WWE wrestler pay is notoriously clandestine and, as we highlighted last year, even having a wrestler's contract often isn't enough to figure out how much money he or she will make in a given year. But one wrestler has his income detailed annually in WWE's public filings: Triple H. And in 2015 the company's in-story COO did pretty well for himself, earning $3.4 million between $2.8 million in WWE pay and some $600,000 in future company stock grants.
In reality Triple H is Paul Levesque, the longtime performer and current executive vice president who oversees WWE's talent, live events and creative. As an executive, Levesque's compensation is detailed in WWE's proxy filings, the most recent of which WWE filed on Tuesday.
In 2015 Levesque's executive base salary was just over $573,000, up slightly from $545,000 the prior year. That base income can be greatly supplemented, however, by WWE's bonus structure - as the company's proxy puts it, WWE has a "pay for performance philosophy." Last year executive bonuses were tied directly to WWE's financial performance as well as its success in reaching certain strategic objectives, namely expanding the WWE Network's subscriber base, increasing the company's international revenue and hitting certain unspecified benchmarks in TV ratings, social media metrics and new product revenues.
Levesque can double his annual cash payout with bonuses and last year he nearly did so, taking home $526,000 from WWE's incentive plan. He also received a separate bonus in the form of company equity. More specifically, Levesque earned 34,262 shares of WWE stock, currently worth some $600,000 at Thursday's close of $17.69 per share. Yet that's not money in the bank just yet - those shares won't be fully vested until July of 2018 (they vest in equal installments over the next three summers). In fact, Levesque has more than $750,000 in total outstanding WWE equity, and in 2015 he made just $75,000 or so from the vesting of stock.
Those bonuses bring Levesque's 2015 pay to $1.1 million plus stock grants - and that's before accounting for his in-ring work as Triple H. Levesque makes another $1 million per year in base salary for his performance work, and like most WWE performers he also gets a cut of company licensing, merchandise sales and live event revenues (more details on that pay structure can be found here). Last year Triple H faced wrestling legend Sting at WrestleMania 31, helping to push Levsesque's in-ring bonuses to more than $713,000 for the year.
All told, between in-ring pay and executive compensation, in 2015 Levesque made $2.8 million plus some $600,000 in future WWE stock grants. An interesting twist is that Levesque was WWE's top-paid executive in 2014 and yet, despite a pay increase last year, that's a title he no longer holds.
Two years ago Levesque made $2.5 million in earnings before accounting for his equity incentives, topping Vince McMahon's $2.4 million total. Yet last year McMahon beat Levesque with $3.3 million in cash earnings, thanks largely to nearly doubling his bonus pay to more than $2 million. Three other executives - Kevin Dunn, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson - "made" well over $7 million apiece in 2015, though the vast majority of that total is in outstanding WWE equity.
