I posted
the WCW numbers from 1996-2000 back in 2019. Since then, Wrestlers are paid much better. My guess would be Cena, Undertaker, Michaels, Kane, and Randy Orton would be in the top 10.
The list is interesting but doesn't show the real numbers. WCW financials were a total mess reportedly.
The best example here is Hulk Hogan. Who believes that he only made 477,113 dollars in 1997?
In May he signed the ludicrious Contract that gave him: 15% of the total PPV revenue for every PPV he appeared on, with a guaranteed minimum of 675,000 dollars. He also got 250,000 bonus for Bash at the Beach 1998 doing a 1.5 buyrate. So just the 5 PPVs he appeared on in 1998 after signing the contract, plus the buyrate bonus netted him 3,625,000 dollars. He was on 3 PPVs before, no way he made less than 1 million from those as well.
He got 25% of all ticket revenue for every Nitro, Thunder and House Show he appeared on. He was pretty much on every Nitro and a few Thunders.
The list says he made 40,147 dollars from Merchandise. His contract gave him 50% of every piece of Hogan branded merchandise being sold. 20,000 dollars for every month he's a member of the nWo (and that's a minimum, otherwise he got 25% of all non-talent specific, generic nWo merchandise being sold) and he got 100% of the revenue from WCW's hotline if he opted to record voice lines for it (he did). No way that was just 40k in 1998.
No way he made less than 10 million in 1998 (with inflation, that would be nearly 17 million today, to put that into perspective)
There are a couple other funny things on that financial sheet, like Curt Hennig making -31$ in 2000 from Merchandise. How does that happen? Did he actually have to pay WCW?
