Chris Jericho worked in WWE for a very long time and knows how the company goes about its business. Superstars are on the road for most of the year and WWE tells them where they need to be. Superstars have to bear the costs of travelling.
Jericho went into details regarding the difference between AEW and WWE on his Talk Is Jericho podcast. He revealed that AEW pays the travelling expenses of their wrestlers, which is something WWE does not do. AEW views their company as a sports team and this is also seen all over the world.
Right off the bat, not to get into the specifics, but things that I have here in AEW I never had in WWE for 20 years. Even something as simple as paying your expenses on the road, like any team does. If the Jaguars go to play a game in St. Louis, the hotel is paid for and ‘Here’s the trip,’ and ‘Here’s the team bus to pick you up and drive you around.’ That’s just the way it is. It’s not even a second thought, right? That’s how it is here in AEW as well, which it’s never like that in WWE.”
“They still go with, ‘Here’s your plane ticket. You’re flying to Detroit. You’re working Detroit, Chicago, Cape Girardeau and St. Louis.’ So you rent your car in Detroit, you drop it off in St. Louis. You got to find your hotel rooms, you got to get a car that’s got a good rate for the drop-off. All this stuff. And those are your expenses and your responsibility to do that. And that’s another thing that I think people are just like, ‘Alright, are you kidding me? You really have to do that?’ So that’s the biggest difference.”
WWE Superstars have to to keep track of all their expenses for tax time deductions. As they are independent contractors they have to pay for many things. Jericho is used to that lifestyle as he worked in WWE, but it is different in AEW.
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