Select Answers: Bayley, Injury Extensions, Jay WHite

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

***

Will Bayley catch any heat for doing the IG Live with Mercedes yesterday about their Brooklyn match? Obviously Mercedes promoted her stuff like being the belt collector. But there isn't anything for Bayley to talk about. WWE has really dropped the ball with her this year. Can't help but think some in WWE don't agree with her outside decisions.

Nope. She won't. Maybe in the 1990s or 2000s you would have got heat for that, but certainly not today. If so, there would be a heavy fan revolt. Also, it's very tough to tell someone they're an independent contractor and repeatedly stress that point, then tell them that they can't do a harmless Instagram Live with a close friend that created a huge moment for your company and division.

When a wrestler's contract is extended for injury time, does their regular rate of pay continue during that extension period? Like a 12 month $120k deal becomes a 15 month, $150k deal?

Yes, they are still on their guaranteed pay rate for the last year of the contract. So for example, If I signed a three year deal -- year one 100k, year two 125k, year three 150k, and I get injured for six months, a company can extend it due to injury time. They would then pay me those six months at the average of that final year. They can't usually just extend it and not pay for services.

Jay white status?

Jay White is not expected to return to All Elite Wrestling this year. He had a hand injury that already was going to sideline him for months, but he probably would have been back by now. However, he's been battling a shoulder injury for quite some time and had to make the decision on getting that taken care of. As a result, he's missing a lot longer than originally anticipated. They do not expect to have him back in 2025. It's unfortunate, as the Bang Bang Gang can't seem to stay healthy together.