Tag: Nick Khan

WWE president Nick Khan reveals Tim Tebow nearly fought at Wrestlemania after Patriots release

How Tim Tebow vs. The Big Show at Wrestlemania almost became a real thing

Tim Tebow competing at Wrestlemania was almost a thing, according to Nick Khan.

On Tuesday, Khan was a guest on “The Pat McAfee Show,” and he talked about his rise to power from a sports agent to the president of World Wrestling Entertainment.

It all started with a phone call from Paul Levesque, who is widely known by his stage name “Triple H”. According to Khan, Levesque gave him a call following Tebow’s release from the New England Patriots and inquired about a WWE opportunity.

The WWE was considering doing a matchup between Tebow and Paul Wight, who is known by pro wrestling fans as “The Big Show”.

“When I was an agent in my prior profession and I was trying to get into the WWE business, Paul had called me, unsolicited call,” said Khan. “And this is when Tim Tebow had just gotten cut by the Patriots, Paul called me and said, ‘Hey, I just wanted to introduce myself, my name is Paul Leveque. And I said, ‘Yeah, Triple H, I know who you are. I remember you as Terra Ryzing,’ his former wrestling name from WCW [World Championship Wrestling].’

“He said, ‘What do you think of Tim Tebow against The Big Show at whatever that Wrestlemania was after the Patriots run. I said, ‘Well, what are you thinking?’ He offered some financial terms. I called Tim at the time, ‘What do you think?’ Tim and I had then a top secret, private meeting—Tim Tebow, myself, Vince McMahon, Triple H in Anaheim, California about that. Ultimately, it didn’t happen.”

Tebow was cut by the Patriots in August 2013, which means the Wrestlemania event Khan is likely referring to is Wrestlemania XXX. That was the same event that Brock Lesnar ended The Undertaker’s legendary 21-match Wrestlemania winning streak.

It’s pretty surreal to think Tebow could have been on that historic card as well in a one-on-one matchup with the seven-foot, 383-pound Big Show.

Meanwhile, the initial phone call with Triple H created the link Khan needed to ultimately make the transition to one of the primary figureheads in the most recognized professional wrestling brand in the world.

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WWE’s Nick Khan sees ‘aggressive’ cuts after UFC merger but product ‘untouched’

Cuts are going to happen when WWE merges with UFC, but it’s not the wrestlers who will feel the effects.

When the merger of WWE and UFC to create a new, publicly traded company is finalized later this year, parent company Endeavor is likely to lay people off as a cost-cutting measure — just not in-ring performers.

That was the message delivered by current WWE CEO Nick Khan, who will stay on as WWE president in the new entity, in his recent conversation with Lightshed Partners (registration required). Khan said that the goal would be to save at least $50 million in costs, something that would require the integration teams to be “pretty aggressive” when addressing how the new company would look (h/t TJR Wrestling for the transcription).

If you look at what Endeavor was able to take out, cost-wise, from UFC in 2016 or shortly after that deal was done, we have the same expectation here. We think 50 (million) is a really conservative number. We have integration teams now, we’re going to get those in shape, I think we’ll have a better sense of it in a month or two.

We’re going to be pretty aggressive with them to make sure that, for our shareholders and for our company, our organisation is as lean and mean as possible, and we’re going to rely on the Endeavor flywheel to make up the rest.

The probability of extensive behind-the-scenes layoffs was raised by Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer earlier this week when he stopped by our Under the Ring podcast. But Meltzer also predicted there would be little noticeable effect on weekly WWE programming, and that’s something Khan also addressed.

Notably, he suggested that there wouldn’t be roster cuts as the merger went forward — or at least none mandated by Endeavor, leaving any personnel decisions about the actual wrestlers up to Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Kevin Dunn.

The most important thing is to leave the product untouched. Untouched, meaning, if Triple H and Kevin Dunn want to evolve it, great, but in terms of cutbacks there, that’s not what we’re looking to do.

No name has been announced yet for the combined WWE-UFC company, though it will likely trade under the stock ticker symbol ‘TKO.’ Barring any unforeseen developments, the merger is expected to be formally completed later this year.

Nick Saban almost left Alabama for ESPN

Nick Saban almost left Alabama for ESPN nearly a decade ago!

In a new book titled, “The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban,” by Senior sports editor and SEC Insider of AL.com, John Talty, [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag] is revealed to have almost left the Crimson Tide for an analyst role with ESPN.

The Crimson Tide head coach was in talks with ESPN after the 2013 season when Alabama was eliminated from national title contention by the Auburn Tigers and the infamous ‘Kick Six.’ Saban reached out to Nick Khan, who at the time represented Kirk Herbstreit, Colin Cowherd and many other famous media personalities, to discuss the dynamics of ESPN’s organization and what working on a team would look like.

Ultimately, Saban elected to stay in Tuscaloosa, and Khan said, “Not because we didn’t have a good conversation and not because he wasn’t intrigued by television because he was intrigued and he was interested… Coach is really appreciative of the meeting, found it to be very informative, and has a lot of respect for GameDay and ESPN, but at this point in his career, he still has a desire to coach.”

Staying at the collegiate level has ultimately been the right move as Saban has won multiple national titles since then, but the question to join the media will always be persistent.

When asked what Saban’s future might hold, and if he might coach in the NFL again Herbstreit said, “Nick Saban will be on the set with us before he’s a coach in the NFL. I really believe that after he’s done at Alabama, whenever that time is, whether it’s a year, five years, whatever it is, I really believe there’s an itch there about becoming an analyst.”

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