Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has mistaken the two Khans in professional wrestling.

All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan has appeared on Barstool’s Wrasslin’ show with Brandon Walker several times. AEW star MJF has the highest viewed videos on the show’s YouTube channel and makes sure to let Brandon know about it every time he appears on his show.

Barstool’s CEO Erika Nardini joined the WWE Board of Directors in 2020 to become the third female member of the then 12-person board. Earlier this month, Erika resigned from the company to focus more on her responsibilities at Barstool.

WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H recently sat down with Barstool competitor LADBible for an interview. It all may be a coincidence, but one thing is for certain, Dave Portnoy is not a fan of WWE co-CEO Nick Khan.

Nick Khan Complains About Barstool Van Talk

In 2017, ESPN brought on popular Barstool Sports personalities Big Cat and PFT Commenter. They host the very successful Pardon My Take podcast and the worldwide leader in sports wanted to capitalize and connect with a younger audience. The show was ordered for a twenty-week run.

‘Barstool Van Talk’ aired for one glorious week before it was shelved, and Big Cat & PFT were sent out the door. It was reported that Nick Khan, who worked as a CAA talent agent at the time, sent screenshots to then ESPN president John Skipper of controversial posts by Barstool in the past.

Following its cancelation, former ESPN President John Skipper issued a statement and claimed that ESPN could not distance itself from Barstool’s “controversial” past.

“Effective immediately, I am cancelling Barstool Van Talk. While we had approval on the content of the show, I erred in assuming we could distance our efforts from the Barstool site and its content. Apart from this decision, we appreciate the efforts of Big Cat and PFT Commenter. They delivered the show they promised.”

Dave Portnoy Mistakes The Khans

Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy has lived the American dream. He took his small self-published newspaper in Boston all the way to one of the most popular websites on the planet. The website has become such a destination that Hall of Famers like Deion Sanders are opting to work there over the NFL Network.

There are two things one you can count on when it comes to Dave Portnoy, almost everything he touches turns to gold and he holds a grudge better than everyone. Robbie Fox of Barstool announced that he will be interviewing Tony Khan today and El Presidente thought Tony was WWE co-CEO Nick Khan and fired off some insults.

Dan Katz (AKA Big Cat) responded that Nick Khan was the one that got it canceled and not Tony. The AEW President chimed in and said “2 more different people we could not be” before promoting Dynamite and Rampage this week.

Portnoy apologized for confusing the two and called the WWE CEO a “snake”. Portnoy added Nick is full of s*** and Tony is the Khan that the company likes.

WWE has reached an agreement with Foxtel Group, which is majority-owned by News Corp., for its rights in Australia. 

The WWE Network will be converted into Binge, a Foxtel outlet. Although the companies did not disclose any terms for the new multi-year agreement, Deadline reports a person familiar with the deal said it marks a significant increase over the prior one reached by the parties in 2017. 

WWE’s Latest Expansion

There are 4.5 million subscribers on Foxtel as well as streaming outlets Kayo Sports and Binge. The deal will see Foxtel launch a dedicated, 24/7 WWE channel, which will host all premium live events. 

These events used to cost $30 apiece on pay-per-view but now will be included at no extra charge on Fox8, a pay-TV channel owned by Foxtel.

“With its far-reaching and engaged audience, the Foxtel Group has been a trusted and long-standing partner of WWE for more than 20 years,” said WWE Chairwoman and Co-CEO Stephanie McMahon. “We look forward to expanding our partnership with the Foxtel Group and welcoming Binge as the new streaming home of WWE Network in the region.“

Binge, whose subscription plans start at $10 a month, will begin streaming WWE content in January 2023. 

WWE presents the Money in the Bank event tonight from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada that will air on Peacock.

SEScoops correspondent Stephanie Hypes is live in attendance and sent in these notes of what happened before the show went on the air:

Montez Ford was spotted in the crowd before the show started and jumped on a table.

WWE President Nick Khan was seen ringside before the show. 

The floor section has a bar section and merchandise stand.

The women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match will be opening the show, which means the men’s bout is slated to headline the event. 

