# Meltzer on Okada's NJPW salary compared with WWE stars: Okada would be Top 5 highest paid in WWE



## Mordecay

I guess Omega would be close to a million a year with his new deal, I don't know about Naito, but I guess he is making a shit ton of money from LIJ merch.

Okada is making it rain though, and he deserves it


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## Ace

Mordecay said:


> I guess Omega would be close to a million a year with his new deal, I don't know about Naito, but I guess he is making a shit ton of money from LIJ merch.
> 
> Okada is making it rain though, and he deserves it


 Omega probably makes a lot more from merch sales than Okada as well.


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## Sweggeh

This explains why NJPW are so desperate to protect Okada at all costs and why we see LOLOKADAWINS so often. They have a lot of money tied up in this guy.


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## Master Bate

Well deserved


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## 5 Star Giulia ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

*He definitely deserves it. He's my favorite in New Japan*


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## Mordecay

Ace said:


> Omega probably makes a lot more from merch sales than Okada as well.


Thing is Omega has to share Bullet Club merch money with a thousand different guys though, even if he gets a bigger cut still isn't that big. And as far as I know the best seller among singles wrestlers (not factions) in NJPW is Tanahashi.


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## SHIVV-EAUX-EMME-GEEE

He def. deserves it and he is worth every penny.


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## Ace

Mordecay said:


> Thing is Omega has to share Bullet Club merch money with a thousand different guys though, even if he gets a bigger cut still isn't that big. And as far as I know the best seller among singles wrestlers (not factions) in NJPW is Tanahashi.


 His Cleaner shirt is really popular.


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## Eliko

Meltzer is just guessing. He don't know what his salary is.


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## Jay Valero

Okada is badass.


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## Lmnopqrstallion

Ace said:


> His Cleaner shirt is really popular.


Most popular shirt i saw at Backlash this year....


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## validreasoning

Eliko said:


> Meltzer is just guessing. He don't know what his salary is.


He doesn't and I doubt New Japan are paying 7% of their annual revenue to one guy. Would be like wwe paying someone $50 million a year.


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## Sweggeh

New Japan would completely justified in paying Okada that money. He is one of the top draws.

If you take him out of the company, do they lose $2m out of their $32m revenue? Yep, for sure. Business would take a big hit. 

So just with that alone its worth it for them. Although I am sure they are not paying the 2m themselves. Okada has deals with advertising agencies, video games, tv shows, movies, etc; that all add up to get him to that figure.


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## ShadowSucks92

Okada would be worth every penny. Like him or not the guy is a massive draw in NJPW and still really young and we can talk about merch sales and I would guess Omega & Bullet Clubs merchandise sells really well over there but I'd bet Okada and LIJ sell tons more.


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## amhlilhaus

Sweggeh said:


> This explains why NJPW are so desperate to protect Okada at all costs and why we see LOLOKADAWINS so often. They have a lot of money tied up in this guy.


G-1 is coming, he will lose 2 to 3 times, clean as a whistle.

Lolxwins dont spply to him


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## amhlilhaus

validreasoning said:


> He doesn't and I doubt New Japan are paying 7% of their annual revenue to one guy. Would be like wwe paying someone $50 million a year.


New japan doesnt have the huge bloated corporate beauracracy wwe has.


Its possible


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## Sweggeh

Yeah, WWE can afford to pay their guys whatever they want because they know no one will pay more. They are famous for lowballing them.

Cena gets $9m or whatever when he should be worth $30m EASY, as he is one of their biggest draws and responsible for a lot of the money they make. But since there is no company out there that will pay him more, he takes what he can get with WWE.

NJPW dont have that luxury, they know if they lowball their guys will go to WWE. So they have to pay Okada what he is worth.


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## The Wood

Okada is worth a lot, but he is also an investment. The guy isn't even 30 and is a four-time IWGP Champion with them. I'm sure the 2.2 million is over the course of the contract and is covered by sponsors and such too. 

