Given the prominence Pat McAfee has assumed as a WWE commentator and sometimes in-ring wrestler, it’s not surprising that executives at the wrestling promotion are fans of his. But the particular language WWE president Nick Khan used to describe McAfee recently is interesting.
Khan recently appeared on the What’s Your Story? With Steph McMahon podcast, helmed by the ex-WWE co-CEO who now serves as a brand ambassador for the promotion. One of McMahon’s projects in that role is the Stephanie’s Places series on ESPN+, in conjunction with Omaha Productions (which started that concept of a notable sports figure featuring people and places from their sports history with Peyton’s Places in 2019, with that idea now featuring a lot of series across sports). And, while praising McAfee’s recent appearance on Stephanie’s Places, Khan had some remarkable things to say about him overall:
“McAfee, to me, is a true American success story. A guy who goes to what’s considered a lesser school. A guy who gets his way into the NFL and sort of finagled his way into a tryout…. They show the players at the beginning of the game, ‘hey, I’m so and so. I went to the Ohio State University.’ He would say, ‘I’m Pat McAfee. One day, I want to be a professional wrestler.’ In his mind, he saw it.”
…“He forged his own path. For others who have had the good fortune of succeeding professionally in life, you got to see it a moment in time before everyone else sees it, and then you just got to go do it. There’s no blueprint, there’s no waiting, there’s just do it. You’ll fall on your face. You’ll make a bunch of mistakes, but you got to keep moving forward.”
Khan is certainly correct there that McAfee has “forged his own path” in the media landscape. From retiring from the NFL at 29 to join Barstool Sports to creating an independent show sponsored by myBookie and then FanDuel to taking his still-independent show to ESPN under a licensing agreement (it also appears on YouTube), in addition to his commentator roles with ESPN and WWE, McAfee has traversed a lot of unchartered waters in this space. There definitely wasn’t a blueprint for his path to ESPN in particular, or the power struggles he’s won since bringing his show there.
An interesting element to these comments is that Khan has had a similarly unconventional path. He spent decades working in talent agencies ICM and then CAA before heading to WWE as president and chief revenue officer in 2020. At WWE, Khan initially worked under chairman Vince McMahon, then rose to co-CEO with Stephanie McMahon following Vince’s 2022 retirement amidst scandal. He became sole CEO around Stephanie stepping down in the wake of Vince’s 2023 return as executive chairman, was reappointed as WWE president around the TKO combination with the UFC and other Endeavor assets in September 2023, and became the organization’s top figure following Vince’s second exit in 2024.
The role Khan has been able to build for himself at WWE is remarkable. Most of that organization’s leaders have been from the McMahon family and/or had significant pro wrestling experience (including Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Stephanie McMahon’s husband and the company’s current chief content officer); Khan broke that mold, and is doing plenty of new things with the company, including moving Monday Night RAW to Netflix; he’s also playing an important role with TKO overall, and has been cited as a key figure in their plans for a new boxing league. So it makes some sense that he sees McAfee as a similar media disruptor and trailblazer. However, the “true American success story” label can definitely be debated, and McAfee’s many critics may not agree with it.