Nick Khan

27:36Wait, what? Yeah, no, Nick took that head count, and then I go to you and I'm like, Nick, what's going on? And you were like, well, I was in this shop and I saw this kid busting his ass cleaning the floors and come to find out, you know, that he was the son of this woman who was, you know, working at the shop and he was such a hardworking guy and he clearly wasn't going to get a shot anywhere else, so I told him I was going to hire him. And again, that is not common to find people who you think who you see something in. Like, clearly you're not just offering something just to offer it, but you see things in people and I think you really want to give people the chance that maybe you had to fight for in a different way.

28:21so I you really are a remarkable person and not a lot of people know really who you are aside from all of the huge success as a businessman but the huge success of who you are as a human being I don't know what I don't know we're going deep mode here sorry I thought we're gonna talk about we were gonna go so deep so fast I thought we were gonna talk about what about the triple a We can do all that That's my fault It's gracious and kind of both of you Steven Jackson the ex NBA player Said this in a documentary on Netflix Called Malice in the Palace About the Detroit Pistons Indiana Pacers fight He said if I'm with you I'm with you And I always felt that line Was the way that I was So If I walk into a room With somebody who's my friend and there's 500 people in the room who don't like that person, I'm with the person I walked in with.

29:20That's just the way it is. Do you think there's a reason why? Like, were you always like that when you were most likely to succeed in sixth grade? Were you always like that? Oh, what a goofy-looking picture. It is not goofy-looking. I mean, I think the Wheel of Fortune picture or clip maybe. Because you're older. Yeah, worse. Yeah, let me tell you. And by the way, you guys know this, you have children. Like nobody talks shit to me like my kids do. And I love them and I think we have a very close relationship and I think they're very respectful children. They are. But the Wheel of Fortune clip, when they saw that, it was like, what did you have in your hair?

30:02Which was pomade at the time, in case anyone knows what that is. And they're like, what kind of tie were you wearing? And it's not like I'm some style maven. But you know this from your time in New York. There's these tie racks at these tchotchke stores. It's like three ties,$7.99. And when you're 25 years old and broke, I'm like, I've got to get three ties for$8. That was one of those ties. So they made fun of me for that. And then some other clip in a documentary, they were like, man, this was from a long time ago. They're like, your hair wasn't white. It was not gray. Like white. Your hair wasn't white.

30:42It was black. And they're like, you were so skinny. And I was like, take it easy. Oh, man. Can you just stop? Where's the compliments here? Anyone want to say like, oh, you've come a decently long way? Nobody said that. Nobody said that. Nobody said that. Yeah. But you, again, to talk about your seriousness, right? So you found out, and I would like to hear the story from you, but you found out you weren't going to have enough money to graduate law school. Yes. and that's when you decided to give it a shot for wheel of fortune because you knew you needed the time to study for the bar and you needed why don't you tell the story there were two key pivotal moments i've always felt like um throughout my life i've gotten lucky um going into my third year of law school i had so many loans that the loan i applied for for the third final year got denied.

31:37And I was sitting there saying, like, man, like, you know, I put this time and energy into it. I was doing decently well in law school, and now I'm not going to be able to finish. And there was no, like, rich relative to go borrow money from. It just didn't exist. So at the time, I called my ex-girlfriend, and I said, I don't think I'm going to be able to finish law school. This is in 1999, so pre-cell, right when cell phones were coming around. And she said, well, why not? And I gave her the circumstance and she said, well, why did they deny your loan? I said, because my credit's not good. And, you know, I don't, I have a lot of debt on it already.

32:12And she said, you need a cosigner? I said, yeah. And she said, I'll cosign for you. She said, just don't tell anybody. This is my ex-girlfriend, who's, by the way, now my wife. Oh, yeah. Yes. I'm like, God, he's talking a lot about this. I know, I was starting to get a little. Thanks for looking at it. But, you know, people break up, people make up. Yeah, right. I don't know. Got it, got it. That's a lot about this ex-girlfriend. Please. She's signed with him. Cut that, yeah. So on the Wheel of Fortune thing, so I worked full-time in undergrad and law school. And I knew that to study for the bar and pass the bar, I couldn't work full-time, study, and pass.

