During the last several months, David Otunga has turn into a preferred recent name in the professional wrestling podcasting landscape, reliving his profession with WWE and using his Harvard law degree to present insights into wrestling contracts. Now, Otunga can be giving out advice for wrestlers either under contract or not with reference on what to know and what to look out for when negotiating terms.
Most recently on his YouTube channel, Otunga covered WWE residuals and royalties for the trendy day wrestler. The previous Nexus member noted that ought to be a selected concern for talents lately, as royalties and residuals now not mattered as much as they’d before, on account of the decline of physical media and the rise of streaming.
“All of WWE’s library, it’s streaming, and just about it’ll be at Netflix or whatever platform,” Otunga said. “Those are licenced matches, licenced appearances. Mainly, the wrestlers are being paid once for that. There aren’t any royalties or residuals from that. You are paid in your appearance, that is it. So I might say to this talent, in the event that they desired to get royalties or residuals, make a sufficiently big name for yourself where you may land a spot on a TV show, or in a movie. That is where you will make some royalties and residual payments.
“But that is just about going to be one of the best ways for you, at this cut-off date. That being said, here’s a bit of recommendation; make sure that you are cognizant of that going right into a contract, and make sure that you get a bigger downside guarantee. That is for all you wrestlers on the market immediately, or in the long run which are going to be negotiating your contracts. Be sure that you ask for a better guarantee. Don’t allow them to attempt to persuade you or con you with residuals or royalties, because they don’t seem to be what they was once. So take your money up front.”
Should you use any of the quotes in this text, please credit “David Otunga” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription