TKO's Mark Shapiro: 'We Did Resize Our Fighter And Superstar Pay Composition'

TKO President Mark Shapiro has confirmed recent reports about the group restructuring the contracts of WWE wrestlers. 

TKO, since taking over WWE, has made several changes to the way the pro wrestling promotion operates, seemingly to bring in more revenue. One of the recent decisions it made was to ask some of its stars to take a pay cut, with The New Day's Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods — now known as Kofi and Austin Creed in AEW — reportedly being asked to take a pay cut. Shapiro, in a Goldman Sachs conference, stated that both WWE and UFC stars' contracts have been resized, pointing out how their focus is on developing young stars in "WWE NXT."

"What I would tell you is post our new deals with ESPN on WWE and with Paramount+, CBS, Peacock, Sky with UFC, and even a little bit post Raw with Netflix, we did resize our fighter and superstar pay composition. That is baked into our numbers. So there will be no further adverse impact with regard to how that plays out or divvies out," he said. "We do, to your point, really rely on development. Keep in mind that when you look at the WWE, 75% of the superstars come from NXT. So they're starting in our development league and going all the way up. So pipeline is very important to our strategy."

Shapiro highlighted that TKO's strategy is to use various methods to generate revenue, including marketing partnerships and advertising deals. He pointed out that the company wants to bring in the best talent in both WWE and UFC.

WWE is rumored to have asked many of its stars to take a pay cut after WrestleMania this year, including some experienced stars. Two of those who refused were Kofi and Creed, with them revealing that the pay cut TKO had asked them to take was over 50% of their contracts.