WWE News: Jim Cornette Reveals How Much Money NXT Loses Every Year

The WWE has worked hard to build up their NXT brand over the years. Thanks to that developmental territory, the WWE has superstars like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Big E, Rusev and more. The NXT brand also puts on the best special events every year, their TakeOver shows often putting on better cards from top to bottom than the main WWE pay-per-views that follow them. However, it isn’t cheap to run something like NXT. Jim Cornette, who used to run the WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, revealed on his Jim Cornette Experience podcast exactly how much money that NXT actually loses for the WWE each year.

How Much Money Does WWE NXT Lose Each Year?

Jim Cornette used to run Ohio Valley Wrestling with Danny Davis and was responsible for training superstars like Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista and Randy Orton in his territory before the moved up to the main WWE roster. However, when Cornette revealed how much the WWE was spending for NXT, he said he could have brought up even more talent.

The numbers that Jim Cornette revealed are all official numbers released by the WWE in their quarterly reports. The gains and losses are all available to the public since they are a publicly traded company.

According to Cornette, the WWE sold $7 million in WWE NXT tickets in 2016 and spent a total of $20 million in expenses. In 2017, they sold $6 million in ticket sales and spent $25 million in expenses. That means that, in two years, the WWE lost $32 million by running NXT.

Is This Actually Lost Revenue By The WWE?

There are some numbers that people might miss out on when looking at the ticket sales and expenses for the WWE to run NXT. First, part of the expenses comes from the WWE Developmental Center, which is more than just NXT. That is where all talent is trained as well as where WWE superstars return to rehab their injuries before returning to the main roster.

Jim Cornette also points out that there is also the fact the money spent and lost is important as the WWE needs to properly train the next generation of superstars to call up and work as the stars of tomorrow. That value is immeasurable.

However, one other thing that Jim Cornette does not mention is the WWE Network. There are plenty of reasons to subscribe to the WWE Network, and watching WWE NXT is one of those reasons. That money is not counted anywhere, as there are also pay-per-views and the immersive WWE library, but NXT remains a quality reason to subscribe to the WWE Network.