32:50I had to take two months off just to study. I sort of knew myself. Because you have this disciplined approach to things. It's just I knew it. Like if I worked, the secondary thing would be studying for the bar. and I had to pass it the first time. I didn't have the financial means to take it the second time or to wait on being a lawyer, like a lot of other folks. So I said, you know, if the bar review course was$5 ,000 and my monthly overhead was at the time, it was like$2 ,000. It was not like that much, but to me it was everything. So I sent in a postcard to Wheel of Fortune, again, late 90s, early 2000s.

33:28I get a letter in the mail, hey, come for an audition on Wheel of Fortune. I go to what is the Sony lot in LA, which I've now been to many, many times for business meetings. And I audition for Wheel of Fortune. Do you have like PTSD every time you walk on? Well, I think I have positive whatever. Positive PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder. Positive, that's what I know. Positive non-traumatic stress disorder. So there's 1 ,000 people auditioning. The good thing for me is 990 of them were like 80 years or older. So I'm sure you're familiar with the show. Oh, yeah, I used to watch it all the time.

34:02And The Price is Right. I mean, come on down. That means when you're sick from school and The Price is Right was on. When I was sick from school, that's all I watched was The Price is Right. That was amazing. Yes. And then People's Court. Oh, yeah. And then you'd try to watch a soap opera, but you couldn't pick up on the storylines. It was very tough. Yeah. Very tough. Anyway, so these older folks, to audition, you just spin the wheel and call out a letter. So these older folks are spinning the wheel, and they're like, Z, spin the wheel. They're like, X. And you're like, what words have these letters?

34:29You guys don't know how this game works? I spin the wheel. I'm like, tea? And they're like, hey, you're on the show. So I go on Wheel of Fortune. I went$16 ,500. And when your bank account goes from zero to$16 ,500, I'm like, I'm never going to have to work again. I'm rich now. This is over. Drinks are on me. But I paid for the bar review course. I passed the bar. And the rest is history. The rest is history. How important in life and in business is obsession slash passion slash being driven for what it is you're trying to accomplish? I think, Steph, there's a difference between a job and a career.

35:11If you're a career-oriented person, you've got to be obsessed with it every day of the week for like 40 to 50 years. and even when I talk to a lot of young folks who are getting out of school or in school, I'll hear a lot of people say, I want to be an NBA agent. And I'll say, okay, who do you think the six man should be for the Denver Nuggets? And they're like, I don't know. And I'm like, well, you better figure that out. You have to know more or at least believe you know more than everyone else doing it to have a chance to succeed. So for me, even we talked about family, I really only have like two interests in life.

35:50My number one interest is my family and my loved ones. My number two interest is business. So it's not like I'm like boating on the weekends or I have no hobbies. I don't really like to do a lot of things if it's not with my family or loved ones. But you read a lot. I do read a lot. I do read a lot. But I don't like like going on guys trips. But it's not for pleasure. Yeah. Boring. But when you read, are you reading for pleasure or are you reading because you want to know something about someone or some type of situation? What's interesting, you bring up the word pleasure because also growing up in our household, we had mandatory reading time that wasn't called mandatory reading time.

36:28It was called pleasure reading. I'm sorry. His eyes twitching. It was a trick by our parents to be like, you're really enjoying this, not you have to read. But the deal in our house growing up, my sister and I, our deal with our mother was, if you got all A's and B's and you read a book a month, you could do whatever you wanted to do. Okay. So there was no bedtime. There was no, for them, it was like, if you're getting the results, do it however makes you happy. So I like to read fiction. I like to read the mistakes. The nonfiction. Nonfiction. Pardon me. I like to read the mistakes, about the mistakes other people have made.

