According to Conrad Thompson, WWE Co-CEO Nick Khan stands to gain financially if the company gets sold.
The Wall Street Journal reported on January 5 that Vince McMahon was planning to return to WWE, and the former CEO confirmed the news, as he intended to participate in media rights negotiations. The next day, McMahon returned to the WWE Board of Directors, and WWE confirmed the news. A subsequent report stated that WWE hired JPMorgan to advise as the company prepares for a potential sale.
Speaking on the What Happened When podcast, Thompson described how he heard that, per Khan’s contract with WWE, he would get a big payday in the event that the company was sold. Specifically, he shared that Khan would apparently get paid more than what AEW’s TV contract pays in a year.
“I’ve been saying on this program for a while that WWE was gonna sell,” Thompson said. “You know why I said that? Because I knew. Remember when Nick Khan first joined WWE? He joined, and he was an agent. He was a guy who was helping negotiate contracts and make deals and things like that, and I happen to have some friends who need representation like that. My friend was represented by the same company that Nick Khan was sort of running. When my friend sees that the guy who runs this big agency is now going to WWE, he thought, ‘What the f—- ? This doesn’t make any sense.’ He called his contact and said, ‘Dude, what’s up with Nick going [WWE)?’
“He said, this is years ago now, ‘Yeah, he’s got a deal with Vince where his contract gets a big payday when he helps facilitate a sale.’ He told me the number because that’s talking about someone else’s money and that’s not cool. But let’s just say this, it’s more than AEW’s TV contract is for a year. It’s a lot. I’ve heard back channel, before Mean Gene [Gene Okerlund] passed away, he said, ‘Well, I heard from…’ I won’t say who he heard from, ‘when the stock gets to so and so…’ this has been brewing for a while.”
Khan has been with WWE since 2020, when he was hired as President and Chief Revenue Officer. He became the Co-CEO alongside Stephanie McMahon after Vince McMahon retired amid an investigation by the WWE board into claims of sexual misconduct and hush money on July 22, 2022.
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