Nick Khan addresses concerns about older stars and WWE being “down” since WrestleMania 41 last year.
During his recent appearance on the Bill Simmons Podcast, WWE President Nick Khan answered questions about low ticket sales and attendance since WrestleMania 41 last year. He also addressed concerns about the main eventers getting older and the need to prepare for the future.
“A year ago, right after WrestleMania last year, Triple H and I got together and we said, ‘Let’s take a look at the future, let’s look at our top male superstars.’” Nick Khan began. “Cena, it was obviously his retirement year. We have, in some order, Roman, Cody, Punk, Seth, Brock. (Bill Simmons: I’d throw McIntyre in there too.) Yeah, I’d put Drew in there. And he adds to the narrative. They’re all 40 years or older. So we said, ‘Alright, we’ve gotta make sure we’re preparing for the future here.’
“We went down to our Performance Center to see Shawn Michaels and Matt Bloom who run that on a day to day basis and run NXT with us,” Nick Khan continued. “And we said, ‘Okay, let’s take a look at the talent here. How come DX, for example, when it was first starting to pop, Triple H I think was like 26. Why is it taking longer?’
Nick Khan put over the rise of Je’Von Evans, Oba Femi, and Trick Williams
Speaking further, Nick Khan revealed that Shawn Michaels suggested taking NXT on the road so the young talent can get authentic fan response. He noted that the move led to the rise of stars like Oba Femi, Trick Williams, and Je’Von Evans, who are currently making strides on the main roster.
“And Shawn said, ‘There’s one thing we could really use the company’s help on – we need to be able to tour NXT.’ Because doing it from the studio every week, you don’t get the authentic fan response that young wrestlers need to know if their work is working or not. Randy Orton shows up in St Louis, he’s getting all the cheers in the world, he shows up in a different city, he doesn’t. You need to know how to react to that,” Nick Khan said.
“He said, ‘We need to be able to take NXT on the road.’ ‘Great, no problem, give us a week.’ We came back to Shawn, ‘Let’s take it on the road starting in a month,’ or whatever it was. And then you saw the quick acceleration of Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, soon to be others coming up from NXT,’” Nick Khan concluded. [H/T WrestleTalk]
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