After Roman Reigns won the WWE championship last night at Wrestlemania 32, WWE boss Vince McMahon should have torn up Reigns’ contract and given him a new one. McMahon should double the new champs salary–give him a $2 million raise.
Before you get bent out of shape because you are one of the many who feel Reigns isn’t worthy of the title or don’t like the wrestler, consider:
1. Despite many people predicting that the despised Reigns would win the crown last night, Wrestlemania 32 set a new attendance record with 101,763 fans showing up last night at AT&T T +0.79% Stadium in Dallas, Texas. The previous record was almost 30 years ago at Wrestlemania 3 in 1987 when 93,173 witnessed superstar Hulk Hogan body slam Andre the Giant at Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan.
2. Reigns earned an estimated $2.1 million last year, $700,000 less than Triple H, whom he defeated for the title, and almost $4 million less than Brock Lesnar, the former WWE and UFC heavyweight champion who is past him prime.
3. Reigns is a rising social media star. Today he is nipping on the heels of Randy Orton on Facebook. In fact, Reigns is fifth social media, if you don’t count The Rock. A few months ago, Reigns wasn’t even among WWE’s top seven in social media popularity. Social media is crucial for WWE as it tries to get a younger demographic and is increasingly banking on its streaming WWE Network for content delivery.
So the new champ definitely deserves some bonus money.