You can see some photos and video from inside the arena below: 

Andrew Zarian, Dave Meltzer, Bryan Alvarez and Garrett Gonzalez talked about Stephanie McMahon taking a leave of absence during a special edition of “We’re Live Pal.” They discussed the various stories and rumors circulating about her decision to step away, at least for now. Zarian said that he had spoken with someone high up about Stephanie and that there was more to the story.

Stephanie’s Abilities As An Executive Called Into Question

“[It was a] very bizarre conversation, I’ll tell you that. I didn’t expect that phone call. It was a phone call that kind of veered into a discussion about Steph. So I asked and I was like, ‘Hey, anything I could add to this? What’s going on?’ And, you know, some of the comments, I was shocked. 

One being that people internally and this is coming from someone in the know in WWE. This wasn’t like a guy in catering,” Zarian said. 

Zarian added, “The comment was that internally, there was doubt put on Steph [and] her abilities as an executive. And a lot of this started after she absorbed some of Michelle Wilson’s responsibilities after she left. One [responsibility] being ad sales and sponsorship. And the comment that I found interesting was that they mentioned that the investors were questioning why they weren’t performing as well. And internally, there was some questioning as to why that wasn’t performing. 

I think a month ago, [WWE’s Head of Global Sales & Partnerships] Claudine Lilien…she went over to handle that and she was released a month ago and Nick [Khan] has taken over all these responsibilities. When the Shane issue happened at Royal Rumble, WWE was pretty quick to kind of say, yeah he got sent home for all the reasons that you heard, right? I was not expecting the words to be used for Steph because at the end of the day, the McMahons are the McMahons and they are the most protected people in that company.”

Miscommunications About Keeping The Story Under Wraps

Meltzer jumped in and added that he spoke to someone who heard that there were efforts to keep the story behind Stephanie’s absence out of the press. Meltzer said that this is a case of miscommunication because Zarian’s source wanted the story to get out.

Meltzer stated, “As far as Steph goes, like, if and when she comes back, and it won’t be soon, there’s a real good chance it won’t be in the same position… But it was interesting, because I talked to somebody about something similar and asked about Stephanie in that in that realm, and you know, certain things were explained that…there’s people who Stephanie dealt with that, but because Vince always had to answer, you know, she didn’t have the power. Nobody does. Vince has all the power. She’s someone who talks to Vince but at the end of the day, Vince is going to make those decisions. 

But the thing was, there’s some people who are saying stuff and a person told me – he’s like, ‘if anyone hears that, they’re gonna be gone. No one can say anything bad publicly about Steph.’ And it’s like like a left hand and a right hand thing. Yeah. You (Zarian) were told, in a way, because they wanted it out.”

Zarian said that the source used “buzzy” words with him and those were terms that they wanted him to use when leaking the story. Zarian pointed out how Nick Khan has now become a senior executive in WWE because of how many office people have been let go.

Speculation On Why The Story Was Leaked

Zarian began to speculate on the reason that his source would’ve wanted to get the story out with the buzzwords they used.

Zarian said, “So you could see that this is a big change. But now the big story is okay, so why would that comment be made? There’s a reason for it. You know, you can speculate all you want. Is it to disconnect the McMahons from the company a little bit so if there is a sale positioning, it’s easier on the audience, maybe? … Or it can easily be, you know, get the stories out there to make it easier to change that old guard in our company. I was really surprised, and I hear some wacky things from there from people like crazy, crazy things. I was really shocked to hear that this conversation would happen.”

H/T to Paul Davis of WrestlingNews.Co for the transcription

There is an update on the ticket sales for WrestleMania 38.

WWE President Nick Khan recently revealed to The Town with Matthew Belloni that he expects WrestleMania 38 to sell over 100,000 tickets for the two-night event. WrestleTix has provided an update on how the sales have been moving along.

Brandon Thurston added that he was told by the Arlington Police Department that 80,709 people went through the turnstiles for WrestleMania 32 back in 2016. That show was held inside AT&T Stadium just as WrestleMania 38 will.

Vince McMahon had announced an attendance of 101,763 for WrestleMania 32 during an earnings call. This included “ushers and ticket-takers.”

