Report: Several WWE Stars Have Turned Down New Contracts

The COVID-19 pandemic was used as rationale for cutting numerous employees by WWE earlier this year, with a massive exodus of stars happening in April. However, WWE is now trying to re-sign some of their stars still under contract, but the contract offers being sent out have been less than appealing due to the pandemic, and they've run into problems getting performers to sign on the dotted line.

According to a new report from Fightful Select, at least half a dozen stars that were offered new deals in 2020 have opted out of signing for the time being. The belief is that they might receive a better offer when the pandemic gets closer to an end, and the new offers were viewed as disappointing as compared to deals offered to talent the prior year in 2019.

The Fightful Select report noted that "at least half a dozen" talent "shuffled their feet" on the nuew offers or simply passed on the contracts being sent out.

Of course, 2019 and 2020 were vastly different. In 2019, the company was still on the road full time and in the process of trying to hoard as much talent as possible due to the launch of AEW. They also re-signed talent to big money deals. Now, with the pandemic still raging, WWE is no longer trying to sign as much talent as possible due to budget cuts (and as seen by their dozens of releases earlier this year) and those offers have taken a dip in value.

WWE appears to be alright with talent waiting for the situation to improve before re-signing. Though no names were revealed in the report, it was said that there are talent from both Raw and SmackDown in this situation.

WWE was able to re-sign one star recently. Matt Riddle has reportedly signed a new WWE contract, according to another report from Fightful Select. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported earlier this month that Riddle was offered a three-year deal with a $400,000 annual salary (along with a extra $50,000 for every Saudi Arabia appearance). Fightful's report stated that Riddle wasn't likely to take the initial deal WWE offered him, but he reconsidered after new terms were set and signed the deal.