Payoffs In Japan VS Payoffs In America?

[carpetbeggar]

Just wondering when it came to the top stars, were they making more money than their counterparts in America?
It seemed the Japanese wrestlers were WAY bigger stars in their homeland as opposed to American wrestlers in North America, except for say Hulk Hogan.
What kind of money were the guys like Fujinami, Choshu, Tsrusta, Tenryu, Hashimoto, Muta, Misawa, Kobashi, Tiger Mask, etc; making in their heydays of the 80's and 90's?
Baba and Inoki must have been making huge money. Also with all the "mainstream" media coverage of puroresu at the time the top guys were getting paydays doing commercial, music videos, movies, television, etc.
Was it well known knowledge as to what the wrestlers were making?
Also were they paid the same was as in North America where their payoffs were decided by the size of the house and where they were on the card?
Did they have the guaranteed contracts like WCW and WWF were paying in the 90's during the Monday Night Wars?
The promotions seemed WAY more competitive a lot earlier in time than the American promotions. But it did seem All Japan and New Japan were more interested in creating their own homegrown stars in their own dojos as opposed to rely on signing talent from rival promotions that was the norm in American wrestling at the time. Please explain.
Thanks.The Great Sasuke

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Was it well known knowledge as to what the wrestlers were making?

No.

Inoki and Baba were, of course, the top guys in the respective offices, and some of other main eventers such as Sakaguchi, Fujinami, etc. were stockholders. They were making money in addition to what they receive by wrestling in the ring.

I remember reading somewhere that Masahiro Chono was the first wrestler to have a guaranteed contract. That may not be true, but at least, his deal was the frist one to be disclosed to the public. I think it was late 90s or early 2000s, but I can't remember exactly. Until then, I never read anything about the amount of money wrestlers were making (except for few big matches with bigname gaijins).

But it did seem All Japan and New Japan were more interested in creating their own homegrown stars in their own dojos as opposed to rely on signing talent from rival promotions that was the norm in American wrestling at the time.

I guess that was a part of the culture to rely on homegrown talents. In non-sport industries, it was very rare to jump ship between different companies. Most of the time, when you joined a stable company, you were set for life. If you left for another company, you were most likely considered as being unreliable.

Jahno.

[matt farmer]

I was kind of surprise when I heard from a pretty reliable scource what some of the native guys were making in All Japan Pro Wrestling. This would have been in the mid 90's and it was guys at the level of Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi. They were both said to be making around $100,000 a year. While their counterparts working for New Japan were making as much as three to four times as much. But with All Japan they felt if they stayed loyal they would have a job for life. And were given yearly raises if they continued to work hard.

I've heard that Shinya Hashimoto, Keiji Muto and Masahiro Chono were making more than anyone in All Japan.

When Genichiro Tenryu left All Japan for Super World Sports it was for huge money at the time. Making him probably the highest paid wrestling in the country. (except probably a few like Atsushi Onita, Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada who had a piece of their office)