This year’s WrestleMania will feature the return of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on night one. He will be a guest on Kevin Owens’ “The KO Show.” This is expected to be a “fight sequence” rather than a match.

Night one will also feature Charlotte putting her SmackDown Women’s Championship on the line against Ronda Rousey. Bianca Belair will challenge Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship, and Seth Rollins will face a mystery opponent.

Night two will be headlined by a “Winner Takes All” title unification match between WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns and WWE Titleholder Brock Lesnar.

Check out our WrestleMania 38 predictions here.

WWE finds itself in an interesting time as they are making more money than ever thanks to lucrative television deals with NBCU and FOX in addition to the big money they receive twice a year for holding two events per year in Saudi Arabia. 

WWE made a new SEC filing that revealed the salaries for Vince McMahon and Nick Khan. The WWE Chairman made 1.4 million last year while now he is making $2 million per year while the WWE Chief Revenue Officer is making 1.2 million. 

Khan also has a sign-on equity grant, which was previously $9 million. It has risen to $7.5 million this year, which makes it a total of $16 million. McMahon has 42% stock of the company and also has 83% of the company’s voting power. 

Last year in an SEC filing, WWE revealed that Stephanie McMahon was making $730,000 as Chief Brand Officer while EVP, Global Talent Strategy & Development Triple H earned $730,000. 

Last month, WWE reported its 2021 earnings. Revenue increased 12% to $1.095 billion, which is the highest in the company’s history, in which they netted $63.9 million. In the fourth quarter alone they made $310.3 million of which they netted $180.4 million

Mickie James not only made history at Royal Rumble on screen but she also got closure on some past events backstage at the show.

The Impact Knockouts champion recently had an interview with SportsKeeda. She discussed her Royal Rumble appearance among other things.

During the talk, Mickie revealed that the new WWE president Nick Khan actually apologized to her for the infamous trash bag incident:

“Nick Khan came up to me at the show [Royal Rumble] and apologized. I think he was a part of the company but I hadn’t met him or knew who he was at that time, because it was an early transitional phase.

But even he apologized to me and (said) this should have never happened, and I agree.” said Mickie James, “It should have never happened, it shouldn’t have happened ten years ago, and now it will never happen again.”

• Mickie James Believes WWE And Impact Will Work Together Again

For those who don’t know, the former WWE star was let go from her contract back in April 2021. It was part of the budget cuts that saw several other talents being released alongside the wrestling veteran.

However, James revealed that she was sent her belongings in a trash bag. This revelation stirred up a big controversy leading to the firing of senior executive Mark Carrano from the company.

During WWE’s 4th quarter earnings call this week, Nick Khan noted that he is hopeful to run more events per year from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is believed that WWE brings in $50 million per show for each event they run from the country.

The upcoming Elimination Chamber show on February 19th will be WWE’s 7th event in Saudi Arabia as part of their deal with the Kingdom. The first event was The Greatest Royal Rumble held on April 27th, 2018, just weeks after that year’s WrestleMania. Braun Strowman won a 50-man Royal Rumble event that year. Other matches on that show saw Brock Lesnar defeating Roman Reigns in a steel cage match for the Universal Championship and the Undertaker defeating Rusev.

Crown Jewel in 2018 saw Shawn Michaels return to the ring. He teamed with Triple H and faced The Undertaker and Kane.

Elimination Chamber Lineup

• Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship: Bobby Lashley defends against Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Riddle, Austin Theory, and AJ Styles.
• RAW Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch defends against Lita.
• WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships: The Usos defend against the Viking Raiders.
• Universal Championship: Roman Reigns defends against Goldberg.
• Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss.

Nick Khan was featured in a piece by the Sports Business Journal where he talked about his role as president and chief revenue officer in WWE. 

Over the past two years, there have been mass talent releases and WWE cited budget cuts as the reason for them despite the company making more money than ever. Many have blamed Khan for the cuts and speculation has been that he is setting the company to be sold in the coming years. By cutting talent and employees, it makes the company even more profitable. 

The article cited Khan stating “the company has taken some inbound calls from companies looking to buy. But he stressed that WWE is not in active conversations trying to sell the company and is not actively looking to sell.”

