Rob Van Dam Contract Status

The Pro Wrestling Torch is reporting that Rob Van Dam's contract with WWE will be expiring at the end of this summer. The six month mark came last week where he had to indicate to the company if he wanted the contract to automatically renew.

According to sources, RVD opted to stop the auto-rollover, meaning he has to renegotiate his deal and renew or else he will become a free agent starting in September of 2007.

The current deal with WWE is estimated as being under a downside guarantee of around $400,000 a year. He earned that much while sitting out with an injury (which was said to be around $7,500 per week). When he returned from injury, RVD changed his payment method based on the shows he worked, thinking he would earn more per week that way. Instead, a wide range of payments followed.

With ECW not drawing well by itself for House Show and PPV events, RVD's weekly paychecks saw a dramatic decrease. In the end, however, it didn't really matter; at the end of the contract year he will end up receiving a "make-good" check for however short his combined weekly pay was.

As far as jumping to TNA Wrestling goes: With top stars such as Sting earning around $500,000 per year, it is believed that TNA could offer RVD a deal for around $250,000.