Tom Pestock, better known as Baron Corbin in WWE, reflects on contract negotiations he had with Vince McMahon.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Tom Pestock reflected on times, when he felt it was beneficial to negotiate with WWE, believing he was worth more than what he was being paid. He even recalls being approached to sign a deal at WrestleMania 35, right before he competed in what would be Kurt Angle's final wrestling match.
"I’ve been in some sticky situations where I was supposed to sign a new five-year deal, and I was pushing off because I was not agreeing to the money WWE was offering," he said. "I felt like my value was higher. I was approached at WrestleMania before my match with Kurt [Angle] and they were like, ‘We need you to sign this deal.’ I went and had a conversation, and I ended up signing the deal, but I was like, ‘Can we reevaluate this in a year if this is where we are.’ Hunter said it to me, and I fully get what he said when I was asking for more money because it was like my second contract. I finished my first, I didn’t ask to renegotiate, I was out earning my downside and I was happy. My next offer was lower than I wanted. Hunter had a conversation with me and said, ‘You can out-earn this.’ ‘Yeah, if I’m booked correctly and on pay-per-views and all things that are out of my control.’
"I can’t control who you pencil in for these things. I can do my best," he continued. "Look at where I’m at now. If you went based on reaction, I would have been in that upper echelon. Not the tip-top, but that next level of guys based on reactions and people cheering for me and what I was putting out as a product. I should have been on some of those pay-per-views, but I wasn’t, and it’s not in my control. I was barely on TV coming back out of the draft. I deserved to be on TV and I deserve to be working on programs. They threw me and Apollo together and it started to really work and I thought we had something special and Apollo was showing out, and he’s still crushing it, I’m happy for him. Those are things out of my control."
Continuing on, Pestock said that he feels if he was based specifically on crowd reactions, he would be a top guy. He also recalls being told that WWE wanted to make sure he wasn't a "flash in the pan" in terms of popularity.
"You’re telling me I can out-earn this downside, but I can only do that if I’m booked this way because I’m a heel, number one, so I’m not slinging merch or getting asked to do Snickers commercials because the second my music hits, it’s boos throughout every arena," he said. "I’m not getting those things good guys get, those monetizing opportunities. I feel like my worth is higher. He also said, ‘We also have to figure out and make sure you’re not a flash in the pan. You’re hot right now, but what’s six months from now? A year from now?’ I get the business sense. They don’t want to offer me this deal that I’m fighting for every penny and they meet me where I want to be and they lose out on it."
Furthermore, he shares a story of being offered more money at one point by Vince McMahon and choosing to bet on himself instead of taking the sure thing.
"The contract is going to benefit the person handing the contract," he continued. "I had a conversation, signed a contract, two years later, it was a five-year deal, two years later, Vince brought me into the office, a very fancy office at the Royal Rumble and was like, ‘You’re underpaid. Let’s fix this.’ He offered me a different deal. I said, ‘No thank you. This is what I want.’ He said, ‘You want to bet on yourself?’ ‘Absolutely do.’ ‘How about we do a one-year deal for this much.’ ‘Done.’ Bet on myself and it worked out fantastic for me. Ten months later, I got a fantastic deal. I’ve had five contracts there, bet on myself through them, did it again."
Tom Pestock is going to continue betting on himself in pro wrestling under the name Bishop Dyer. Learn more here.
Speaking of contracts in wrestling, at this link, learn why Pestock gave his opinion on the ongoing situation between Rey Fenix and AEW.
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