37:04I think past is prologue, and you can sort of avoid a lot of things. One thing you and I talked about, I've talked about a lot. I always think it's a mistake when executives do these profile pieces on themselves. when you and I were put into the roles of co-CEO, we sort of kidded about it. Like the picture where you have your arms crossed and you're like standing in your office. And they're like, here's a picture of his kids on his desk. Or here's a picture of her, you know, sitting on Andre's lap. Like those are always like setups for failure. And if you read a lot about what's happened in the past, you'll see that.

37:41Like Bob Iger never did that early on in his, you know, run at Disney, his legendary run at Disney. And for me, I think the more you read about what's happened in the past, the more you can predict the future. And are there particular sources you seek out or do you allow like one thing to lead you to another place? You know, for for a lot of our listeners, right, they they may want to follow in your path or at least use some of these keys. No one wants to know. There's no one who wants to follow my path. Well, let me I think, you know, very nice. Yeah, well, being president of WWE, leading the charge on professional bull riding now as well.

38:19And, you know, the new boxing venture that was launched in partnership with Turkey Al Shaikh and, of course, Dana White, who's really the front facing figure on it. So you are an incredibly accomplished person. And since you came into WWE officially, I mean, when you first started as an agent, you increased the multiple on our television deals. but since you've come into WWE in a leadership position, you've increased the multiple of our like market cap. Well, we've increased it. Of course, yes. But part of the team effort is knowing the right people, is being an excellent leader. And one of the things that I love that you instill in your people is, look, if there's a mistake, because we're going to make mistakes, you know, failure is a part of learning.

39:07But if it's a mistake, it's on me. it's not on you. If it's a win, it's on you. And I've heard some leaders say that before, but I've never seen anybody actually practice it. And you do. Oh, thank you. It's kind of, you look to me, if, like you just said, if we fail at something, it's a hundred percent, my responsibility. If we succeed at something, it's everyone else's success. That's just the way I like to do it. And that's how I feel inside. So what I tell our executives is if you have a problem and you bring it to me becomes our problem where we're either going to fix it or i'm going to fail at fixing it but if you have a problem and you don't bring it to me you can't help you better fucking fix it on your own or there's going to be a real problem for you you know in terms of your tenure here yeah and i've found that that encourages people to come to you and say i messed something up here's what happened or i don't know what to do that's fine you're very clear and direct in your messaging that's very clear great thing okay good i appreciate and also how quickly you make decisions and again it's it's being decisive it's making a good decision and you you get the input from the people that you trust and then you make the decision that you need to make and you make it right there you know and you stick to it and not that it couldn't you know you can't change your mind or what have you but people appreciate that clear direction.

40:35Again, very kind of you. I think, by the way, I feel like there's a lot of business principles in a marital relationship, right? There's a negotiation. There's sort of wanting to keep everyone happy. There's unhappiness that you have to get through. There's ups, there's downs. I know when my wife and I went to look at the home that we live in now, as soon as I walked in, I told the real estate agent, yeah, we want to buy it. And she was like, well, I like it you know my wife's like i like it but you know let's look at other homes i'm like we need to look at other homes like let's get it the agent said you know how much you want to pay for it i said we want to pay the asking price like let's go and let's wrap this thing up and we wrapped it up and we lived in that house and it's been great for us same in business and if you make a mistake in the decision that's okay too fix it yeah no issue paul and i triple h and i we make mistakes in business every day.

41:27The good thing is we have one another who we can say, hey, I think I did this. What do you think? No, I don't think that was the move. Maybe we can think of it the other way. Okay, let's try that. And then to the executive committee meeting, the executive committee, pardon me, the senior leadership team will say, hey, this got messed up. We're gonna pivot. We're gonna do X, Y, and Z instead. And everyone rose in the same direction. I have a number of different examples of things going through my head, but you mentioned how it applies to marriage. How do the leadership principles as a business leader apply to your kids?

42:05I never relitigate the past. I won't do it at work with people I care about, with my wife, with my children. Once an issue, and there's always issues, once it's discussed and resolved or semi-resolved, I move forward. and I think there's different kinds of people in the world. I think there's people who live in the past, which is definitely not me. There's people who live in the present who tend to be sort of the happiest people and there's people who live in the future who are sort of thinking, well, what's going on around that corner and what do we need to watch out for? I'm a little bit more that way.

