Nick Khan says WWE put focus on future after WrestleMania 41
After WrestleMania 41 last year, WWE made a conscious decision to focus on the future.
A new episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast debuted on Friday with WWE President Nick Khan making his annual pre-WrestleMania appearance. During the interview, Khan was asked if he’s concerned about WWE ratings and attendance having fallen some from their peak. Khan noted that, when WrestleMania wrapped up in 2025, he and Paul “Triple H” Levesque got together and questioned why so much of WWE’s top male talent is 40 years or older. They decided to put more focus on preparing for the future, which Khan thinks is already paying dividends.
“So here’s the good thing — a year ago, so right after WrestleMania last year, Triple H and I got together and we said, ‘Okay, let’s take a look at the future.’ Let’s look at our top male superstars. [John] Cena was obviously his retirement year,” Khan said. “We have, and you tell me if you categorize these as our top men in some order, Roman [Reigns], Cody [Rhodes], [CM] Punk, Seth [Rollins], Brock [Lesnar]. Put Drew [McIntyre] in there, yeah. And he adds to the narrative. They’re all 40 years or older.
“So we said, ‘All right, we got to 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. And we said, ‘Okay, let’s take a look at the talent here.’ How come D-X, for example, when it was first starting to pop, Triple H I think was like 26. Why is it taking longer?”
One of the things Michaels told them was that NXT needed to tour outside of Florida more often so that the wrestlers could get experience in front of different crowds. WWE now holds regular NXT house show tours on the road along with PLEs and occasional TV episodes.
Khan pointed to Oba Femi, Trick Williams, and Je’Von Evans as names who are already making a difference on the main roster. In particular, he pointed to Femi vs. Brock Lesnar opening the WrestleMania 42 night two card this Sunday and said both performers have done phenomenal work to build the match.
While mentioning Femi, Williams, and Evans, Khan noted that there are “soon to be others” called up from NXT as well.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.