After lower than 10 years, ESPN’s contract with well-liked broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit is expiring.
As one of many main voices in faculty soccer, it was crucial that ESPN preserve him on the community. Continuing his profession was a high precedence for ESPN president John Skipper.
Herbstreit’s agent was Nick Carn, a reputation that has grow to be very acquainted to skilled wrestling followers. So Skipper organized a gathering with Khan. In the midst of New Orleans’ vibrant French Quarter, Skipper met with Khan to hammer out the small print of his new contract.
“We had been on the oldest bar in New Orleans, and Nick picked up a cocktail serviette and wrote down what he was in search of,” Skipper recollects. “He arms it to me and I write the counter. We preserve going forwards and backwards to the counter and I do not know what number of occasions I went to the counter, however finally on one of many cocktail napkins… An settlement was reached. When I feel again to these negotiations, it is easy to recollect how a lot enjoyable I at all times had working with Nick.”
Skipper led ESPN from 2012 to 2017. He first turned acquainted with Khan years in the past as ESPN’s head of programming and manufacturing, a task he accepted in October 2005 and have become answerable for all expertise on the station.
“Nick represented plenty of expertise at ESPN, so we obtained to know one another very well,” Skipper stated. “The very first thing that struck me about Nick was his perspective of enthusiastic about what the individual throughout the desk cared about. Lots of people got here as much as me and stated, ‘This is what we wish, that is what we wish. That’s what we want.’ But that’s not Nick.”
For years, individuals have questioned what would occur if WWE modified to a brand new head. With Mr. Khan overseeing the corporate, that query was answered. The first WrestleMania was held in 1985, and the Vince McMahon period of WWE was a hit, however there have been all types of gaping holes within the enterprise. Under Khan’s management, it has been attention-grabbing to look at his WWE evolution happen in a surprisingly brief time frame, even earlier than McMahon left the chief crew.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Nick Carn
Provided by: WWE
The firm is not in his arms as all main figures within the firm have now said that McMahon’s solely function in WWE is as a stockholder. Khan is the person entrusted with the mission of main WWE into the longer term. Levesque is usually heard proclaiming a “new period” for his WWE, a phrase that will probably be repeated all through WrestleMania 40, with Khan and Levesque forming a strong tandem. And though Levesque is McMahon’s son-in-law, Khan has confirmed that he can survive inside his household’s enterprise with out being too concerned.
“Nick is guarded, however he is guarded with a objective,” stated Skipper, who stays a outstanding determine within the sports activities world as DAZN’s govt chairman and co-founder of Meadowlark Media. “You get to know Nick, and he is a really personable, sincere man. But he is guarded as a result of he needs to go about his enterprise. He’s not going to waste his time. He would not transfer the goalposts and may be very considerate in his negotiations.
John Skipper
ESPN
Under Khan’s management, what was as soon as thought-about a no-go space now has the potential to grow to be a brand new income. Finding younger stars and evolving from a linear weekly TV distribution is clearly a spotlight for Khan. That’s evident in WWE’s groundbreaking 10-year cope with Netflix, a transfer that opens up totally new avenues of success for the expertise and the model as an entire.
We at the moment are extra targeted than ever on worldwide development. Unlike McMahon’s tried-and-true method, which noticed WWE intermittently tour all through Europe, Khan’s method is to carry main occasions to the worldwide market. After going to Montreal (Elimination Chamber), Puerto Rico (Backlash), London (Money within the Bank) and Saudi Arabia (Night of Champions, Crown Jewel) in 2023, this yr he’ll return to France (Backlash). I plan to cease by Rush. Jeddah (King and Queen of the Ring), Glasgow (Clash within the Castle), Toronto (Money within the Bank), Berlin (Bash in Berlin) and this after already touring to Perth (Elimination Chamber) in February belongs to. This technique will even create extra demand within the US, additional growing WWE’s media rights charges.
I’ve spoken to quite a few individuals surrounding Khan and so they say considered one of WWE’s potential pursuits is to plan collaborations with different professional wrestling promotions. It’s territory WWE has hardly ever explored throughout McMahon’s 40-plus years of management, and it means new territory for Khan to make an enduring affect. He was answerable for giving Levesque the inexperienced gentle to work with then-TNA Wrestling President Scott D’Amore, which resulted in up-and-coming star Jordynne Grace, the TNA Knockouts Champion, competing within the Women’s Royal Rumble previously. I used to be scheduled to participate within the match. January.
Ambitious Khan focuses on event-driven leisure, driving curiosity in every occasion. Building on that concept, a number of events near Khan confirmed his aim to broaden WWE’s mental property, particularly in Las Vegas, a metropolis that loves leisure. Las Vegas, in fact, hosted WrestleMania IX at Caesar’s Palace in 1993, an occasion the place Khan served as an usher. It’s attainable that he’ll be stationed in Las Vegas, but it surely’s much more seemingly that his WWE IP will probably be put in in slot machines on the airport or throughout the Strip.
Curious concerning the enterprise as an entire, Khan narrowed his focus to WWE. Although he’s a forward-thinking govt, his private contact has fueled his success. Both Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and CM Punk have credited Khan with being primarily answerable for their respective comebacks. If you discuss to lots of Kahn’s associates, every one will inform you extra about Kahn’s genuinely honest method.
Khan is a driving drive in WWE. He plans to take the worldwide model to locations it has by no means been earlier than, fairly a feat for the world’s strongest skilled wrestling group.
“The solely prediction is that he’ll proceed to develop there or elsewhere,” Skipper stated. “He’s nonetheless a fairly younger man. We’ll be listening to from Nick for a very long time.”