The article mentioned WWE’s big media deals in recent years including WWE’s $1 billion streaming deal with Peacock and the multipart documentary on the life of Vince McMahon, which is being produced by Bill Simmons. 

One strategy done by the company is shifting PPV events from Sundays to Saturdays, which was first done with SummerSlam and later Day 1. Royal Rumble will also be one of those events to be held on a different night of the week from its traditional Sunday night slot. 

Khan noted that this move is “a huge opportunity to grow revenue in the live events business” and ticket sales for this month’s Royal Rumble are tracking at an all-time high.

The Rock has revealed his childhood friendship with the current WWE president Nick Khan and his sister Nahnatchka.

The great one made an Instagram post earlier today. He recalled the time when his grandmother used to promote local wrestling shows every month in Honolulu, Hawaii.

It was the time when The Rock, Nick Khan, and Nahnatchka were all kids. They used to run around the arena and play with each other.

The former world champion went on to become one of the biggest wrestling stars before joining Hollywood and becoming a globally recognizable movie star.

Nick Khan became the WWE president and Nahnatchka has gone on to become a Hollywood producer, currently working on the Young Rock TV series:

The Rock was rumored to make a Survivor Series appearance to set up a WrestleMania match against the current Universal champion Roman Reigns.

However, the rumors turned out to be false. WWE now seems to be building towards a Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns match for the upcoming edition of the Show Of Shows.

A holiday special of Young Rock is set to air this Wednesday, December 15. Season two of the series will officially kick off on Tuesday, March 15 next year.

• The Rock Given “People’s Champion” Award At The People’s Choice Awards

There have been several reports in recent weeks regarding WWE’s approach to scouting and hiring talent. According to a recent report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE will no longer be scouting talent from independent wrestling promotions.

“Several in the company have told us that the word from the top is no more independent talent as far as scouting and such,” wrote Dave Meltzer.

“They are back to the feeling of scouting by looks and not because guys have gotten over elsewhere and teaching people with the right look to be wrestlers.”

The report continued to say the plan is to bring in a lot more athletes with backgrounds in other sports for tryouts.

WWE has dozens of former independent wrestlers on the main roster, in NXT and at the Performance Center. What does this new philosophy mean for the Adam Cole’s, Johnny Gargano’s and Ricochet’s of the world?

WWE’s New Talent Scouting Policy

WWE’s Nick Khan recently spoke about WWE’s approach to scouting and hiring during an interview with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport.

“In terms of an NXT rebrand, look for it in the next couple of weeks. It’s going to have a whole new look. It’s going to have a whole new feel, and we believe because a lot of the ‘indie wrestlers,’ if you will, have come through our system and are in our system with SmackDown and RAW now, we don’t want to just keep doing that same thing. We want to look elsewhere for great young talent. The look of the show, the production of the show, everything’s gonna’ change.”

AEW President Tony Khan reacted to the Nick Khan’s interview with Ariel Helwani, specifically his comments about WWE looking to recruit a very specific type of athlete.

Visit f4wonline.com to subscribe to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Nick Khan says WWE would get even more TV time if it was up to him.

One of the criticisms WWE has received from fans has to do with the number of hours their content takes up per week. Some believe that the quality of Monday Night Raw has suffered ever since extending to three hours back in July 2012.

During an interview with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport, Khan, the President and CRO of WWE, said he’d add even more hours if he could due to the money it brings in.

“From my point of view, Raw would benefit from being four hours, so we would get paid more money and SmackDown would be eight hours,” said Khan.

“But I understand that our creative folks, as amazing as they are, there is only so much great content they can do on a weekly basis. So, I’m good with the three and two system.”

Khan dished out a ton of info over SummerSlam weekend. He detailed the reason behind the recent slew of WWE releases. Nick Khan also confirmed the report that NXT will be rebranded and is going to shift away from indie talent.

Watch Ariel Helwani’s full interview with WWE President Nick Khan:

Nick Khan has confirmed reports of NXT receiving a significant makeover.

Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer reported that major changes are coming to the NXT brand over TakeOver 36. Meltzer said that fans can expect new lighting, a new logo, and an overall different feel to the brand soon. On top of that, Meltzer has said that the idea is to treat NXT as the developmental system, rather than the third brand. He claimed the focus will shift from smaller indie wrestlers to bigger and younger talent.

During an interview with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport, Nick Khan said that fans can expect a new experience with NXT in the coming weeks.

“We’re doing a complete revamp on NXT, led by Triple H, Paul Levesque, who’s really one of the architects of the original NXT. What we found, it’s probably why we did the tryout yesterday, what we want to make sure is easy for folks who want to be WWE superstars is figuring out how to become WWE superstars. If you think of the life of an elevated athlete throughout their career, the opportunity to go play somewhere has always been easy, being able to play somewhere is not.

“In terms of an NXT rebrand, look for it in the upcoming weeks, it’s going to have a whole new look, it’s going to have a whole new feel, and we believe because of a lot of the ‘indie wrestlers’ if you will, have come through our system, and are in our system with SmackDown and RAW now. We don’t want to keep doing that same thing, we want to look elsewhere for great young talent.”

TakeOver 36 takes place tonight (Aug. 22). Samoa Joe will challenge Karrion Kross for the NXT Championship. Also set for the card is a two-out-of-three falls match between Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly. This could be Cole’s final match with NXT as his brief contract extension is set to expire.

WWE President and CRO, Nick Khan, has given his explanation for the wave of WWE releases.

Fans were surprised when news broke that Braun Strowman was let go from his contract earlier this year. After all, Strowman won the WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania 36 and defeated Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 37.

Aleister Black was also released, despite having just started an angle with Big E. He has since signed with AEW as Malakai Black. There were more names on the list, including Murphy, Lana, Ruby Riott, and Santana Garrett.

The real shocker, however, came when “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt received his walking papers. Those releases were just part of this year’s wave as 12 NXT talents including Bronson Reed and Bobby Fish were later cut as well.

Ariel Helwani of BT Sport spoke to Khan, who gave his take on the number of roster cuts WWE has been making.

“I don’t know that there’s one explanation for it. I think ultimately what’s looked at is, is this person for us going to move the needle now or in the imminent future? By the way, we had a two-day tryout in Las Vegas which ended yesterday, which Triple H and Johnny Laurinaitis and Bruce Prichard were all across as were the rest of us. We’ve signed over a dozen new talent coming out of that tryout and I’m not suggesting, ‘oh that’s why we cut the other talent,’ but we’re always looking for what’s next.

“We live in the present, we live in the future, we don’t live in the past. So when people leave and they move on with their life and their careers, that’s good by us. For us, it’s what works for us and our product at that moment and time and again what’s gonna work down the road, and largely in part the existing roster is based on that.”

People on social media often blame Khan whenever WWE releases are announced these days. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reported that the NXT cuts had nothing to do with Khan and that it was Vince McMahon, Bruce Prichard, and John Laurinaitis who collectively made the call.

Many have speculated that the releases have been done in an effort to make WWE look as attractive as possible when it comes to a potential sale. Nick Khan stirred the pot with his “open for business” line but he later said the company isn’t looking to sell.

The large number of roster cuts and cost-saving moves WWE has made recently has led many fans to speculate as to if the company is preparing to be sold. President & Chief Revenue Officer of WWE Nick Khan recently appeared on the Recode Media podcast. During the discussion, Khan spoke about if there are plans for WWE to be sold.

Khan says there are no immediate plans to sell the company. If someone contacted them about it, however, he says they would listen.

“We’re open for business on anything and everything. Even some of the business plans that we’ve announced recently are different and unique to what the company has traditionally done. We’re open for business. If somebody called, we’ll listen, but we’re not active or out on the marketplace trying to change that structure,” Khan said.

He also spoke about the possibility of Vince McMahon stepping down from his role. Khan doesn’t believe that is going to happen anytime soon.

“I don’t think Vince has any plans, nor in my opinion should he, of stepping aside. He’s 75, he’ll be 76 in a couple of weeks. He’s healthy, he’s strong, maybe he goes another 50 years and you’ll be asking me this in 49 years.”

