Hulk Hogan's '98 WCW Contract

[Jack-Hammer]

Over the past 20+ years, Hulk Hogan's contract with WCW including tidbits on how much he was making, creative control, etc. has pretty much become the stuff of legend. However, the following link claims to be a copy of Hogan's 1998 WCW contract. http://www.scribd.com/doc/287131780/1998-Hulk-Hogan-contract-with-WCW

Now there's a good amount of info to go over but some of the highlights of this alleged contract include:

Receiving a signing bonus in the amount of $2,000,000.

A $20,000 promotional fee while he was part of the nWo for wearing nWo merchandise during photo and television shoots.

Receiving 25% of gross ticket sales when he wrestled on Nitro, Thunder or any other WCW programming with a minimum guarantee of $25,000.

Receiving 15% of all ppvs sales in which he was on with a minimum guarantee of $675,000 and it was contractually stipulated that he was to be the featured wrestler for these events.

WCW was to pay Hogan $1,350,000 on July 1st, November 1st and February 1st on the first three years of the deal as an advance of the PPV guarantee. Hogan also received bonuses if the ppv buyrates increased.

Receiving first class air travel, first class suite hotel accommodations, limousine transportation and $175 per diem when traveling for WCW.

Hogan had "approval over the outcome of all wrestling matches in which he appears, wrestles and performs. Approval not to be unreasonably withheld."

So yeah, if this is legit, then it's pretty much the wrestling deal to end all deals. Ted Turner had, for all practical purposes, unlimited financial resources and Hogan got as much as he possibly could. It might sound greedy as all get out, but I wonder how many other wrestlers who've bitched at Hogan over the years would've crawled over broken glass for that sort of deal.

 

[Loganity]

Hulk Hogan has been called a lot of things and maybe he deserved everyone of them(good & bad.)

But really this reminds me of what a lot of us already knew, he's one hell of a businessman. sure this deal reeks of the politics and selfishness that every Hogan critic has talked about for the last 20 years but I won't fault the guy for making a great living. While I think Hogan's good far out weighs his bad, there's no denying he's one hell of a politician and whether any of us like it or not that's good quality to have if you're Hulk Hogan.

 

[UFOcalling]

That's nuts. This reminds me of when I happened to be watching an old WWE show (could've been a ppv, or an episode of Raw), it must've been from late '97 or early '98 when I heard JR plugging the old WWF "hotline". He said that one of the "hot topics" on the hotline that evening included details on the "possibility" of Hogan's involvement in the 1998 Royal Rumble. I remember thinking "what the hell?"...then I googled something to the effect of "hulk hogan 1998 royal rumble" (I believe), and found out that it was all a negotiating tactic on the part of Hogan. Perhaps it was merely hotline fodder, since Hogan's contract was coming up. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Hogan had indeed been in contact with Vince around that time. Smart man, I'm sure the threat of jumping to the WWF was one of the things Hogan & his lawyers used as leverage against Turner and/or Bischoff. I'm sure the old hotlines made a few extra bucks because of that news as well (both WWF's & WCW's).

Again, I'm going off of my memory. It may have been a different year I'm remembering, but I'm almost positive it was 1998. It would have made some major waves in the WWF in '98 if Hogan had showed up at The Rumble. Can you imagine? I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone, but that was also the year Austin won the Rumble, and went on to Wrestlemania to beat Michaels for his first WWF title reign (with Tyson as the special enforcer). I wonder how that would have effected the WWF's creative plans for that year... I suppose that's a topic for another thread, I just thought I'd share my memory on the hotline tidbit.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

That's nuts. This reminds me of when I happened to be watching an old WWE show (could've been a ppv, or an episode of Raw), it must've been from late '97 or early '98 when I heard JR plugging the old WWF "hotline". He said that one of the "hot topics" on the hotline that evening included details on the "possibility" of Hogan's involvement in the 1998 Royal Rumble. I remember thinking "what the hell?"...then I googled something to the effect of "hulk hogan 1998 royal rumble" (I believe), and found out that it was all a negotiating tactic on the part of Hogan. Perhaps it was merely hotline fodder, since Hogan's contract was coming up. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Hogan had indeed been in contact with Vince around that time. Smart man, I'm sure the threat of jumping to the WWF was one of the things Hogan & his lawyers used as leverage against Turner and/or Bischoff. I'm sure the old hotlines made a few extra bucks because of that news as well (both WWF's & WCW's).

The worry WCW would have had for a potential Hogan return to the WWF for the Royal Rumble would almost certainly have led to a pay rise for The Hulkster. Something similar happened when WWE started promoting the return of "Razor Ramon" and "Diesel" on their shows after Hall and Nash had jumped to WCW.

