WWE President Nick Khan has opened up about the company’s ongoing media rights partnership with ESPN, detailing how key distribution obstacles were overcome and explaining why WWE avoids making reactive creative decisions based on online criticism.
Speaking with John Ourand on The Varsity, Khan expressed satisfaction with the trajectory of the deal while outlining the strategic patience required to secure maximum distribution across major platforms like Comcast and YouTube.
Overcoming Distribution Hurdles With ESPN
Reflecting on the initial rollout of the ESPN arrangement, Khan praised Disney executives for delivering on critical distribution promises:
“Great, but we always want growth. So we knew going into the deal that the Comcast distribution deal was not done. ESPN promised us it would get done. It got done.”
“We knew YouTube, as you just mentioned, that deal wasn’t done. If Justin Connolly over there, he obviously knows the space, you know, quite well considering all of his experience at Disney, that he’s now taken over to YouTube. Well, that deal wasn’t done. They promised us that it would get done. It got done. So now we have the distribution that we needed from the outset that we knew was going to take a minute.”
“You Cannot Be Reactive”: Khan On Social Media Criticism
Addressing fan complaints on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Khan likened modern social media to old-fashioned restaurant complaint cards, noting that online outrage rarely reflects majority public opinion:
“And by the way, in terms of complaints, sports fans in general, it’s sort of why Twitter, now X, was created. It’s almost like when you and I were much younger. Do you remember, like, comment or complaint cards? Like, restaurants would have them… But that’s not what that medium was created for. What it was created for was, ‘The service was terrible. The food was terrible. I didn’t like it.’ So you’d only get complaints.”
“And by the way, those complaints, some of them we look at and we say, ‘Hey, there’s some truth to this. Let’s make a little adjustment here,’ this and that. But you cannot cater—you’ve seen this in politics. If you believe what social media says, you will incorrectly predict so many outcomes.”
Khan pointed to political polling inaccuracies to emphasize why WWE relies on internal leadership rather than internet narratives:
“So for companies that read it and believe it and react to it, it never, ever works. Even if you see some of these companies that took some of these far-right or far-left positions, that’s not what most people are looking for. Most people are looking for left of center, right of center. They’re looking for the same thing in the sports space.”
“So you cannot be reactive to that sort of thing. You have to rely on your team to know. We have the best creative in terms of all of wrestling and Triple H, real name Paul Levesque. We have the best live events team, in my opinion. We have the best merchandise consumer products team. They’re able to monetize it.”
“And if you’ve seen the growth at TKO, that’s, you know, UFC, WWE, On Location, IMG, PBR, each of these continue to grow every year. It’s not easy, but it’s not supposed to be easy. So you got to continue to develop and redevelop what you do, and you got to make sure that you have the right team in place that can help you make the right decisions.”
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