According to profightdb.com, Omega wrestled for New Japan 109 times between Dominion and Dominion. Now, as he was tossing up offers at the start of the year, I can imagine he went for "AJ Styles money." I read somewhere that Styles was getting $8,000 per match. I don't know if that's true or not, but that would add up to $872,000, which doesn't sound _too_ unbelievable, especially considering what we know about the top Japanese guys, and Karl Anderson saying he made $750,000 when he was running their tag division over there. Now, AJ Styles probably had a bit more cache with New Japan, but I can imagine that Omega may have opted for some sort of downside of $800,000 or something, or with it eventually going up over the years. 

But yeah, my guess (and it is just a guess) is probably around $800,000.


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## CrystalFissure

Deserves all of it. One of the best wrestlers in the world. Hope he's there for a very, very long time. Pretty much the whole roster in fact. I hope Omega stays especially.


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## validreasoning

Sweggeh said:


> New Japan would completely justified in paying Okada that money. He is one of the top draws.


One of their top draws. For 7% of total revenue you would want to be far and away their top draw. Google trends has him as number 4 most popular search in Japan among wrestlers. The recent upturn in buzz surrounding njpw has more to do with omega than okada. 



Sweggeh said:


> Yeah, WWE can afford to pay their guys whatever they want because they know no one will pay more. They are famous for lowballing them.
> 
> Cena gets $9m or whatever when he should be worth $30m EASY, as he is one of their biggest draws and responsible for a lot of the money they make. But since there is no company out there that will pay him more, he takes what he can get with WWE.


Hollywood will pay him more for less work. I would imagine if cenas contract expired quite a few pro wrestling companies would be looking to book him.


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## downnice

Smart by NJPW, he is worth every dime and is the Ace of NJPW

Also means he is safe from WWE poaching him, WWE are not going to give him over 2 million and even if they did, Okada knows better than to go to that madhouse WWE


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## The High King

Sweggeh said:


> If both VICE and Meltzer, two generally trusted sources, are reporting the same thing then its official.
> 
> .


No its not.
Meltzer is an attention whore and has spouted some rubbish and has made numerous unproven claims in the past.

He is a one trick pony who is only known for his star ratings for matches which mean zero to me, as i judge matches for myself,

At WK11 he gave 6 stars to the main event, yet I preferred the Naito -Tanahashi match which i thought was better.
He can award what he likes and I know some people think its what matches are judged on, for me star ratings by meltzer means nothing, I will decide what I like and his ratings have zero impact on me and how I interpret a match.


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## Ace

The High King said:


> No its not.
> Meltzer is an attention whore and has spouted some rubbish and has made numerous unproven claims in the past.
> 
> He is a one trick pony who is only known for his star ratings for matches which mean zero to me, as i judge matches for myself,
> 
> At WK11 he gave 6 stars to the main event, yet I preferred the Naito -Tanahashi match which i thought was better.
> He can award what he likes and I know some people think its what matches are judged on, for me star ratings by meltzer means nothing, I will decide what I like and his ratings have zero impact on me and how I interpret a match.


 I preferred Omega-Okada at WK, but Meltzer has fucked his ratings.


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## volde

Lessons for the future, don't rate match 6 out of 5 stars when it happens on 4th of January.


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## SHIVV-EAUX-EMME-GEEE

Factor in the cost of living in Japan and I wonder if he still would be Top 5?


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## JC00

Mordecay said:


> Thing is Omega has to share Bullet Club merch money with a thousand different guys though, even if he gets a bigger cut still isn't that big. And as far as I know the best seller among singles wrestlers (not factions) in NJPW is Tanahashi.


Best seller at PWT is definitely Omega. Which is the place people in North America have to go through to get his shirts.

Actually Omega is the only wrestler that gets a cut of Kenny Omega Bullet Club shirts. It's not like Fale gets a cut from "Kenny The Cleaner" shirt. Other Bullet Club guys only get a cut of non-wrestler specific BC shirts or obviously their own BC shirts. 

Then there is also Omega and Young Bucks getting cuts of "The Elite" merchandise.


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