Tag: WWE revenue

WWE paid talent 15% of total 2022 revenue, once projected to stay at that level through 2028

Posted on by Josh Nason

New revelations from the ongoing WWE shareholder lawsuit have revealed that WWE paid talent 15% of total revenue in 2022 and once projected to be around that number through 2028.

The details come from Brandon Thurston for Post Wrestling via FOIA requests.

From a slide deck that was released as part of the discovery portion of the case, WWE spent $195 million of their overall $1.29 billion in reported revenue on talent throughout WWE and NXT in 2022, working out to be around 15%.

The documents are exhibits for the ongoing lawsuit in which shareholders are disputing the process in which WWE was merged with UFC by Endeavor to create TKO, saying it was unfairly steered toward Endeavor despite other bids.

As noted in the Thurston piece, average main roster talent pay has grown with WWE’s increase in revenues but the percentage was projected to remain the same.

In forward-looking documentation as part of the slides, the expectation was to keep the talent pay rate around 15% of WWE revenues and “another slide specifically named 15% of company revenue as the projected rate of talent compensation through 2028.”

That number is near what was revealed for UFC fighters, also independent contractors, in their recent antitrust lawsuit that puts total fighter pay anywhere from 16-20% of annual revenue. Both WWE and UFC are part of TKO which has only continued to increase in value since their merger several years ago.

In WWE’s case, talent still must cover some of their travel expenses and are also classified as independent contractors even though that term has been frequently questioned considering their contractual limitations.

Other interesting notes:

  • While specific wrestler pay was not included, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Logan Paul, Cody Rhodes, and Braun Strowman were among those who received contract renewals that totaled $15 million, Brock Lesnar’s contract renewal was $4 million, and Bianca Belair, the Street Profits, Gable Steveson, Rhea Ripley, Asuka, and Baron Corbin were among those “who received an annual contract step-up that totaled $2 million.” Steveson, who just signed with UFC, never wrestled on the main roster and is now out of WWE while Strowman and Corbin are also no longer in WWE.
  • A projection for their celebrity category that is separate from main roster/developmental decreased from $6 million in 2022 to $3 million in 2023 as Paul’s deal was moved into the main roster category.
  • Main roster talent costs were projected to increase to $195 million in 2023 for 130 people while developmental was projected at $16 million in 2023 (130 NXT people and 20 NXT UK people).

WWE surpasses UFC in final 2025 total revenue tallies, full breakdown

Posted on by Josh Nason

WWE generated $1.7 billion in total revenue for 2025, slightly more than UFC’s $1.5 billion in another big year for their parent company, TKO.

The figures come from TKO’s quarterly financial report released Wednesday which detailed the full year for all TKO-owned brands in addition to the final quarter of 2025.

WWE’s $1.709.4 billion for the year was up from the prior year’s $1.398 billion while UFC’s $1.502.2 billion was up from the previous year’s $1.406.2 billion.

Despite the success, total TKO revenue for 2025 finished at $4.735.2 billion, down from the previous year’s $4.884.2 billion due to IMG’s revenues dipping to $1.367 billion from the prior year’s $1.970.2 billion.

For the fourth quarter, WWE’s revenues were up to $359.6 million, up fro the previous year’s $298.3 million, driven by Netflix and ESPN media rights revenues.

WWE’s adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) for 2025 was $896.5 million, up from the previous year’s $681.1 million. TKO’s overall EBITDA, a key measure in profitability, was up by over $500 billion.

WWE 2025 revenue breakdown

Media rights, production & content

This was by far WWE’s biggest revenue generator for the year at $1.006 billion, up from the previous year’s $865.5 million. The year saw WWE’s Netflix contract begin in addition to their new deal with ESPN that began in September, more than six months than it was originally supposed to.

Live events & hospitality

WWE generated $412.8 million in 2025, up from 2024’s $338.5 million, primarily driven by ticket revenue and site fees.

Partnerships & marketing

This section brought in $159.6 million, up from $83 million the year prior, buoyed by new partnerships and renewals from previous deals but with an increase in price.

Consumer products licensing & other

This was up to $136.4 million from the prior year’s $111.1 million.

TKO announces WWE & UFC Q2 financials, insight on new ESPN deal & future opportunities

Posted on by Josh Nason

Wednesday marked a big day for TKO which started with the news of WWE’s premium live events moving to ESPN in 2026 and wrapped up with their Q2 financial call.

As a whole, TKO revenue finished at $1.308 billion — an year-over-year increase of 10% ($115.2 million). WWE’s revenue increased by $99.4 million to $556.2 million YOY while UFC increased to $415.9 million YOY off an increase of $21.5 million. TKO-owned IMG decreased by $13 million to $306.6 million YOY.

As expected, it was all positive regarding the aforementioned ESPN deal with the added potential value of shedding the contracted 250 hours of original programming in addition to five original documentaries and archive library they have to provide under the NBCU/Peacock deal. TKO chief operating officer Mark Shapiro and CFO Andrew Schleimer pointed to that fact in addition to their ability to sell rights to the NXT PLEs (six per year) in addition to their archive content.

In an interesting move, Shapiro and Schleimer clarified that the full total of the Peacock PLE deal was $900 million of total rights fees ($180 million AAV) and not the $1+ billion reported at the time of the deal nearly five years ago. That makes the increase look even better and potentially better if they can sell the rights to the aforementioned other content streams.

It was in this thread that Shapiro said “What made us feel ok walking away from Netflix…” before quickly saying he wasn’t suggesting they made an offer at any level.

That $900 million was first reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier in the day. Even though the initial Peacock deal was done prior to TKO ownership, the reason it was never corrected publicly was not addressed.

