Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods may have been asked to take an even larger pay cut than initially believed before leaving WWE.
The former New Day members recently confirmed that WWE offered them new deals containing pay reductions of more than 50 percent. Rather than accept the restructured contracts, Kingston and Woods opted to leave the company.
During the latest edition of the Grilling JR podcast (full episode below), co-host Conrad Thompson claimed he had heard the proposed reduction was actually 75 percent.
“More than 90 days ago when we found out that New Day was no more in WWE, and there was lots of rumors and innuendo at the time that they were [offered] a 50 percent pay cut,” Thompson said.
Thompson stressed that Kingston and Woods have not publicly confirmed the specific figure, though both acknowledged that the offer involved a cut greater than 50 percent.
“The rumor and innuendo that I’ve heard is it was actually a 75 percent pay cut,” Thompson continued. “And some of that was confirmed on an interview with Ariel Helwani. Now, they didn’t say 75, but that’s the number I’ve heard bandied around.”
The 75 percent figure remains unconfirmed.
Kingston and Woods have since joined AEW under the team name The New Level. The duo debuted alongside Swerve Strickland at AEW All In and captured the AEW World Trios Championships in their first match with the promotion.
UPDATE: Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com is disputing JR’s claims of a 75% pay cut offered to New Day for them to stay with WWE.
“New Day’s requested pay cut was not 75 percent,” Alvarez wrote. “It was exactly what they said it was, which was just slightly more than 50 percent.”
