Nick Khan Fires Back At Massive Criticism Towards WWE: “A Vocal Minority”
Nick Khan pushed back criticisms leveled at WWE during a recent town hall meeting.
WWE and its creative team have been heavily criticised in the past year for their booking and presentation of the WWE product, and its top shows, Raw, SmackDown, and the monthly PLEs.
WWE CCO Triple H and co have come under fire on multiple occasions as fans in the WWE Universe expressed their discontent with the direction of many storylines and feuds, and the handling of talent in the roster. Apart from the fans, wrestling pundits, analysts, and former WWE stars and names have been vocal about the direction of the product on their respective YouTube podcasts, shows, etc.
Notable examples of criticisms leveled at Triple H and co, especially times when they reached a boiling point, include the booking of John Cena’s retirement tour, which included a short-lived heel turn seemingly done as a viral moment according to many, and the end of the tour, which had Cena tap out to Gunther in his final match, essentially wiping out his career mantra “Never Give Up”, and Cody Rhodes winning the WWE Title back from Drew McIntyre to face Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42 (The video of the win has some of the most dislikes ever on WWE’s YouTube channel).
WWE even addressed some of this criticism on screen by breaking the fourth wall when they included Pat McAfee in the Cody Rhodes vs Rany Orton feud heading into WrestleMania 42. McAfee alluded to better times, such as the company’s Attitude Era from the 1990s, and compared it to today’s relatively underwhelming product, almost acknowledging their issues in Creative.
Despite all of this, WWE has been generating revenue, and its president, Nick Khan, clapped back at this criticism in a recent Town Hall meeting, which also saw him announce that Triple H has signed a multi-year deal with WWE as its Chief Content Officer
Nick Khan Gives Examples Of Online Criticisms Of WWE From The Past To Clap Back At Critics
WWE President Nick Khan defended the company and its creativity by saying that criticisms of the product from online communities cannot dictate business decisions.
To make his point clear, Khan read out tweets from over a decade ago by disgruntled fans about their problems with wrestlers like Roman Reigns and how the criticism doesn’t hold up, as Reigns is currently one of the company’s biggest stars.
Nick Khan also praised Triple H for the job he is doing as CCO.
A number of us [TKO President] Mark [Shapiro], [TKO CFO] Andrew [Schleimer], others, were able to get Paul Levesque to extend with us in a multi-year deal,” Khan said. “We’re excited about that. He’s the head of creative amongst other things and has been doing a great job for and with us.
Nick Khan addressed critics, saying they are a vocal minority, and went on to cite multiple examples of old tweets from fans that he says aren’t relevant today. This was a stand that Vince McMahon took back in the day when he was in charge and was faced with online backlash.
To me, if you make business decisions based on online sentiment, just know that you’re going to be making said decisions on a minority percentage of voices, a vocal minority.
Allow me to give you an example.
When Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble in 2015, fans went to Twitter with the hashtag, #CancelWWENetwork. It trended for two days.
“Why does WWE insult fans like this with a bum like Roman Reigns?” “I’m losing my mind. Why is Bad Bunny in the WWE? Bad Bunny single-handedly ruined the Royal Rumble,”
Nick Khan even used the Rock and John Cena as examples by reading out negative tweets from fans about them.
“On The Rock’s return to WWE: ‘The people don’t want the People’s Champion. The Rock came back one too many times, and now people are sick of him.’”
“On John Cena’s retirement tour: ‘Who needs a John Cena retirement tour? Haven’t we seen enough of him? … John Cena’s retirement year was so random.”
Last, on CM Punk: ‘Why would they ever return this bum to the WWE? He will never main event again.’
I said CM Punk, Roman Reigns, as anyone who watched it [knows], stole the show,” Khan said. “Pretty good re-signing CM Punk, who’s been a model citizen here.
After giving all the aforementioned examples, Nick Khan concluded by saying that it’s the higher-ups who decide who gets a push and who doesn’t, not the fans.
So the most important thing is to have open dialogue. Myself, Paul, the creative team, what’s working, what’s not working, who to push, who not to push.
Also read: Brock Lesnar’s WWE Future Likely To Have A Massive Twist