WWE Q2 Year over Year Revenue Breakdown

Item2025 Q22024 Q2YOY increase/decrease
WWE media rights, production and content$278.9 million$260.7 million$18.2 million+
Live events and hospitality$185.7 million$144.1 million$41.6 million+
Partnerships and marketing$58.3 million$24.7 million$33.6 million+
Consumer products licensing and other$33.3 million$27.3 million$6 million+
Totals$556.2 million$456.8 million$99.4 million+

Both WrestleMania 41 and Night of Champions from Saudi Arabia took place in Q2 which buoyed the increases like in Partnerships & Marketing and Live Events which was attributed to “higher ticket sales revenue as well as an increase in site fees, primarily due to revenue recorded related to both domestic and international premium live events.” Media rights were attributed to escalating fees and SmackDown’s expansion to three hours.

Notable Quotes:

  • Shapiro said one of the reasons ESPN was attractive for their reach, their b-to-c strategy, and overall approach. They were reticent in wanting to put all their content eggs into one basket, and they could have got a slightly higher rights fees by going with another partner.
  • He reiterated the idea of some PLEs being simulcast on ESPN’s linear networks, but noted it could be just the first hour or two. This would appear to be the WWE equivalent of the prelims for UFC shows that air on ESPN’s networks.
  • Shapiro: “We are living in the big event era.” He said that was a reason the WWE PLEs package was so attractive to prospective buyers.
  • He said ESPN liked how both WWE and UFC can attract new subs, “cord nevers” and cord cutters.
  • Shapiro said WrestleMania needs to be a Super Bowl-esque event for ESPN.
  • Shapiro put over the WWE relationship with Netflix and that “It’s clear we are a top tier product for the Netflix platform.”
  • The idea of WWE fans “traveling” to different services was driven home by WWE president Nick Khan who claimed 96% of their audience for WWE Raw moved to Syfy when it was pre-empted from USA due to the Winter Olympics on less than two weeks notice. He also said the peak of 1.1 million of WWE Network subscribers went to Peacock when that move happened and Peacock’s base “grew massively” thanks to those coming for WWE content.
  • They are in the “home stretch” of closing the new UFC media rights deal, a mix of balancing monetization and reach.

Other Notes:

  • It was noted that six of the last eight UFC events were supported by site fees.
  • They have broken their own record for highest grossing WWE arena event three times in the last year with Money in the Bank being the most recent.
  • For the quarter, they hit 36 individual records for ticket sales (assumed to be combined between WWE and UFC) and sold out 16 shows.
  • They continue to be bullish about WWE on Netflix, touting that Raw has appeared every week on the global Top Ten in addition to the success of WWE Unreal.
  • Vince McMahon’s NDA payments continue to be a factor in the reports under TKO’s Certain Legal Costs section.
  • Looking at the third quarter, UFC will hold ten events which includes two PPVs — their fewest in any quarter of the year (three in Q3 of last year) Eight events are expected to be held in front of fans, up from six in the same quarter last year. They also noted last year featured the UFC debut at the Sphere and a title sponsor.
  • While SummerSlam will benefit WWE’s numbers in the third quarter, they will take a hit due to SmackDown reverting to two hours.

TKO releases full 2024 WWE & UFC financials, Raw on Netflix ratings discussed

Posted on by Josh Nason

To no big surprise, TKO had a hugely successful 2024 thanks to its main WWE and UFC cogs, announced Wednesday and expounded upon during their quarterly investors call.

TKO saw an annual revenue of just over $2.8 billion with a net income of $6.4 million buoyed by a fourth quarter that saw revenues of $642.2 million and net income of $47.5 million.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization) was $1.251 billion for 2024 with the fourth quarter finishing $238.1 million. EBITA is a metric that investors use to measure profitability.

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Breaking the two brands out, WWE saw yearly revenues of $1.398 billion while UFC had $1.406 billion. For the fourth quarter, WWE had $298.3 million in revenue (down nearly $33 million year-over-year) while UFC beat them out at $343.9 million (up by nearly $61 million).

WWE took a hit in the fourth quarter with a revenue decrease of $32.9 million, offsetting a $61.1 million increase on the UFC side. The reason for the WWE drop was the media rights dip as the company had no home for Raw in-between USA and Netflix, taking a smaller money deal from NBCUniversal to remain on USA through the end of 2024.

WWE media rights and revenue finished at $865.5 million for the year, live events finished at $338.5 million, sponsorship was $83 million with consumer products finishing at $111.1 million.

Comparing Q4 from 2023 to 2024, media rights took the biggest hit at $156.3 million, down from 2023’s $212.2 million due to the aforementioned deal they had to take from NBCUniversal. Live events (up by roughly $11 million), sponsorship (up by more than $7 million) and consumer products (up by nearly $5 million) did not experience drops.

TKO’s low net income (down from $175.7 million in 2023) was attributed to several factors including an increase in operating expenses to $679.6 million which “reflected the inclusion of twelve months of WWE activity in reported results in 2024 as well as settlement charges of $375.0 million related to the UFC antitrust lawsuit.” This is the first full year report TKO has had after officially forming in September 2023.

Q&A

  • Of specific note on the WWE side of the fence, TKO executive Mark Shapiro said on the Q&A portion of the call that the WWE/Peacock deal is up in March 2026.
  • He also said Raw is up 13% in viewership on Netflix from USA last year and that The CW is “seeing a great uplift from NXT.”
  • WWE president Nick Khan said that “all we’ve seen from Netflix is an appetite for more WWE” and that more ancillary programming “is cooking in the pipeline.”
  • Asked about the UFC TV rights deal, Shapiro said they are still talking with ESPN and are in the exclusive negotiating window with them.
  • TKO chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer said they expect Saudi Arabia to host three WWE PLEs in 2026 and one in 2025