42:40Okay. That doesn't lead to depression or stress or anxiety. It just sort of like, it keeps me on my toes and it's the same way at home and it's the same way now at home you got to make the effort to be present because a 13 year old daughter a nine year old son which are the current ages of my children they're not looking for what are we doing in two years from now they're looking to talk about their day today and i think you've done a great job of it with your children to sort of be there and be present and you and i've kidded in the past and to any parents out there you know your children like when they're little they love doing the handstands in the pool yes look at me look at me look look what did you grade that what did you rate that one out of ten come on correct they're never a ten why was it a nine yeah it's never a ten they're always falling over there's one leg this way and this and that but you got to be there and you got to sort of instead of saying like why am i looking at this handstand competition they got to know that you care about it even if you don't but of course we do of course of course yes nothing like a handstand competition in a pool there is nothing like it i mean it could get quite competitive no question yes especially with multiple kids three girls is not easy they're all very close in age your daughters also yes and they're all very excellent at handstands they're all really bright they're all a lot of fun and they're all really sweet thank you i think that's a reflection on the primary caretaker well we are very blessed we really are also good primary caretaker three times over yeah thank you just say thank you thank you yeah i always hate it when i when it gets turned on me and i'm not expecting it um so i want to talk to you by the way can we just go back to your bloodline steph's places episode sure so i was talking to jay uso about that episode i love jay he's the best you You know what he said about you in that episode?

44:37He said, she's one of us. Really? Yeah. Wow. So your ability to disarm people, your ability to go uptown and downtown, your ability, I've seen it with you for eight plus years of being in business with one another. You care about the people. And in order to lead the people, you gotta love the people. I think that was a Muhammad Ali line. And you'll see a lot of executives, a lot of leaders will say they care about the people, but they really don't. It's sort of like you'll see people, when they see a piece of trash on the ground and their boss is around, they'll pick it up. I'm always curious if their boss wasn't around, would they pick it up?

45:19Would they pick it up? You with people, when no one's around, I think you're at your best. When people are around, you're a natural star and people are attracted to your personality and being around you, but one-on-one, there's nobody like you. thank you nick don't make me cry stern face too yeah you're serious not stern serious serious it's not resting it's intense right it's like very intense motion motion stern face

45:55so and basically i said the same thing about you which which is true you actually really care about the people and and that matters i think it makes a huge difference look life is hard it is no matter who you are it's hard and you and i have the good fortune of having a couple of dollars in the bank i remember what it was like not having that and one thing that always bothered me that i've tried not to do uh with the good fortune i've been able to have i felt like if someone had a problem or if I had a problem no one would actually help they'd give words of encouragement uh you'll get through it you'll figure it out you know this and that but no one was like oh you need five thousand dollars like I'll give you a loan and you know pay me back one day and I think it always bothered me at the time not that they didn't do it for me but that hey if I ever got in the position where I could help like that I would no problem and you know the nice things you said about me earlier like I feel like I live that if you have a problem we talked about at work you have a problem bring it to me becomes our problem same with my friends when friends have been fired from jobs or whatever it is like that has nothing to do with me I judge them on our relationship how they've been to me how they've been to my loved ones if you've been good to me I'm with you so when you talk about um and and I know some certain scenarios and actually I was going to ask you about loaning money because I know there's been times where you've loaned money you said you don't expect to get that money back what does it mean to you when you do actually get that money back well look whatever loans you know I've given to people which is obviously between me and them you know I'll take a sip too just so it's like a drink break for everyone I'm in liquid death sponsor i know but they're not a sponsor yet but i do i do love liquid death i do who's the gentleman you know at liquid death peter fam he's an investor and put peter fam on my call sheet sponsorship for stephanie's podcast please yes so whatever loans i've given everyone's repaid them but you never expected the money back never never mention it never expect it never even really want it back and what i'll say to them they're usually younger people who are struggling or sometimes you know older people who you've been close to for a long time i'll say hey listen it's between you and me there's no interest on it don't tell anybody if you have the means to pay it back pay it back if you don't no problem but if you have the means to pay it back and you don't just know that i'll remember it and they've all paid it back and that's credit to them and it's also i don't know even just the way that you said that though it's like just know that if you have the means to pay it back and you don't i'll remember it what's that means your credit line's over yeah that's right but it's good because you're you're basically saying i'm not a sucker don't take advantage you know it's like yeah i'm giving you this because i want to but my eyes are wide open you know i but i think that's it's just interesting the positioning of it.

