How Does The Rock’s Contract With TKO Work?

Highlights

• The Rock joined TKO’s Board of Directors in January, receiving $30 million worth of equity, 96,558 shares, and the ownership of his popular trademarks.
• The Rock wrestled at WrestleMania 40, with a dream match against Roman Reigns not happening but beating Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins.
• Limitations set by TKO include not trademarking The Rock for certain products and paying royalties to his production company for services provided.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s return to WWE earlier this year came as a sweet surprise for wrestling fans. At first, things weren’t going well for The Great One. He was one of the most popular wrestlers during the Attitude Era and everyone loved him, but perhaps he didn’t realize how crashing someone’s story, like he did with Cody Rhodes, and forcibly inserting yourself into the biggest storyline leading up to WrestleMania 40 can turn millions of fans against you. The Rock learned from it and went on to give us one of the best WrestleManias of all time. He signed a contract prior to his return and guaranteed himself a huge paycheck.

The Rock Joined TKO’s Board Of Directors

The Rock Wrestled At WrestleMania 40

• The Rock joined TKO’s Board of Directors in January.
• A dream match against Roman Reigns didn’t happen at WrestleMania.
• The Rock and Roman Reigns beat Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 40 Saturday.

On January 1, The People’s Champion returned to Monday Night Raw and said he was going after the Head of the Table, and a few weeks later, on January 23, it was revealed that The Rock had joined TKO’s Board of Directors. He also got the ownership of “The Rock” trademark, as well as his popular catchphrases (such as “Roody Poo,” “The Great One,” “Finally, The Rock has come back to…” ) and moves (such as “Rock Bottom.”)

It didn’t take long for The Rock to insert himself onto the WrestleMania card as well. While his match against Roman Reigns didn’t happen, The Rock was part of WrestleMania 40. He wrestled on Night 1 against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins and played a role during Night 2’s main event as well.

The Rock’s Will Receive $30 Million Of TKO Shares For Joining The Board

The Rock Has Already Received $9 Million In Shares

• TKO has “the Johnson Equity Award”.
• WWE can use The Rock’s IP for 10 years.
• The Rock can’t license his IP to anyone who competes with TKO.

TKO published the full terms of their agreement with The Rock, and Brandon Thurston posted some key highlights on his Twitter account. For those who don’t know, the deal grants Johnson $30 million worth of equity in TKO which they call “the Johnson Equity Award.” It will be vested completely by 2025, though most of it will vest by the end of this year. He received 96,558 TKO shares in April for his WrestleMania performance. Those shares were worth around $9.3 million at that time.

As per the deal, WWE can use The Rock IP for 10 years, unless their deal is terminated early (they’re calling it “early termination rights”). The Rock can also not license his IP to any brands that compete with TKO.

For anyone who doesn’t understand what “Rock IP” means, here’s a list of every trademark now owned by The Rock.

“’Rock IP’ means any and all Intellectual Property Rights throughout the world at any time owned by the TKO Group Parties, or any of their respective Affiliates, whether registered or unregistered, relating to (a) the following ring names and taglines: ‘The Rock’, ‘Rocky Maivia’, ‘Team Corporate’, ‘Rock Nation’, ‘The Nation’, ‘Roody Poo’, ‘Candy Ass’, ‘Jabroni’, ‘If you smell what The Rock is cooking’, ‘The Samoan Sensation’, ‘The Blue Chipper’, ‘The Brahma Bull’, ‘The People’s Champion’, ‘The Great One’, ‘Know Your Role and Shut Your Mouth’, ‘Team Bring It’, ‘The Rock Just Bring It’, ‘The People’s Elbow’, ‘Rock Bottom’, ‘Finally, The Rock has come back to …’, ‘It doesn’t matter what…’, ‘Blue Hell”’ ‘The millions… (and millions)’, ‘Rockpocalypse’, ‘Project Rock’ and ‘The most electrifying man in sports and entertainment’.”

There Are Limitations To What WWE Can Trademark With The Rock

WWE Will Pay The Rock In Royalties

• TKO will pay The Rock’s production company, 7 Bucks Entertainment, for any services.
• TKO can’t trademark The Rock for pop-up ads, alcohol, tobacco, etc.

The Rock can also hire “third party service providers in connection with developing concepts, scripts, storylines” and TKO will compensate him by paying his production company, 7 Bucks Entertainment. While TKO can use The Rock trademark for merch and other stuff, they can’t use it for pop-up ads, anything related to adult entertainment, alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco advertisements or even medical and hygiene products that require U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval without The Rock giving it a go.

The Rock received around $500,000 in royalties in 2023, and he’ll continue making money in royalties for his merch as well. The Rock’s contract with TKO is definitely one of the best deals for a wrestler and is not something we see every day. The Rock’s a one-of-a-kind wrestler and he proved that during the WrestleMania season this year with his amazing performance.