Nick Khan Expected Vince McMahon To Make WWE Return

Appearing on the Bill Simmons Podcast, WWE CEO Nick Khan has admitted Vince McMahon's return is "not that insane" to him and that he and former Co-CEO Stephanie McMahon always thought the 77-year-old would make a comeback. 

"From the inside, it's not that insane to me...my thought has always been 'there's only one boss at WWE and it ain't me.' It was always my point of view, always Stephanie's point of view that he would, at some point, come back. I think the way that 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 that controlling share gave him a lot of authority, and he used it and I applaud him for doing so. To me WWE is Vince, Vince is WWE and we're going to do the best we can to keep building the company," Khan said.

"I made it a point, as did others, to see him about once a month or so while he was sitting out. I was surprised [Vince stepped down] in the moment. But once I thought about it for a couple of days, it made total sense to me. I wouldn't say it caught me off-guard because, again, we were on the inside sort of feeling a bit of the pressure that was going on. So it certainly seemed, again, the right thing at the right time."

After being asked if he was surprised that Vince McMahon returned, Khan added: 

"No. No. That's Vince. Anyone who knows him...anyone who believed that [his retirement] was permanent, doesn't know him. That was never gonna happen, but I'm appreciative of the fact he gave it five, six months to let the dust settle a bit and then coming back in the way that he's come back.

"I think the succession plan in his mind is the one he put in place when he stepped down. Which was Paul (Triple H) runs creative and then Stephanie and I co-run, or help to run the company, if you will, with Steph as Chairwoman. So, to me, I never got a sense of any sort of bitterness or anything like that. He seemed, for the first month of his hiatus, thrilled […] I think by month five, he was getting ready to return.

"I think the strategic alternative process is a real one, I think he's hyped for it. I haven't seen any sort of 'heat' from him towards anybody who was at WWE, with WWE, there's no commentary from him - certainly to me, and I've been in touch with him (as you might imagine) a lot this past week - there's no 'Why did you and Paul hire this?' or 'Why did Steph and you do that?' There's been none of that."   

Following his resignation in July of 2022 amidst a sexual misconduct and hush money scandal, Vince McMahon returned to WWE on January 5 with Michelle Wilson and George Barrios. McMahon was then elected Executive Chairman as he pursues a sale of the company. McMahon will not require stockholder approval for any actions he takes. 

At the same time as McMahon's election as Executive Chairman, Stephanie McMahon resigned from all of her roles within WWE.