49:18I think also growing up primarily in Las Vegas, you learned Dana White said this line years ago in something totally unrelated. He said, growing up in Las Vegas, you learn early that money can trump everything, sometimes including justice. And he said that as a, it was sort of a critique on something that happened in the justice system that was off to him and me and many other people. And I do think growing up in Las Vegas, you grow up fast and you learn that the power of money is serious. So even, you know, the seat that I have the good fortune of sitting in, that's the reason why a lot of people are nice to me.

50:06And that's the reason why a lot of people call me back. I don't ever think it's because of me. And I think you see executives who get into these big seats and they sort of forget. It's the seat. It's not the person. Because as soon as you're out of that seat, people won't return your call as quickly. And if you don't know that going in, you'll really feel it coming out. You have ego. Bad. Bad in business. How important is risk-taking? And then how does that apply to the way you think about business now? It's interesting. I feel like... You could tie courage in there, courage, risk-taking. If you look at gamblers, like people who actually gamble, like poker players, the best poker players tend to come from families that didn't have a lot of money.

50:54Because the only risk they're taking is to stay the same. Meaning if you grow up in a lower socioeconomic household and you take a risk and it doesn't work out, you're still in the same lower socioeconomic household. Nothing to lose. Nothing to lose. Yeah. Right. So if there's no safety net, which there certainly wasn't for me and many, many other people, if you took calculated risks. So even when I went from being a lawyer to, OK, I want to be an agent, there was some risk in that. What if it didn't work? You know, as a lawyer, I could have gone on to a 50 year career and made a nice life and this and that.

51:29But it's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to get into the media business. And when I did it, it felt like a risk, but it felt like a risk worth taking. And I got lucky it paid off. but not having, I don't really care. People I know and care about, I by nature care what they think. People I don't know, I don't care what they think. So if I failed or if I failed when I came over to WWE and let's say there were terrible articles written about my failure at WWE, had I lost the job after a year or two years, it's no problem for me. I just don't care about that sort of thing. and and the reason why i'm asking is because i think a lot of people you know everybody sort of has the same not necessarily uh financial opportunity but one of the things i hear consistently in the people that i'm interviewing is that drive that determination that never giving up, that always, always being on, always striving to do the next thing, never being afraid to fail, taking that risk.

52:40And you have taken huge risks. You referenced even in a recent Bill Simmons podcast, you talked about CM Punk taking the risk of coming back after a decade of being gone, of Roman Reigns overcoming an illness. You know, that's sort of the idea behind what's your story, right is because everyone has a story life kicks everybody around what are the ways that you overcame adversities to get to where you are and that's where I'm trying to get to with this risk-taking so when did you know that you wanted to be in the media business and was being a lawyer the first step to get there or did you think you wanted to be a lawyer first but by the way in terms of what what's your story mcafee which i think was your tv was your sheriff's desk places mcafee you you made emotional or got emotional in the clips that i've seen you have an innate ability to bring that out of people 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.

53:54A guy who, if you've seen the clips, you know when they show the players at the beginning of the game, hey, I'm so-and-so, I went to Ohio State University and this and that. Right. He would say, I'm Pat McAfee. One day I want to be a professional wrestler. Like... He said that. Yeah. Yeah. He, in his mind, he saw it. And instead of letting anyone tell him, they told him, but he didn't listen to it. Well, you're only this, or you can't do that, or you need to do this. he forged his own path. I think for me, for others who have had the good fortune of succeeding professionally in life, like you got to see it a moment in time before everyone else sees it.

