WWE President Nick Khan Throws Measured Jabs at AEW In Recent Interview
WWE President Nick Khan Downplays AEW, Says Talent Will 'Come Over' When Contracts Expire
WWE President Nick Khan appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast this week to promote WrestleMania 41 and, in true corporate fashion, offered some highly polished but unmistakably pointed comments about AEW.
Nick Khan was asked whether he considers All Elite Wrestling to be competition. Without naming Tony Khandirectly, he subtly jabbed at the rival promotion and its ownership:
"In terms of the other wrestling promotional company, they have a lot of talented wrestlers and we're happy about that. When, contractually, they are available to talk to and have conversations with, assume a number of them will come over.
Nothing but respect to the father who finances it and owns the Jaguars and all those other things."
That final line, delivered in the most polite way possible, was widely interpreted as a dig at Tony Khan. But the jab feels outdated. AEW recently secured a major broadcast deal with Warner Bros Discovery, making the promotion profitable and far less reliant on outside funding. It’s unlikely that Tony Khan’s father, Shad Khan, is still injecting any new capital into the company.
Nick Khan also took the opportunity to throw another jab, this time aimed at how AEW handles its loaded talent roster:
"That's something we won't do. We won't sign and bench people. We sign people who we want to use. If another entity signs and benches people like now, that's not something we would do."
It’s a bold stance, especially when WWE has a noticeable amount of talent currently not being featured on television, including names like Omos, Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax.
Despite being the biggest wrestling company in the world and generating hundreds of millions in revenue annually, Nick Khan still framed WWE as the scrappy underdog:
“We're always the underdog at WWE. We always feel that people underestimate us, that we're looked down upon. And we like it that way. Like bet against us. We prefer that and allow us to show you what we can do.”
With WrestleMania 41 just days away, Nick Khan’s comments signal WWE's continued confidence and their not-so-subtle intent to poach talent from elsewhere when the timing is right.