"Highest-paid jobber in the business" - Arn Anderson on wrestler who refused to take a pay cut

Arn Anderson has given his take on the time that WCW officials halved wrestlers’ salaries. He also confirmed that Brian Pillman refused the pay cut, even though he had been threatened with being made to lose future matches.

Pillman had two spells in WCW between 1989-1994 and 1995-1996. He also briefly joined forces with Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit, and Ric Flair as a member of The Four Horsemen in 1995.

Speaking on Arn Anderson’s ARN podcast, host Conrad Thompson told a story about Pillman’s response after being told about the pay cut. Pillman allegedly said he would happily become “the highest-paid jobber in the business” instead of having his salary cut in half. Arn Anderson said the story was true and Pillman would rather have lost matches instead of money.

“100 percent, it happened. I heard it second-hand but yes, it happened. It was a time where how many other places were there to go? The mentality would’ve been, ‘Hey, listen, it’s still more money than they’re qualified to make anywhere else in the natural world. Half is still a lot more than they’re gonna make in any other job they’re qualified to.’ I can hear that conversation happening.”

Arn Anderson added that “it took the air out of the company” when the pay cuts were announced.

Arn Anderson on WCW cutting down on catering

Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, and Brian Pillman

Shortly before confirming the Brian Pillman story, Arn Anderson also revealed that he took exception to WCW drastically cutting down on catering at shows.

The WWE Hall of Famer said wrestlers are athletes who often have to spend an entire day at television tapings. When WCW cut wrestlers’ salaries, the company also stopped providing its usual catering options. Instead, wrestlers were given “literally a box lunch” for the whole day.

Please credit ARN and give a H/T to SK Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.