WWE News: John Cena officially becomes the highest paid WWE Superstar 

What's the story?

Forbes is now reporting that John Cena has overtaken Brock Lesnar to become the highest paid WWE Superstar in 2018.

In case you didn't know...

Brock Lesnar was the highest paid WWE Superstar when he amassed $12 million dollars last for 2016, but it seems that since his departure from UFC, Lesnar's annual income has taken something of a knock with him falling down to second with an income of just $6.5 million.

John Cena hasn't been on WWE TV as much as usual, as he continues to make a name for himself in Hollywood which could be why he has been able to boost his annual income over the past 12 months.

Surprisingly, Cena is one name that is missing from the card this weekend at WrestleMania, with his potential match against The Undertaker still unconfirmed. Many sites are speculating that the former 16-time World Champion may not wrestle at all, there may instead just be a confrontation between the two stars.

The heart of the matter

Brock Lesnar may have been at the top spot of WWE's highest-paid list, but Forbes is now reporting that Cena has now overtaken the Universal Champion with an income of $10 million, the most of any current WWE star.

Of course, The Rock was seen as the highest earning wrestler, with his $65 million income given his activity in Hollywood throughout 2017, but Lesnar has dropped down to second in the current WWE stars list.

Roman Reigns rounds off the top three with an income of $4.3 million, closely followed by AJ Styles, who amassed a total of $3.5 million for 2017. Styles would be considered to be WWE's biggest workhorse for the past year and was part of more pay-per-views, live events and house shows last year than any other star.

It seems that Cena's roles outside of WWE have definitely worked to his advantage, even though he didn't earn more than the $12 million that Lesnar topped the list with last year, he was able to earn the most of every WWE performer this year.

What's next?

Cena's match against The Undertaker is still unconfirmed for WrestleMania this weekend, but it is thought that the star will still be in attendance and make an appearance in some way.

Author's take

Lesnar may have been more active in WWE over the past 12 months, but it seems that this hasn't affected his income.

Cena's future is up in the air but it seems that at least his income is on the way up and the more projects that the star takes outside of the company, the more his popularity will rise and the less chance the WWE will have of talking him into returns to the company.

Cena is only needed as a part-time star now and it seems in the coming months he could start to wind his career down and make fewer appearances for the company as the new blood stars to take over WWE.