He Would Know: WWE CEO Nick Khan On Vince McMahon's Retirement And Return

Another perspective. WWE is in the middle of a huge change as Vince McMahon is back from his five and a half month retirement and seems set to sell the company later this year. This is the kind of change that can shake up the wrestling industry and it has come close to doing so already. It is something that is hard to fathom, but now we are hearing from someone on the inside.

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WWE CEO Nick Khan appeared on the Bill Simmons Podcast where he discussed McMahon returning to WWE. Khan talked about McMahon’s return to the company and praised him for using his authority as majority shareholder to come back. He also said that he always felt McMahon would come back after the dust had settled. Finally, Khan said that he didn’t not believe the board of directors forced McMahon to step away, but rather that McMahon chose to do so. Here are some highlights, with transcription courtesy of 411mania.com:

On McMahon’s Return

“From the inside, it’s not that insane to me. But it’s also, you know, the word ‘insider.’ When you’re on the inside, you see things that may be coming. My thought was that there’s only one boss in the company, and that ain’t me. Vince is obviously the founder, creator of the company. He’s also the controlling shareholder… so I think it was always my point of view, always Stephanie’s point of view, at some point, he would come back.

“I think the way he played it, to me was smart in that he went away for five, six months. Which people, meaning the audience, seems to like when somebody does that. And he came back and took control back of his company as the controlling shareholder. So it is the public’s company, it’s a publicly traded company. But with that controlling share, [it] gave him a lot of authority. And he used it, and I applaud him for doing so.“

On McMahon Being “Forced” To Step Down

“I didn’t see it as a force. I think Vince saw sort of the tonnage of things that were coming at him and us. And he thought — one thing he’s always said, and you know this as a long time fan, he’ll do whatever is best for business. And I think at that moment… he saw what was best for business was for him to step away for a while, so he did.

“And he really did step away. So there was no ‘Hey, why are you doing this?’ or ‘I wouldn’t do it that way.’ It was in my opinion, total freedom to Stephanie, myself, and Triple H on the creative side. It’s only been a week [since he returned], but he really — I believe what he said publicly about ‘Hey, I’m here to engage in strategic alternatives and the media rights.’ So far the engagement has been that, and other board issues. And zero [on creative or the like]. None.”

And On Whether There Was Any Doubt McMahon Would Return

“No, no. That’s Vince. Anyone who knows him who thought with a tweet — because I think he tweeted, ‘Hey, I’m 77 now, time for me to call it a day’ or something to that effect. Anyone who believed that was permanent didn’t know him. That was never going to happen. But I’m appreciative of the fact that he gave it the five, six months, let the dust settle a little bit. And then coming back in the way that he’s come back.”

McMahon has been back before. Check out some of his previous returns:

Opinion: The more I hear about this whole thing, the less I believe anything McMahon said. This entire situation is starting to show just how untouchable McMahon is in WWE as he basically turned what would have been a career killer for any other executive into a five month hiatus and is back with even more authority. That could have quite the impact on WWE and we will have to see where it goes.