The WWE has had some massive signings over the past few years. Cody Rhodes returned after years away to finish the story, Jade Cargill will eventually make a splash on the main roster, and CM Punk is feuding with Seth Rollins a decade after walking away from the company. As wild as it is to say, all of those are less substantial than the signing we're talking about today and how Nick Khan joined the company after a fated meeting involving Tim Tebow.
For wrestling fans who aren't familiar with Nick Khan, he is the current President of WWE and has been a key player behind record-setting profitability for the company since he joined the upper ranks in 2020. Khan was on The Pat McAfee Show, and when asked about how he came to be one of the biggest decision-makers for the company, he mentioned it was all tied to a conversation involving Tim Tebow and WrestleMania:
So when I was an agent, my prior profession, and I was trying to get into the WWE business. Paul [Levesque] had called me, unsolicited call, and this is when Tim Tebow had just gotten cut by the Patriots...I said, 'Oh yeah, Triple H. I know who you are. I remember you as Terra Ryzing,' his former wrestling name from WCW...He said, 'What do you think of Tim Tebow against the Big Show,' at whatever WrestleMania that was after [his] Patriots run.
Tim Tebow was cut from the Patriots in the summer of 2013, meaning that the plan for him to wrestle The Big Show was likely planned for WrestleMania 30. It's wild to think about, considering how massive that event ended up being. Imagine if we'd seen Tebow taking on Big Show, and then an hour later, Brock Lesnar pins The Undertaker and beats his undefeated WrestleMania streak? Would the crowd have cheered for Tebow as loudly as they did for Daniel Bryan when he won the titles?
The world will never know, but Nick Khan was more than willing to share the details of how it almost happened. After that call from Triple H, he then got everyone together for a meeting that would eventually land him as a key member of WWE's top brass:
Tim and I then had a top-secret private meeting: Tim Tebow, myself, Vince McMahon, and Triple H in Anaheim, California, about that. Ultimately, it didn't happen, but Triple H and I remained in touch and over time he was the one who said to me, 'Hey, I think Vince may wanna meet with you.'...I met with them, I pitched what I had to say, we shook hands on a deal and here we are.
Nick Khan has been with WWE through navigating its sale to Endeavor and the recent massive deal it signed with Netflix for Monday Night Raw. Khan was even spotted hanging out with The Rock ahead of his latest move of joining the board of directors for TKO Holdings.
It's probably unfair to others to say he's the sole driving force behind all of those massive moves, but he certainly has been in the mix for quite a few monumental moments that re-solidified the WWE as the premiere pro wrestling company of the world. It's hard to imagine what or where the company might've been without him, and it'll be interesting to see how much further it may climb with him and Triple H steering the ship in this new era of WWE.
WWE's Royal Rumble will air for those with a Peacock Premium subscription on Saturday, January 27th. It's the first major step on the road to WrestleMania 40, so be sure to tune in and see which superstars will get to punch their ticket to a main event match on pro wrestling's grandest stage.
