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#4 Erick Rowan’s first WWE deal: $750 per week
Erick Rowan began to make a name for himself in WWE in 2012 when he joined forces with Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper as part of The Wyatt Family in NXT, but the man behind the villainous character (real name Joseph Ruud) actually started his wrestling career nine years earlier.
In 2011, Rowan sent a tape to WWE officials in the hope of getting signed by the company. He then received a one-week tryout with the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) developmental system, which involved a match against NXT Season 4 contestant Jacob Novak.
One week after the match with Novak, Rowan was offered a developmental contract by WWE. However, as he explained in a 2020 interview with Lewis Nicholls (09:30 mark of the video above), he had to take a big pay cut compared to the money he earned on the independent scene.
“Some guys were making as little as five hundred a week. Because I have a family, I made seven-fifty a week, which to support a family, that’s not really a whole lot of money. But I took a chance and you get paid to train, so…”
Rowan did not reveal how much money he went on to make as a member of WWE’s main roster, but it is safe to assume that he received a significant pay rise during his time on RAW and SmackDown.
