,000 a week in base pay is incorrect. A recent Eric Bischoff shoot had Eric admit that Hogan's original deal in 1994 was about 2 million a year not including bonuses. To suggest that 4 years later he was making an extra 10 million dollars is crazy.

This is exactly what I was thinking. You can't compare Lesnar's part-time deal that brings about a slight uptick in ratings when he shows up while everyone else carries the load to Hogan's deal.
Hogan was there every week, brought them much more publicity than the company had ever seen, was their number one merchandise seller both as a face and a heel and brought about a huge ratings boom.
Lesnar makes more than Hogan did per appearance with far less results.

 

[MKCS]

I don't know how it all worked out, Bischoff just mentioned it in passing but I'd say the above quote is probably 100% true.

I'm just suggesting that 12 million in base pay and probably millions more in bonuses is unrealistic especially in 1998 when some of the biggest athletes in the world struggled to get that kind of money.

 

[jim courier]

Wasn't he worth over a $100 million at one point? I'd be sitting at home crying everyday if I blew away that kind of money.

 

[Heath V]

Hulk Hogan WCW contract has been leaked just makes him seem like a bigger asshole than before sorry if this has been posted already
Hogan was paid a $2 million bonus simply for signing the contract.
Hogan was given 25 percent of the ticket revenue made during any Nitro or Thunder event that he participated in, with his minimum cut being $25,000.
Hogan was paid $20,000 (every month!) for being associated with nWo.
Hogan was handed 15 percent of PPV sales for all PPV events that he took part in, with $675,000 being the minimum amount he would collect.
Hogan was set up to receive 50 percent of the profits that WCW made for selling any merchandise directly related to him.

http://www.complex.com/sports/2015/10/hulk-hogan-1998-wcw-contract

http://www.scribd.com/doc/287131780/1998-Hulk-Hogan-contract-with-WCW

And that makes him an asshole how??

Who in their right mind would turn that money down? On top of that he fully deserved it too!

 

[Truthbetold]

Wasn't he worth over a $100 million at one point? I'd be sitting at home crying everyday if I blew away that kind of money.

His homes in Clearwater FL and Miami were amazing.

 

[CD Player]

I read Hogan received at least $300,000 per pay per view he wrestled at in addition to his gate and pay per view sales percentage.