Ernest "The Cat" Miller talks pay in WWE and WCW.
Ernest "The Cat" Miller became a staple of WCW television during the final years of the company as the on-screen commissioner of the promotion. "The Cat" was involved in multiple segments with a variety of wrestlers throughout the show.
When WCW closed in 2001, "The Cat" was one of the many who sat on the sidelines before joining WWE. "The Cat" worked a couple of dark matches for WWE in 2002 and then wrestled two television matches in 2004, including the 2004 Royal Rumble.
Speaking to Jeremy Lambert & Stephen Jensen on The Spotlight, "The Cat" discussed going from WCW to WWE.
"Those four or five years I was in WCW, I made a hell of a lot of money. I made enough money to where I said, 'This is enough, I can leave wrestling now.' When they decided to sell to WWE, I got paid another three years just to sit at home. I had three years of payment. That was enough money from wrestling to where I could go back in, teach karate, have money set aside for retirement and everything. Out of nowhere, Johnny Ace gave me a call and said, 'You need to come up to WWE. There is an opportunity up here. I think they'll like you up here.' I said, 'I don't know if that's what I want to do. If they like me, they know who I am.' Johnny Ace [John Laurinaitis] said, 'Vince [Vince McMahon] doesn't know who you are.' 'Vince knows who I am.' We talked a couple more times. They offered me a real kind of low-ball, wasn't a lot of money, not enough money to make me come there and be happy. It was about $220,000 a year. I was making that in one month in WCW. I said, that's bottom pay, but you get pay-per-view and all this stuff I used to get in WCW. If you hit this rating, you get a bump up and they give you a little more money. He talked me into it. I said, 'I'm going to go up there so I can say I worked in the two largest companies in wrestling,'" recalled "The Cat."
Along with his appearance at the 2004 Royal Rumble, "The Cat" wrestled on the subsequent episode of WWE SmackDown in another royal rumble, marking his only other televised appearance.
"The Cat" has wrestled sporadically on the independents over the years, but remains active in karate.
Fans can watch the full interview with "The Cat" in the video above.
