How much will WWE wrestlers make for fighting at WrestleMania 40?

WrestleMania 40 is upon us, with the biggest wrestling show of the year scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia.

The event has been built around the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who is set to compete in a WWE ring for the first time since 2013 – with the exception of a record-breaking, rapid win at WrestleMania in 2016.

• LIVE! Follow all the action from WrestleMania 40

Speaking of ‘record breaking’, WrestleMania 40 is expected to be the biggest-ever edition of the historic event, with WWE and its parent company Endeavor expecting to see significant financial success.

But what about the wrestlers themselves?

The specifics of WWE contracts have long been hard to ascertain, but WWE star-turned-executive Triple H (real name Pail Levesque) told The Athletic in 2022 that a WWE wrestler’s minimum base salary is $250,000.

That figure might have risen since, of course, and it reportedly only applied to members of the Smackdown Live and Raw rosters – not wrestlers on NXT, which is WWE’s developmental show.

However, wrestlers’ wages are boosted by merchandise sales and, it is believed, by cuts of pay-per-view sales as well. Of course, merchandise sales are likely to be significant on a WrestleMania week and weekend, as well as pay-per-view sales, so Saturday (6 April) and Sunday (7 April) could be the most lucrative days of the year for most WWE wrestlers.

In August, The Mirror reported some of the highest WWE wages as these: Roman Reigns $5m per year; Randy Orton $5m per year; Seth Rollins $3.5m per year; Cody Rhodes $3m per year; Logan Paul $2m per year. These figures reportedly don’t include bonuses.

Full WrestleMania 40 card

Night one

The Bloodline (The Rock and Roman Reigns) vs Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins

Rhea Ripley (C) vs Becky Lynch - WWE Women’s World Championship

Gunther (C) vs Sami Zayn - WWE Intercontinental Championship

Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso

The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and Damian Priest) (C) vs #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) vs The Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) vs A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller) vs New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate) – Undisputed WWE Tag-Team Championship ladder match

Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill and Naomi vs Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai, Asuka, and Kairi Sane) - Six-woman tag-team match

Latino World Order (Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee) vs Santos Escobar and “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio - Tag-team match

Night two

Roman Reigns (C) vs Cody Rhodes - WWE Undisputed Universal Championship

Seth Rollins (C) vs Drew McIntyre - WWE World Heavyweight Championship [CM Punk on guest commentary]

Iyo Sky (C) vs Bayley - WWE Women’s Championship

Logan Paul (C) vs Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens - United States Championship

LA Knight vs AJ Styles

The Pride (Bobby Lashley, Angelo Dawkins, and Montez Ford) vs The Final Testament (Karrion Kross, Akam, and Rezar) - Six-man Philadelphia Street Fight