In a recent interview on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, AEW Executive Vice President and talent Cody Rhodes discussed several topics, including the tier system when it comes to AEW contracts.

“Agree to appear is a tier zero, meaning you’ll get a bonus, which Tony Khan is super generous, if you asked some of these extras what they’re making for being there, you would literally go, what? My Dad would have lost it, it’s COVID era, they have no other work, there’s no indies.

Tier zero is just a signing bonus and exclusivity to us in terms of like, we get a first option on you, I believe is how it works and we guarantee you X amount of dates, five dates. The exclusivity thing is case-by-case, but we guarantee you X amount of dates.

The goal is that you don’t want to pay someone an agree to appear, Chris Harrington would handle this much better than I am, you don’t want to keep giving them their weekly versus tier one-ing them, which is our base contractor agreement.

The interview is available in full at this link.