Nick Khan Says His Skillset Impressed Vince McMahon Enough To Hire Him

Nick Khan’s growing influence in sports entertainment cannot be ignored. Khan has been part of WWE for just over a year now and serves as the WWE President and Chief Revenue Officer. He recently spoke about his relationship with the company when he worked as a Creative Artists agent.

Khan spoke with The Town elaborating on his early dealings with Vince McMahon’s promotion. In 2012, Khan joined (CAA), a talent agency group that focuses on creating opportunities and deals for who they represent. One of the organizations Khan represented was WWE.

“I had the good fortune of getting into WWE’s business as their agent while I was at CA,” Khan said. “We had had some success together. In 2017, we all started working on the US media rights deal together. It was reported at $130 million a year as the AAV for RAW and SmackDown. We got in business together and there was a heavy multiple on that. I think it went to 3.6 times or something of that effect for those rights.

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“When you have success with somebody, it gives you an even better glimpse into the world they live. In doing some other deals with WWE, the Hulu deal at the time, and some stuff in the UK, we had also had some failures together. That’s also a good thing when you want to get into business with somebody.”

Khan was already in talks to join WWE by 2020. He spoke about the time when Vince McMahon called him with the opportunity.

“When Vince called me about 18 months or so ago and said, ‘Hey, there’s an opportunity here. I want to hire someone who I think is a non-traditional executive for this role. I’d like to talk to you about it,’” Khan said. “My wife and I had bailed on Los Angeles a couple of months into COVID with our children. We had gone to Hawaii, and because of the time difference there you’re done with work at three o’clock local and you’re in the pool with your kids, barbecuing, etc. It was all great.

“[Vince] was not interested in me telling him how great Hawaii was. He was interested in getting together the next day. I flew on a non-stop from Honolulu to New York. We got together and we shook hands on a deal.”

Khan is reportedly the favorite to replace Vince McMahon once the boss retires, and ever since assuming his position at WWE, he has helped the company land several deals, including the migration of the WWE Network to Peacock.

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