WWE’s waves of releases over the past two years combined with posting record profits has led some fans to believe that Vince McMahon and WWE president Nick Khan are trying to position the company to where they can be sold to a major media conglomerate in the near future. Khan spoke with the John Ourand of The Sports Business Journal this week and was asked about that theory.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Ourand wrote, “Khan said the company has taken some inbound calls from companies looking to buy. But he stressed that WWE is not in active conversations trying to sell the company and is not actively looking to sell.”
“If it once was a mom-and-pop shop, Vince certainly didn’t believe it was anymore,” Khan said regarding why McMahon hired him. “Part of what I believe he was looking for in bringing in someone from the outside was to make sure the community at large didn’t treat it that way. We believe we’re a global content company.”
In a separate interview with Ariel Helwani back in August during SummerSlam weekend, Khan was asked directly about the cause behind the releases. He explained, “I don’t know that there’s one explanation for it,” Khan said. “I think ultimately what’s looked at is, is this person — for us — going to move the needle now, or in the imminent future. So, by the way, we had a tryout, a two-day tryout in Las Vegas which ended yesterday. Which Triple H, and Johnny Laurinaitis, and Bruce Prichard were all across, as were the rest of us. We’ve signed over a dozen new talent coming out of that tryout. And I’m not suggesting, “Oh that’s why we cut the other talent.” But we’re always looking for what’s next. We live in the present, we live in the future. We don’t live in the past. So when people leave, and they move on with their life and their careers? That’s good by us. For us, it’s what works for us and our product at that moment in time, and again, what’s gonna work down the road. And largely in part the existing roster is based on that.”
The total number of releases in 2021 eclipsed 80 wrestlers and an unknown number of employees. The first week of 2022 saw another round of cuts, this time including Samoa Joe, NXT General Manager William Regal and WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg.
