WWE President Nick Khan has shared some insight into the future aspirations of the company. She revealed that executives started discussing WWE’s life after stars like John Cena, The Rock, and CM Punk.
While WWE still benefits from the popularity of its veteran stars, Khan admitted the company knows it cannot depend on them forever.
During a recent interview with Sports Business Journal, Khan recalled a year-old meeting with WWE CCO Triple H, NXT head Shawn Michaels, and executive Chris Legentil. The topic of discussion was who will become WWE’s next generation of top stars?
WWE wants to create new main event stars before veterans step away
According to Khan, the conversation came after realizing that many of WWE’s biggest names are edging closer to the latter stages of their careers.
“A year ago, we got together – Triple H, Legentil, myself, a guy named Shawn Michaels, who runs our developmental system and is a Hall of Fame wrestler, and we said, ‘Hey, look, we have John Cena on his retirement tour. The Rock came back, and now he’s going to be filming Jumanji and The Smashing Machine at the time. Our other big stars, CM Punk is 46. We have a number of men who are 40 years or older, and they’re performing at a high level. We have to accelerate the next generation of talent. So, what do we need to do to accelerate it?’” Khan said.
According to Khan, one of the key ideas came from Michaels. He stressed the importance of getting young wrestlers in front of live crowds as often as possible.
“Shawn Michael said, ‘We need to take them on the road so they get the crowd response of a live crowd.’ Right? That’s part of what makes wrestling unique. If you’re getting cheered, great. If you’re getting booed, great. If there’s no response, that’s terrible,” Khan said.
That thinking has played a massive role in WWE’s recent efforts to give developmental talent more opportunities outside the Performance Center and in front of larger audiences.
Khan pointed out Oba Femi as an example of why this approach matters. By giving younger talent meaningful opportunities early, WWE hopes to develop future headliners much faster.
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