54:33And then you just got to go do it. There's no blueprint. There's no waiting. There's just do it. And you'll fall on your face. You'll make a bunch of mistakes, but you got to keep moving forward. And those days that you feel like, man, I don't think this is going to work. Like that's normal. for every person in relationships, in business. That was a terrible day. It's a good thing, and I think I said this recently, I like that the clock resets at midnight, no matter how good the day was or how bad the day was. And it was, I think, Lorenzo Fertitta, one of the brothers with Dana White who really built up the UFC, who said in a short documentary, you get a good night's sleep, you wake up the next day, and it's a fresh point of view.

55:20And you just get up and you keep moving forward. So to me, health is a different thing. If someone's health is at risk, you have very little control over that. But in business, what's the worst that can happen? You get fired. Yeah, people are so afraid. They're so afraid of that. And they're so afraid of, oh, well, what? It's a reason, by the way, stuff like, I'm not a member of any club, country club, beach club, this, that. I don't like it. I feel like when, for me, I don't like it. Yeah, we aren't either. doesn't surprise me right the sort of like oh well this happened and it's negative and you and i went through negative press on the company for a few years when i don't know what you're talking about right i've never endured any negative press it was not on you no no no none that i've ever seen um it never bothered me it was just like this is life and i also never had to think about like oh what are people at the club like saying about this right it bothered me like who gives a fuck about what someone at a club says about you it's like social media you know and paul was saying to me the other day because it's funny how human nature wise you can be looking at comments and there's 10 great comments and one negative comment and you as a human being you just focus in on that one negative comment and it can wreck your day and paul said to me he goes would you ask that person their opinion on a decision you had to make?

56:44I was like, no. He goes, right. Why? Because I don't care what they think. I don't know who they are. He goes, right. So why do you care what they think? Steph, I promise you this. I've never once searched my name on X, on any social media platform, on Google. If it says something positive, it has no relevancy to me. If it says something negative, it has no relevancy to me. And it's something I love hearing that Paul says that to you. I know he believes that and it's something we encourage our creative team and writers like don't program for that Yeah program for the universe Not for a small portion of the universe who wants to criticize you that doesn't matter move on put on a good product The money will be there.

57:24The fans will be there. The results will be there So getting back to because what i'm trying to to ascertain is when you first became a lawyer right and because this just goes back to your approach to things because I think you have I always try to learn from everyone and I learned so many valuable lessons from you and like you said you have to be more knowledgeable than the person you're speaking to as much as you can you know about the business or whatever it is that you're talking to them about whether that's the media business whether that's WWE if it's NFL NBA the person you're negotiating contract for whatever it is, you have to be the smarter or more knowledgeable.

58:07So when you're doing your two, three step ahead planning, and like you said, you didn't have a lot of options when you were growing up and you decided, you know what, I'm going to be an attorney because I see a path there. Were you thinking you wanted to stay an attorney? I know once you got into it, you didn't totally love it. Or was it always a jumping off point to the media business? Like, when did the media business become the North Star? It was right when I was finishing law school. The Sopranos had come on the air. I didn't have a subscription to HBO. So I used to go to a friend's house in law school to watch it.

58:43And I remember like what reading the credits of that show and the internet was new ish then and looking up David Chase, the creator of that show and seeing what he had done in the past. And James Gandolfini, obviously the star of that show and seeing like oh he was in true romance which by the way we didn't know was a movie we shared true romance one of my favorite movies of all time love yeah i heard you say it on the simmons podcast and i was like the gary oldman performance at the beginning of that movie is top five character to me agreed agreed i love gary oldman too love yeah so talented but to see him as like a pimp amazing yeah amazing and by the way christian slater comes in and gives him the envelope the whole thing he's like this is for alabama and he's like what is he opens it he turns it upside down right there's a screen in the corner where there's some adult you know content you haven't even looked you can say what he said yeah yeah yeah go ahead no no this is your podcast yeah go ahead there were some titties that's correct he said god damn it you haven't even looked at those you haven't even looked at those by the way that that scene and by the way As you know, written by Quentin Tarantino, not directed by Tarantino.

