Nick Khan on Not Being Worried About Criticism of WrestleMania 42 Build, Political Environment Being Too Tough To Make Into WWE Storyling with ICE Arresting WWE Talents, WWE’s Putting Focus on Future Stars After WrestleMania 41, & More

The Las Vegas Review-Journal held a recent interview with WWE President Nick Khan. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about him not being worried about the criticism of the build for WrestleMania 42.

“Let’s see the reaction [when] the show is done. I think a lot of times with WWE storylines, they take a moment to develop. We have the good fortune when we’re on the inside of knowing where we’re going. If you look at the two main events, there is real heat there and when the storylines are blurred between reality and pre-determined outcomes in WWE, we think that always delivers. And with the (Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton) especially with the addition of Pat McAfee, we think both will overdeliver.

Let’s see.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about how the economic health of Las Vegas is important to WWE and its parent company TKO, especially due to the city being UFC’s home.

“There’s no city that can handle big events greater than Las Vegas can. It was a no-brainer to come back again. It motivated us further when we read that Vegas was in a bit of an economic downturn because we think big events like this can help stimulate an economy and that local economy matters to me and it matters to our business at TKO, especially with UFC headquartered in Las Vegas as well as Zuffa Boxing. We’re excited to have the event and fingers crossed on people leaving the event happy. We believe that will be the case.”

In a separate recent interview with The Bill Simmons Podcast, Khan also gave his thoughts about how the current political environment is too tough for WWE to even bother considering doing any potential political-related storylines such as ICE officers arresting WWE talents at shows.

Bill Simmons – “Would you ever consider doing the 80s thing, using WWE to mirror things that are going on in real life, like some of the political stuff? That seems like that ship sailed 20 years ago?”

Nick Khan – “Too tough. It’s too tough with the political environment now. Like to have ICE officers arresting like Dragon Lee…”

Simmons – “You could never do any of that stuff. That would be crazy. Yeah, that would be awful.”

Khan – “You couldn’t do it, yeah.”

Simmons – “But could you do like, I don’t know, somebody like a super left liberal wrestler as a heel, who’s just like constantly correcting everybody? Or do like a super MAGA? Like, you just would stay away completely from all that stuff?”

Khan – “We did it for a moment in time in NXT when we were coming out of COVID. The guy who’s in the Wyatt Sicks now, Joe Gacy, before he would, let’s say, body slam you, he would apologize that he had to.”

Simmons – “That didn’t work? [laughs]”

Khan – “No, it didn’t work. But he was like, ‘I’m very sorry that I have to wrestle you.’”

Simmons – “So like a politically correct angle?”

Khan – “Right. For everything, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’”

Khan also gave his thoughts about how how WWE put their eye on the future as the company’s focus after WrestleMania 41.

“So here’s the good thing — a year ago, so right after WrestleMania last year, Triple H and I got together and we said, ‘Okay, let’s take a look at the future.’ Let’s look at our top male superstars. [John] Cena was obviously his retirement year. We have, and you tell me if you categorize these as our top men in some order, Roman [Reigns], Cody [Rhodes], [CM] Punk, Seth [Rollins], Brock [Lesnar]. Put Drew [McIntyre] in there, yeah. And he adds to the narrative. They’re all 40 years or older.

So we said, ‘All right, we got to make sure we’re preparing for the future here.’ We went down to our Performance Center to see Shawn Michaels and Matt Bloom who run that on a day-to-day basis and run NXT with us. And we said, ‘Okay, let’s take a look at the talent here.’ How come D-X, for example, when it was first starting to pop, Triple H I think was like 26. Why is it taking longer?”

Khan also gave his thoughts about the reasons why WWE scaled back on their house show events schedule in recent years.

“Think about every wrestling documentary you’ve ever seen. Usually about wrestlers in the 80s started off with, ‘I was on the road 300 days a year.’ It’s no way — and then you saw the results of that. Forget family life, but you saw what people would do to make sure that their bodies could perform at that level.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about his belief that Rhea Ripley will be WWE’s biggest star will be in 2033.

“I think there’s a shot for a couple people, I think. Keep in mind Rhea is in her late 20s, Rhea Ripley. She’s amazing. She has a chance. She’s already up there.”

Khan also gave his praise of Logan Paul, Bron Breakker, Oba Femi, and Trick Williams as potential options for WWE’s top star in 2033.

“I’m high on Logan Paul. He’s good, dude. And by the way, he puts in the work. I’m high on Bron. We cannot rush it, though. Gotta sort of let him develop at his own pace. And he’s an excellent athlete who obviously grew up in the wrestling business, but let it develop at its own pace, which we’re all on the same page about.

I think all three of those. Oba is an obvious one. I’m high on Trick. I like the fact that he’s an SEC athlete. I like the fact that he sort of inherently understands media. I like the fact — I always look for people whose inner voice matches their outer voice. I look for that in wrestlers. I look for it in political people. You know, if your inner voice matches your outer voice, you have a shot. Trick Williams is Trick Williams. So I like that.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com 1, 2, & 3