TKO Group Holdings, WWE‘s parent company, has adjusted its pay structure for WWE wrestlers following the company’s new media rights deals with ESPN and Netflix. TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro revealed the change at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, September 8.
Asked about talent costs at WWE and UFC, Shapiro explained that TKO has already reworked how those payments are structured following the new broadcast rights contracts. For WWE specifically, he cited the PLE deal with ESPN and RAW’s deal with Netflix.
Shapiro didn’t detail which contracts or salary ranges changed, nor did he say every wrestler got a raise or a cut. But he said the impact of those changes is already built into TKO’s financial projections, and that the company is comfortable with its current cost structure.
Shapiro also pointed to WWE’s developmental system as key to controlling that cost structure over the long term. According to Shapiro, about 75 percent of WWE’s stars come up through NXT before reaching the company’s top level.
Wrestle Features @WrestleFeatures Follow Shapiro states that the margins for TKO will continue to expand.
(Goldmans Sachs Conference)
12:22 PM · Sep 9, 2026Speaking about the financial effects of that strategy, Shapiro didn’t hedge. Margins, he said, will keep growing. Later in the conference, he returned to the topic and said TKO plans to keep expanding its margins, grow free cash flow and continue operating lean.
The first of the major deals Shapiro cited was announced in January 2024, when WWE and Netflix struck a long-term partnership. RAW began streaming on the platform in the United States in January 2025, while Netflix also picked up broader rights to WWE programming in international markets.
In August 2025, WWE and ESPN announced another deal making ESPN’s platforms the exclusive home for the company’s PLEs in the United States.
TKO’s most recent numbers show talent costs rose in the second quarter of 2026 without reducing WWE’s segment margin. Between April and June, WWE’s Adjusted EBITDA climbed 12 percent to $368.3 million, while its margin held at 59 percent. TKO’s consolidated Adjusted EBITDA margin rose from 40 percent to 42 percent over the same period.