59:54So that was his vision. And when you watch that movie, it holds up. Even the Dennis Hopper scene with Christopher Walken. Timeless. Timeless. Gandolfini in that scene. In the bathroom fight scene with Patricia Arquette. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. It's the best movie. I love that movie. By the way, I think movies taught me a lot about business. even that scene at the beginning where again he comes in by himself into what some might consider a scary environment and he just tells it like it is and what's he thinking like the worst thing this guy can do kill me yeah what did he have that was so great in his life he found the girl the girl that he loved yeah that he was willing to put correct everything up for so i love clips like that and i'll save clips like that on my phone and watch them periodically so that's another thing you do, you save clips, quotes, articles.

1:00:54And what is your mindset when you save something? Is it like for pleasure? Is it, that was a joke to the earlier part of the conversation, not anything else? Understood. I understand. I know what you're referencing. Yes. Or is it, you know, and then there's business. Like sometimes I'll tell you I'm speaking to somebody and you'll send me an article from five years ago. And I'm like, how did you just come upon this? And you're like, well, I read it and I thought it was really good, so I saved it. Yeah, so by the way, we were talking Game of Thrones earlier. There's a scene in that. I can't remember the character's name, the red-headed witch.

1:01:30She was actually a witch. This is not a derogatory. No, no, I remember. Okay. She turned old, surprisingly, in a scene. When she goes up to Arya and Arya says, Arya Stark, I've seen you before. And she said, I've seen you. And she said something to affect of, and I said, you would take many lives, the brown eyes, the blue eyes, whatever it was. And then she says, what do we say to the god of death? And Arya Stark says, not today. and it sort of reminds me of low points in business or in life. Like, as long as you don't die, there's always tomorrow. And I know that may sound a little dramatic, but that clip to me, I was like, man, that's like a kid who ended up being orphaned in that show, who's on her own trying to figure it out.

1:02:18Again, fictional show. Game of Thrones top five show of all time for me. Amazing. Like the Battle of the Bastards episode. Amazing. But that Arya Stark scene is something that I keep on my phone. So if there are moments where you're like, man, that was rough today. What do we say to the God of Death? Not today. Not today. We survive, we advance, and tomorrow's a new day. So I think in reading newspapers a lot as a child, I still subscribe to the hard copy newspaper. I know I'm one of like 10 people who still do that. It drives my office crazy, because even when I'm on vacation, I'll say, hey, I need these newspapers in my room, and it's not so easy anymore.

1:02:57Um, but I like to read a lot of the information that I believe I have in my head is public information. It's just people haven't read it or haven't had the time to read it. So if you can read what's going on, even the recent Roman Reigns piece in Vanity Fair, I thought it was a phenomenal piece on who he is. And rarely does a piece nail it like that piece nailed it. Uh, but it really showed who he is and what he's about. and to have that knowledge the next time I saw him and to be able to reference it, I think is always an advantage for anybody. For sure. When do you find the time? I was always fascinated working for you that like, I didn't feel like you ever slept.

1:03:37Yes, with you. I didn't feel like you slept and then you were sharing articles or like, I don't know, little quirks of how we can do things better. Send this email at this time. Like, when are you finding the time to read all this stuff and just learn? Early, early morning for me. Okay. Because in waking up early, my wife's not awake yet. Our children are not awake yet. Before everyone. Before. And it's kind of like quiet time for me where I can just sort of focus on the things that are of interest to me business-wise. Okay. So that's when I do it. And as you know from having children, now I'm going to make you a guarantee about you.

