6 Major things WWE President Nick Khan revealed in his rare interview with Ariel Helwani
Nick Khan took over as the President of WWE half a year after the company had relieved George Barrios and Michelle Wilson of their duties. WWE had announced the hiring of Khan as the new President and Chief Revenue Officer.
Even Vince McMahon was full of praise for him:
“Nick is a seasoned media executive with a deep understanding of our business and a proven track record of generating significant value for sports and entertainment properties,” said Vince McMahon.
Nick Khan doesn't make too many public appearances. He has been heard in WWE press conferences making comments as well as an occasional interview or two. But nobody has gone more in-depth with Khan than BT Sport's Ariel Helwani, a world-renowned MMA journalist.
Nick Khan's interview with Ariel Helwani was revealing. Khan was Helwani's former manager/agent and they made sure to clarify this beforehand. What was more surprising, however, is how frank and straightforward Ariel Helwani was about the questions he asked.
Nick Khan hasn't always been popular with WWE despite him hardly speaking out. As you will see in this list, there are a lot of topics that Khan covers, including the WWE releases, NXT's rebranding, competition with AEW, The Rock's return and so much more:
#6. Nick Khan on how much he cares about "taking the heat" for WWE releases
Sean Ross Sapp from Fightful, in a deleted tweet from June, said:
“We were told that Nick Khan specifically is willing to take the heat and did not seem concerned about prior plans, projects, who the person or married to, how long they’ve been signed, or what they have going on,” said Sean Ross Sapp.
While we will get to the WWE releases in-depth a bit later on, Nick Khan was asked about the criticism that he receives from people online. He said that he's only an observer of Twitter and not a user. To add to it, he essentially confirmed Sean Ross Sapp's tweet from June, saying:
"When something's a disaster I want all the credit, when it's a hit I want none of the credit. If I'm blamed for what the fans don't like, that's good by me," said Nick Khan.
Khan specified that while he cares about people close to him and what they think of him, he couldn't be bothered by people he doesn't know. He essentially said that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and said that he is willing to take any heat for the controversial decisions.
We doubt that this will do much to increase Nick Khan's popularity, but we also doubt that he cares very much.