Nick Khan On WWE Cuts – “We Don’t Live In The Past”
Nick Khan, WWE’s President, has given his thoughts on the series of roster cuts made by the company saying decisions are made based on who can “move the needle” now or in the future.
Although WWE cuts are nothing new, 2021 has been a year like no other with swingeing cuts being made in the company every month since shortly after WrestleMania 37 in April.
More cuts came in May to the NXT roster before Raw and SmackDown took another hit in June when former WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman and Aleister Black were both among those shockingly let go. Most recently, thirteen talents were released at the beginning of August with Bobby Fish and former NXT North American Champion Bronson Reed among those let go.
Speaking to BT Sport’s Ariel Helwani, Nick Khan took the opportunity to explain the company’s thinking behind the cuts, emphasising the WWE’s focus on the future:
“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?”
“So, by the way, we had a tryout, a two-day tryout in Las Vegas, which ended yesterday, which Triple H, And Johnny Laurinaitis and Bruce Prichard. 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 in time. And again, what’s going to work down the road and largely in part, the existing roster is based on that.”
The Las Vegas tryouts took place before SummerSlam. The Biggest Party Of The Summer saw Goldberg fail in his quest to become WWE Champion against Bobby Lashley while John Cena failed to unseat Roman Reigns for the Universal Title in the main event. After Reigns defeated Cena, Brock Lesnar made his long-awaited return to a WWE ring for the first time since WrestleMania 36.