WWE Executive Nick Khan discusses big upcoming changes for NXT, if WWE is pursuing a sale, its role in the talent reduction process, and why there have been so many cuts



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By Jason Powell, editor of ProWrestling.net (@prowrestlingnet)

Here are some of the highlights from Ariel Helwani’s interview on Saturday with WWE President and Revenue Director Nick Khan, which can be watched in full below or via BT Sport’s YouTube page. .

If he is involved in talent reduction decisions: “We are a collective. And keep in mind in WWE, as you know there is one boss, that’s Vince [McMahon], as we all know. So between Bruce Prichard who oversees the entire creative process, between Kevin Dunn who oversees all of our production, between Stephanie McMahon, Paul Levesque, all are involved in these decisions, with ultimately Vince making the final decision on everything.

Why there have been so many talent cuts: “I don’t know if there is an explanation for this. I think at the end of the day what is being examined is that this person is going to move us the needle now or in the near future. [Khan mentioned the signings that came out of the Las Vegas talent tryouts]… We are always looking for the next step. We live in the present, we live in the future, we do not live in the past. So when people leave and go on with their lives and careers, that’s good for us. For us, that’s what works for us and our product then and again, what will work later, and in large part, in part, the existing list is based on that.

-By saying WWE is “open for business”: “When I say we’re open for business, that means if someone credible calls with anything, NFT, trading cards, international rights, we take the call. We are salespeople inherently… If you call and you want to pitch something to us and you are a credible company, we will hear the pitch. But we’re an entrepreneurial business that Vince and others have built over the past 35 years or so. And we always want to stay fresh and entrepreneurial in our minds. When I say open for business, if someone calls, believable, asking, hey, are you guys selling, what’s your offer, what are you thinking about. We are not trying to sell it. It is not our intention. There are no internal meetings to try to sell this business. Internal meetings focus on its growth and the ability we collectively believe we have to significantly increase the current value of the business. ” [Khan added that they are not in any active conversations about selling.]

On NXT modifications: “We’re doing a complete overhaul of NXT led by ‘Triple H’ Paul Levesque, who is truly one of the architects of the original NXT. So what we found is kind of why we tried it out yesterday, what we want to make sure it’s easy for people who want to be WWE Superstars is figure out how. becoming WWE Superstars… We want our system to be a simple system where people who want to be superstars, they know how to reach us and we can reach them. In terms of rebranding NXT, look for it. In the next few weeks, it’s going to have a whole new look, it’s going to have a whole new feel. And we believe because a lot of independent wrestlers if you will have gone through our system and are in our system with Smackdown and Raw now, we don’t want to keep doing the same, we want to look elsewhere for some good young talent. “

Powell’s point of view: Khan added that the appearance and production of the NXT show will change over the next few weeks. NXT is recording several shows this week, and then they’ll be doing studio shows, so I’m guessing the changes Khan referred to won’t start until after the shows are recorded this week. Khan also opened up about his professional wrestling fandom, attending Paul Levesque’s birthday party and how that played a big part in his work for WWE, the last year of working for WWE. , the company moving forward during the pandemic, with former WWE talent moving to AEW, working with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, if pay-per-views will switch to Saturday, the duration of the Raw and Smackdown TV shows , and more.

Listen to “Podcast 11/18 Pro Wrestling Boom with Jason Powell (Episode 136): Court Bauer on Rebooting MLW, Pandemic Precautions, and more” on Spreaker.



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