Rock / Austin / Hogan / Cena merchandise sales & Salary

Very interesting stuff published by Smackdown Lights on wrestlingforum.com on 11-29-2013
http://www.wrestlingforum.com/general-wwe/1040033-merchandise-sales-salary-figures-rock-austin-hogan-cena-their-peak-year.html

Merchandise sales and Salary figures of Rock/Austin/Hogan/Cena in their peak year

Austin/Hogan/Rock/Cena are the four megastars of pro wrestling,of course the latter falling into that realms or not is a matter of debate.

If you randomly ask anybody on the internet regarding merchandise sales,he will say Steve Austin sold most following Hulk Hogan and then John Cena and then The Rock.

Quote:

source welovewrestling.net

TOP SELLING VIDEO GAME (ALL FORMATS)
1) SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2008 (PS2,PSP,PS3,360,WII,DS) – 6.78 MILLION SOLD
2) SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2010 (PS2,PSP,PS3,360,WII,DS) – 4.42 MILLION SOLD
3) SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2009 (PS2,PSP,PS3,360,WII,DS) – 3.13 MILLION SOLD
4) SMACKDOWN SHUT YOUR MOUTH (PS2) – 2.83 MILLION SOLD
5) SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2006 (PS2) – 2.66 MILLION SOLD

TOP SELLING HOME VIDEO
1) VIVA LA RAZA THE EDDIE GUERRERO STORY – 276,411 COPIES SOLD
2) BECAUSE STONE COLD SAID SO – 267,786 COPIES SOLD
3) THE RISE AND FALL OF ECW – 216,052 COPIES SOLD
4) HULK HOGAN REAL AMERICAN – 202,426 COPIES SOLD
5) HULK HOGAN THE ULTIMATE ANTHOLOGY – 190,407 COPIES SOLD

TOP WWE MERCHANDISE SELLERS

1) STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN – No surprise to see The Rattlesnake at the top of the list. Any merchandise record before Austin 3:16 was smashed during the Austin era. The Austin 3:16 was the highest selling peice of Austin merchandise with sales currently at 2.3 million Units(yes it is still selling!)

2) HULK HOGAN – The power of Hulkamania remains powerful as the Hulkster sits at number two. During the early ninties, Hulk Hogan merchandise was all that mattered to wrestling fans with the Hulkamania t-shirt selling 1.9 million units

3) JOHN CENA – The Cenation is going from strenghth to strength as merchandise sales fly out for the master of thuganomics. With each version of Cena t-shirt means huge sales with Cena’s Orange Never Give Up t-shirt being the most popular

4) THE ROCK – The great one remains electrifying as merchandise sales have picked up since his return. Despite many t–shirts from the great one it is the Brahma Bull t-shirt that sold the most

5) Triple H – It is a surprise to see The Game in the top 5 because of the many stints as a heel but he pipped Rey Mysterio into the top 5. Due to The Game’s popularity his t-shirt sales far out strip the 619.
(not including DX merchandise)

This is completely fake.It fails to mention its source.You can also notice the grammatical errors.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/0322/6306216a.html

The article says that Austin sold 12 million T–Shirts and earned a salary of more than $5 million.
This premise is completely skewed.A superstar receives 20% cut-off of the his merchandise revenue,if Austin indeed sold 12 million T-Shirts in 1998 at $20 a pop,then he should have earned a salary of no less than 48 million and the total WWE merchandise revenue gross should have been at-least 240 million whereas WWE’s total revenue itself in 1998 was 56 million.
It is impossible for Austin or any other superstar to sell 12 million T-Shirts in a single year and still make such a low revenue.

I came across a discussion in a forum linked to Dave Meltzer.
http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin…c;f=9;t=056698

The discussion is regarding ‘Highest Paid Wrestlers’

Meltzer’s post

Quote:

Best years ever

Austin $13 million
Rock $10 million
Hogan $8 million (in WCW, best in WWF was $6 million)

Baba always took in most of his income as a promoter. Most I ever heard a Japanese pro wrestler earning was Ogawa at between $3.5 million and $4 million last year, but a lot of that was from fighting and merchandise. Then again, Austin, Rock & Hogan made a large percentage of their big years in merchandise as well.

He is talking about salaries of Rock,Austin and Hogan and not merchandise sales.

He also says

Quote:

Hogan got 25% of the company’s PPV gross (43% of the total gross) for every show that he appeared on. He didn’t work every PPV.

He got $25,000 for every TV taping and 25% of every house show he worked.

He also had a favorable merchandise deal.

1998 would have been the company’s best year so you could chart the buys and figure from there.

His percentages were far higher than Rock or Austin ever got, but their merchandise so far outsold his to the point it’s not even in the same solar system.

So according to Meltzer,both Rock and Austin have clearly outsold Hogan by a wide margin.

So in this video,he is talking about salaries.

http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=26119

Quote:

During their 3 year marriage she claimed that Austin earned as much as $12 million a year.

I will take the middle way and put Austin’s 1998 salary as 12.5 million.

According to Meltzer,Rock’s salary in 2000 was 10 million.

http://www.kehoe73.freeserve.co.uk/infoearnings.htm

Quote:

These are the big money earners in wrestling. In this bracket are Big Show ($1 million per year until 2009; $20,000 (£13,000) per week), Triple H, Kurt Angle, Undertaker & Steve Austin. Also in this bracket is The Rock, whose earnings were around $10 million (£6 million) in 2001.

I don’t know how accurate this is,but 2000 was Rock’s peak year with peak ratings and buyrates,if Rock’s salary in 2001 was 10 million then it would certainly be higher in 2000.

http://www.imageshack.com/i/0kb0pgp
Ebony reports that Rock earned a salary of 15 million in 2000.Still we don’t know how accurate this is so I will take a fair way and put Rock’s salary at 13 million.

Highest salary earners for a single year in my opinion.
1>The Rock-13 million(2000)
2>Steve Austin-12.5 million(1998)
3>Hulk Hogan-8 million(1997)
4>John Cena-5 million(date unknown)

Regarding merchandise revenue gross of 2000
http://www.notablebiographies.com/ne…-The-Rock.html

Quote:

In addition, The Rock became a merchandising gold mine. His image appeared on T–shirts, posters, and Halloween masks; and there were Rock action figures and video games. By the 2000s, according to Gillian Flynn of Entertainment Weekly, the WWF was bringing in $120 million in merchandise sales per year, thanks solely to Johnson.

That’s a massive number.WWE doesn’t even gross 100 million in merchandise today.

Regarding merchandise revenue gross of 1998
http://www.cpyu.org/Page.aspx?id=77000

Quote:

The WWF sold over $1 billion(100 million)in merchandise during 1998.

So I think its really a matter of debate between Rock and Austin.WWE grossed about $120 million merchandise revenue when Rock was at his peak and grossed about $100 million merchandise revenue when Austin was at peak.Austin sold more T–Shirts than Rock but Rock covers up with video games and action figures.

I think Austin slightly edges Rock in merchandise sales but the difference is negligible.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/2429…h-seller-new-1
CM Punk’s last quarter merchandise sales in 2011 were very impressive and superceded Cena’s for the entire year.So I think he is up there in top 5 behind Cena.

Top merchandise sellers in my opinion.
1>Austin
2>The Rock(The difference between Austin and Rock is negligible)
3>Hulk Hogan
4>John Cena
5>CM Punk.