Khan was also asked if he sees AEW as competition. He said that they view everything as competition but try to just focus just on what they do.

“I never look at anybody as competition. I focus on what I’m doing. In the totality of circumstance, you have to look at everything as your competition,” Khan said.  

Khan’s comments can be heard in the player below:

AEW President Tony Khan decided to have some fun when he sent a taunting message to WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan in a video shared on Twitter. 

The big story on Friday was how the WWE President has been negotiating with NJPW for the last few months about WWE becoming the exclusive North American partner for NJPW. AEW does have a working relationship with NJPW right now. 

Tony hyped Friday’s Dynamite show on TNT and then had some interesting things to say about Nick. 

Tony started out by noting that he saw Nick has had reported talks with NJPW and gotten a lot done while he’s had the likes of Yuji Nagata, Ren Narita, and Rocky Romero on AEW programming before bringing up having a Roppongi Vice reunion in addition to IWGP United States Champion Jon Moxley defending the title on Dynamite. 

“So you must’ve really gotten a lot done in the two months, Nick, and in fact, I think there’s only room for one Khan in the wrestling business, Nick, and it’s me. It’s Tony Khan, it’s not some con-man from Connecticut. Have a fun show tonight, Nick, see you on Dynamite.”

The AEW President has done these types of promos during the paid ads on Impact Wrestling. 

WWE wants to work with pop music superstar Cardi B.

Nick Khan, WWE’s President and Chief Revenue Officer, recently spoke to Forbes about the business side of the company.

During the discussion, Khan addressed WWE utilizing celebrities to generate additional interest in the product. In recent weeks, we’ve seen rap star Bad Bunny involved in storylines.

There’s also been some buzz about WWE working with Cardi B. Khan confirmed WWE wants to work with the “WAP” singer in the near future. “Obviously, there is no touring right now,” he said. “The ability to get Bad Bunny for however long this run is going to be, and you’re going to see a lot of him; I don’t believe that would have existed in a world where Bad Bunny was on tour.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced WWE to adapt the way it does business in many ways. The silver lining is that it has also created the opportunity to work with big names from the entertainment industry, since they’re less busy and not on tour.

“We’re always going to want Bad Bunny, Cardi B to get involved,” Khan continued. “It made it a touch easier to get a deal done this time because they weren’t, over the course of however long the deal is, is not in 25 different cities during that time. The bulk of concert money is made in the summertime. It doesn’t appear as if there are going to be big tours during the summer. Even we’re all hopeful, so we’ll see what folks we’re talking to and who you’ll see in the mix.”

Cardi B was recently name dropped during the RAW Legends Night episode. This lead to several back and forth exchanges between Cardi B and several WWE Superstars, including Trish Stratus and Lacey Evans.

Whether WWE will be able to bring the hip-hop megastar into the fold remains to be seen; although she would be a major name to bring in for a WrestleMania appearance. Bad Bunny will already be performing at WrestleMania, and it is rumored that he will be teaming with Booker T or Damian Priest to take on The Miz and John Morrison in a tag team bout.

• Rapper Bow Wow Says He Wants To Join WWE

WWE has announced via a press release that they have hired Nick Khan as the new President and Chief Revenue Officer of the company. Khan previously worked as the co-head of television at the Creative Artist Agency or CAA.

He represented many big corporations during his time in CAA including WWE and Khan played a part in negotiating the promotion’s much talked TV deals with both Fox Network and NBC Universal in 2019. 

Commenting on his appointment in the press release, the former CAA official said that he is looking forward to expanding his relationship with Vince McMahon and it’s a rare opportunity:

“It’s rare to have an opportunity to work at a company that is not only legendary in what it has already accomplished, but also uniquely poised to enter into an unprecedented phase of growth and expansion across all lines of business. Our collective industry experience will enable us to extract maximum value across the portfolio globally while driving long-term shareholder value.”

Nick Khan will be taking over the duties of both George Barrios who was previously acting as a Co-President for the company and Michelle Wilson who was previously the CFO of the promotion.

Both Barrios and Wilson were fired from their positions in January earlier this year and the executives were let go because of their disagreements with Vince McMahon.