I recently watched the "nWo" edition of Legends of Wrestling on the Network with Kevin Nash, and he talks about his pager blowing up with calls from WCW after it was announced that Razor and Diesel would be returning to WWE. Even though Nash and Hall hadn't been in contact with WWE, they used the panic of the WCW office to get another several hundred thousand dollars added to their contracts.

I'm pretty sure Hulk Hogan will have done the same, whether he did speak with Vince McMahon or not, just sowing the seed of doubt in the minds of the WCW head office will have got him a pay rise, the smart bastard.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

I just can't see how this 'contract' is real. Some of it is believable - the huge signing-on fee, creative control (we already knew about that), the 'featured performer' bit, the first class travel.

It's the ppv and house cuts that don't ring true. Perhaps a full stop has been missed and it is supposed to be 2.5% of the house and 1.5% of ppv sale? WCW had such a bloated, big name roster that to give one man a quarter of all house takings is highly unlikely, and nearly a sixth of ppv revenue is downright wrong - Nash, Hall, Flair, Bret and maybe even Stimg must have had similar clauses to Hogan, but even if they only had, say, 10% of the house each or 5% of ppv revenue (and this is just speculation), that's still up to 75% of the house and 40% of ppv revenue gone on just a handful of wrestlers. Then you have to take into account the venue's cut of ticket sales: I work in the entertainment industry in the UK, and I imagine the contracts are similar in the States. For events like wrestling, I imagine a direct split (say 75/25 of all ticket sales) favouring the touring company is the most likely. So what this 'contract' is suggesting effectively is that WCW made no money at all from ticket sales, minimal money from ppv revenue, and again minimal from merchandising as we already know that the talent gets a cut from merchandise.

Therefore, based on this, the suggestion is that WCW lost a shed-load of money between 1998 and 2000, then probably actually started making money after mid-2000: no Hogan, Savage or Hall, Bret out injured so not collecting his 'house' rights, and a generally younger (ergo: cheaper) roster.

I think people sometimes forget that 'Billionaire' Ted Turner was a businessman - there's a reason he became as rich as he did. It is very unlikely that he would run WCW at such a substantial loss when the benefits were negligible, given that wrestling has, for some reason, always had a stigma in the mainstream. Fact is, had WCW been running at such a heavy loss where literally every aspect except possibly ad revenue was running at a deficit, Turner would have either been forced out of office, or forced to shut WCW, a long time before Vince purchased the company

 

[UFOcalling]

The worry WCW would have had for a potential Hogan return to the WWF for the Royal Rumble would almost certainly have led to a pay rise for The Hulkster. Something similar happened when WWE started promoting the return of "Razor Ramon" and "Diesel" on their shows after Hall and Nash had jumped to WCW.

I recently watched the "nWo" edition of Legends of Wrestling on the Network with Kevin Nash, and he talks about his pager blowing up with calls from WCW after it was announced that Razor and Diesel would be returning to WWE. Even though Nash and Hall hadn't been in contact with WWE, they used the panic of the WCW office to get another several hundred thousand dollars added to their contracts.

I'm pretty sure Hulk Hogan will have done the same, whether he did speak with Vince McMahon or not, just sowing the seed of doubt in the minds of the WCW head office will have got him a pay rise, the smart bastard.

Oh yeah! I had forgotten all about the fake Diesel & Razor. I saw Nash talking about that too, I think on one of the Monday Night War episodes from the Network. Nash was so hilarious, saying the WCW higher-ups (he didn't name anyone specific, if memory serves) were yelling in their faces: "JUST ADMIT IT!!", to which Nash replied, "Admit what? We're not doing anything".

The way Nash put it, they didn't even ask for more money. He said they just plopped new contracts (for more money) down in front of The Outsiders, and said "Is this what you want?". Nash said their reply was "Absolutely!". Nash's recount of what happened when the so-called "WCW higher-ups" actually saw "fake" Diesel & Razor's debut on Raw was classic, too.

If Nash's story has even a shred of legitimacy, then Hogan getting a contract like this seems real as well. The Hulkster may not have had to do much negotiating, either - just like Nash said, they could have just plopped a new contract down in front of Hulk to keep him from going to the WWF. "Is this what you want, brother?", lol. In retrospect, this contract being authentic or bogus is irrelevant. I doubt Vince would have given Hulk a better deal than what he got from Turner in 1998. Besides, I bet most of that money eventually ended up in Linda's bank account! Lol.

 

[FlairFan2003]

I just can't see how this 'contract' is real. Some of it is believable - the huge signing-on fee, creative control (we already knew about that), the 'featured performer' bit, the first class travel.

It's the ppv and house cuts that don't ring true. Perhaps a full stop has been missed and it is supposed to be 2.5% of the house and 1.5% of ppv sale? WCW had such a bloated, big name roster that to give one man a quarter of all house takings is highly unlikely, and nearly a sixth of ppv revenue is downright wrong - Nash, Hall, Flair, Bret and maybe even Stimg must have had similar clauses to Hogan, but even if they only had, say, 10% of the house each or 5% of ppv revenue (and this is just speculation), that's still up to 75% of the house and 40% of ppv revenue gone on just a handful of wrestlers.

