>>10250442Because they're paid whatever their contract is for, but have the ability to take outside indie bookings as well. But now AEW has a new show on Saturdays, which is the day of the week most indies do their shows. Therefore, AEW talent is getting paid the same amount, but are now unavailable to take those indie bookings on Saturdays to get that extra income. It's not costing them more, they're just unable to get the extra money from working indies on weekends.
In other words, Tony should be paying them more to be truly exclusive to AEW, or a lot of the talent that left WWE to go to AEW for the easier schedule are just going to bail as soon as their contract runs out.