Former NXT Superstar Reveals How Little He Earned With WWE While Working Under A Developmental Contract

Former WWE NXT Superstar Cezar Bononi was released from the company back in April of this year, and has since made multiple appearances on AEW Dark.

Bononi recently was a guest on the “Spark In The Dark” podcast with Dan Matha. During their discussion Bononi revealed how little WWE was paying him on a developmental contract when he was first starting out with the company. He talked about how hard it was as a newcomer living in Florida working on a developmental contract, as he mentioned that it took two and a half years before he was even able to go to an amusement park in Orlando – where he lived, and that he couldn’t even afford cable.

Bononi also talked about an unusual piece of advice that he was given upon moving to Florida, which was that he should not get close to any of the other Brazilians living there [in Florida] because they would scam him.

“It was hard to adapt. It was really hard adapting. It’s just me and my wife and it’s nobody close. Everybody told us, ‘Don’t get close to Brazilians [in Florida] because Brazilians are gonna scam you,’ and we really believed that, even though we did not need to work with Brazilians so there’s no way we could get scammed by other Brazilians. We believed that so — that was a mistake that I did, because we were feeling alone.”

“We did not have money to do anything. It took me two and a half years to go to [an] amusement park, living in Orlando, because money was so short that I could not do anything like that. It took them [WWE] a long time for them to help me out a little bit. Like, ‘Hey, here’s a raise.’ It took me almost two years. So, I was getting $600 for like six months [per week] then, when I finally got paid off, it felt like a raise because I was getting $750. Oh cool, I can buy a TV right now, but I cannot get cable and that’s how it was. It was hard in the beginning but that also helped me build my character even more.”

He also revealed in the interview that WWE wouldn’t help him get his work visa. Bononi said that instead they kept him on a P1, which did not allow his wife to work.

You can watch the interview interview with Cezar Bononi on Dan Matha’s “Spark In The Dark” podcast below.

(h/t to Post Wrestling for the transcription.)

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