Nobody had a similar deal to this.....Several wrestlers it was reported in The Wrestling Observer Newsletter circa 1998 had guarantee million dollar per year deals (DDP, Steiner, Nash, Sting, Hall, maybe Savage, Goldberg, Hart) - no one had the level of bonus pay and cuts of show revenue did. Flair had a base deal of $500,000 per year, no PPV, no merchandise, etc - He was making more money wrestling part time, working mostly as an on air manager, in WWE at the end of his career with same base pay because WWE pays performers bonus pay based on PPV (based on buyrate and the individual wrestlers match placement on the card and promotional value to the event) as well as merchandise (T-Shirts, DVDs, etc).

Sting & Nash had the highest annual salaries behind Hogan it was reported I believe, over 2 million per year, but they didn't have the bonus structure Hogan had.

A lot of this is old news. Flair said in his book after he recruited Hogan & Savage to WCW he was shocked to see WCW paying Hogan at that time 1 million per PPV appearance (when he & Savage were getting $500,000 per year straight pay). He also said it was difficult at times because Hogan exercised control over everyone's matches & storylines even if they didn't directly involve him if one of the wrestlers might be in a program with him later (particularly Flair & Savage). (Flair's response to Brutus Beefcake after Brutus insists Flair was wrong and Hogan would be mad based on how he called a match pitting Flair vs Eddie Guerrero was priceless!).

As for Hogan, one other poster nailed it, he's been called a lot of things, good & bad, and probably deserved them all - but in a business without guaranteed deals, no health care, no retirement, no collective bargaining or unions to protect you, where your market value is based far more on how others behind the scenes write for you than it is your own performance level, where you require the good work of your co workers to make you look good & elevate your marketability (sometimes at their own expense), where you are not even treated as regular employees of the company but as Independent Contractors greatly reducing your employment rights under Federal Law, you cant blame a guy for solidifying his position and getting as much as he could. Hogan may not have been "best for business" per se but he was as great an individual business man as has ever main evented in the industry.

 

[Wald]

Receiving 25% of gross ticket sales when he wrestled on Nitro, Thunder or any other WCW programming with a minimum guarantee of $25,000.

Receiving 15% of all ppvs sales in which he was on with a minimum guarantee of $675,000 and it was contractually stipulated that he was to be the featured wrestler for these events.

That is genuinely insane if true. Who the hell would have rubberstamped that deal? I know Bischoff was running WCW but I assume someone in Turner would have had their money men look over contracts at least? Surely one of them would have spotted that and red flagged it as it means that even if they had lots of guys working for free they would have struggled to turn a profit. No wonder their bottom line tanked from 1998 onwards.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Nash and Hall had Safe Harbor Cluases... that meant no one could earn more than them after those deals were signed, and thus they got massive payrises when Hogan signed this deal... they didn't quite get all the perks, but they were travelling with Hulk anyway and didn't enforce it... but when Bret came in, they got the same... When Goldberg got a big deal, they had to get the same...

 

[justtxyank]

Nash and Hall had Safe Harbor Cluases... that meant no one could earn more than them after those deals were signed, and thus they got massive payrises when Hogan signed this deal... they didn't quite get all the perks, but they were travelling with Hulk anyway and didn't enforce it... but when Bret came in, they got the same... When Goldberg got a big deal, they had to get the same...

Unfortunately there is no way to know for sure on some of these things, however...

This claim right here has been disputed by people on the business side of WCW, including Eric Bischoff. Please keep in mind that as the years go on, Nash and Hall's stories about what happened in WCW get more outlandish. There's a reason for that. They can only generate interest in their shoots if they keep upping the intrigue of their stories.

In particular I don't believe their story about WCW management's fear of them going back to Raw. They had guaranteed contracts and were dealing with a lawsuit with the WWF over that. There was no fear they'd jump back. Everyone knew what was up. Another point to consider is that for a long time Nash and Hall said they were the first "guaranteed contracts" which isn't even close to being true.

As for this contract that's been posted, I doubt the legitamacy of it because of the company names used. When there were lawsuits filed against "WCW" in 2001, legal papers indicated that contracts were still filed under the UWC name, not an actual WCW entity.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Bischoff has confirmed the Safe Harbor clause however in the past... regardless of what Nash and Hall got when they came in, they resigned with those clauses shortly after - which basically meant they got a payrise anytime anyone else did. It's not unusual now, footballers etc have it all the time where they must be the highest paid or equal at the club... they were the first to use that clause though... clever on their part, as it meant that they got more money as the company did better - even if they themselves weren't the reason for the spike in revenue.