Nick Khan has become a top WWE official since joining the company in 2020.
Vince McMahon is in hot water amid a potentially damning probe from the WWE Board of Directors, who are investigating a $3 million payment from McMahon to an ex-WWE employee.
The allegations against McMahon are very serious, but irreverence on Twitter never wavers. The leading narrative—and more accurately conspiracy theory—on social media in the midst of McMahon’s alleged misconduct is Nick Khan is leading a silent coup to oust the entire McMahon family.
“As far as Nick Khan goes, obviously there are all kinds of conspiracy theories—a million ones—that he’s, like, a shark and taking over and getting rid of all the McMahons and everything like that,” said Dave Meltzer of “Wrestling Observer Radio.”
“I don’t know what the reality is when it comes to that. It’s a minefield. Internally? No. Internally, nobody’s suggested anything like [that].”
In Khan’s two years since being hired by WWE, he has risen to power as one of the key figures in WWE, even ahead of former heirs apparent Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. A deft dealmaker, notches on Khan’s belt include WWE’s billion-dollar television deals with Fox and NBCU including a billion-dollar deal to license the WWE Network to NBC’s Peacock streaming service. Khan’s rise has coincided with falls from grace of every McMahon family member over the course of the past two years, and the wrestling industry has taken notice.
Nick Khan WWE Conspiracy Theories go Viral
Shortly after Wall Street Journal broke the news of Vince McMahon investigation, WWE insider account @WrestleVotes laid out the ominous timeline of the McMahon family’s gradual downfall in 2022:
While stories of a silent coup are strictly conspiracies, they make for very juicy tweets and also align WWE’s backstage culture with that of hit HBO show Succession. Succession bears an uncanny resemblance to WWE’s power structure, right down to the ambiguity behind a succession plan, one with drives the Emmy-award-winning show.
Khan immediately became a trending topic on Twitter with fans and media tweeting their versions of the same joke—that Khan has been the cold, calculated grim reaper/Thanos/Bond Villain etc. behind the apparent demise of the McMahon dynasty in WWE.
The WSJ report implied that a member of WWE’s Board of Directors leaked the story. This gives credence to the scandalous theory that one of WWE’s high-profile executives betrayed McMahon, whether it be Khan—who is listed as a committee member on WWE’s board—or even Stephanie McMahon.
“The fact of the investigation and everything seems to indicate that somebody on the board did [leak the story of Vince McMahon’s investigation],” said Meltzer.
“Obviously Vince didn’t, so you’ve got 11 people there that you can look at.”
“The board of directors started getting this information a couple months ago. They got the information before Stephanie quit, so Stephanie would have known about this before she quit. Whether this is tied in or not, we do not know but the timing becomes very, very interesting,” noted Meltzer about Stephanie McMahon’s possible involvement with this story getting out.
Khan reportedly took over most of Stephanie McMahon’s duties following her exit. As WWE’s President and Chief Revenue Officer, Khan is on the short list of WWE executives with the most to gain in the event of a Vince McMahon ousting. But the idea that he would orchestrate a silent coup is more believable on HBO than it is in WWE. With Vince McMahon’s future in WWE more uncertain than ever, however, Twitter is running with that notion.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonuwa/2022/06/16/nick-khan-conspiracy-theories-dominate-twitter-amid-vince-mcmahon-investigation/