Conrad Thompson weighs in on a potential WWE sale.
On January 7 it was reported that WWE had hired JPMorgan to advise on a potential sale of the company. The news came after it was made official that Vince McMahon would be returning to the company as a member of the board of directors. McMahon return to, in his words, help assist WWE in their media rights negotiations.
Speaking on What Happened When, Conrad Thompson said a WWE sale has been brewing for a while.
"I've been saying on this program for a while that WWE was going to sell. You know why I said that? Because I knew. Remember when Nick Khan first joined WWE? When he joined, he was an agent. I happen to have some friends who need representation like that. My friend was represented by the same company that Nick Khan was sort of running. When my friend sees that this guy who runs this big agency is now going to WWE, he thought, 'what the fuck this doesn't make any sense.' He called his contact, 'What's up with Nick going (to WWE)?' He said, this is years ago, [Nick] has a deal with Vince where his contract gets a big payday when he helps facilitate a sale. He told me the number, I won't say the number because that's talking about someone's money and that's not cool, but let's say this, it's more than AEW's TV contract is for a year. It's a lot. I've heard back channel, before Mean Gene [Gene Okerlund] passed, he said, 'I heard from...' I won't say who he heard from, 'when the stock gets to so and so...' this has been brewing for a while," said Thompson.
Khan joined WWE in 2020 as President & Chief Revenue Officer. He previously worked for CAA and helped negotiate media rights deals for top companies such as Top Rank Boxing and the Southeastern Conference.
AEW's TV deal is reportedly worth around $45 million per year.
It is unknown if WWE will sell the company. They will reportedly re-negotiate their media rights deals later this year.
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