1:04:15Your phone, it's just all pictures of your children, correct? Basically. Basically. clips of this podcast yeah and my favorite items are non-children things they're like quotes that i've seen or articles i've read like nick saban has a line he says uh high achieving people don't like mediocre people mediocre people don't like high achieving people and i always think about that if i'm at a store and it doesn't seem like there's good service or this or that and it's not because of the job the person has. You can be a high achieving person in a middle of the road job. It's because a person doesn't give a fuck about their job.

1:04:57And those people to me, I have very little tolerance for. Always polite, there's no reason not to be. But the Saban line reminds me of that. So being able to pull those up every so often in my favorited items is something that I like to do. All right, good learning. Yeah, well, it's a great tip. I just can't get organized enough to really do it I wind up like oh I'm only going to Favorite the things that aren't my kids Oh but then I favorite a whole bunch of stuff that is my kids And then everything is all blended together And I'm confused and it's bad Well by the way I'm sort of My wife who you know quite well will tell you I like an organized life My wife the opposite of me Full chaos if we go on a trip together If we come home at night I unpack immediately She'll unpack like two weeks later That's great I'm like your suitcase is just sitting there two weeks She's like, yeah, you've known me 30 years.

1:05:46That's how it is. I'm like, cool. But so it doesn't bother you with her stuff. It's only with your stuff or stuff that you see. We have the good fortune of having like separate sinks, like on different sides of the bathroom. My sink, there's like nothing around that sink. Her sink, 4 ,000 things. Oh, I have many, many things. It's also different for men and women. It's like, I just need to wash my face. Correct. Though that's changing. There's a lot more product for men now. Yeah, but it's still like nothing. Yeah, nothing compared. Face wash, brush your teeth, brush your hair. We have many lotions.

1:06:20You're correct. Yes, all different kinds of things. Yeah. Many products. Big marketing opportunity, though. Big CPG opportunity in the male space. Listen, look at Dwayne Johnson, Papa Tui. He knows men need their own product. So speaking of Dwayne Johnson, there was a post a few years ago that Dwayne put up, and it was a shot of him, Nanachka, who at the time was working on Young Rock. Yes. And you. And Rock, there it is. He mentions you guys being on the beach together as kids. Did you know each other? Did your paths cross as kids? Do you remember your paths crossing as kids? Yeah, so I was born in Las Vegas, moved to Los Angeles, moved to Honolulu, moved back to Las Vegas where I went to high school and went to college.

1:07:08So in Honolulu, his grandmother, as you know, Leah Maivia would have the wrestling shows there. Yep. She was the first female promoter that I know of. First female promoter. And by the way, I blame you in part. WWE never came to Hawaii. Well, we did just later, I suppose. Not in like 1985, 86. Yeah. You guys were down on Hawaii. I was eight. Exactly. It's very expensive to do a show there. We haven't done a show there since I've been here. It's very expensive. Yeah, no, but I will tell you the very first time I was in charge of the shows. So Vince tore both of his quads. And that was the night of the Royal Rumble going into the first ever super show when we recorded Raw and SmackDown on the same night before we went to an overseas trip, which included a shot in Hawaii.

1:08:01And then we went to Japan and did Raw and SmackDown from Japan. and just a quick story on that because I was suddenly responsible for all of the creative content and like rooms of of men you know who are making a lot of decisions and I'm on the phone with my dad and I'm like okay Vince this is what we have because he's Vincent business dad at home you know here's what we have for the show I was like very you know I knew I had to run through this and he stopped me and the only time he's ever said this ever Steph I don't give a fuck I'm like okay so no problem we'll rely on everybody that you've got here it's your team and then we're all set so thank you that was it bye bye how about I don't know if you've ever seen the clip of Joe Rogan talking about Vince's double quad injury no I haven't you gotta see it Okay.

1:08:55He says, look at this guy. And they're showing the clip. And he's, you know, walking out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Angry walk. I remember it. And he comes to me. He's like, the guy's torn both of his quads, which Triple H tore a quad. Like, so you know. He tore both quads, but not at the same time. Yeah. So you know through him and through being in the business how painful that is. And he's like, look, he just sits there and goes on with the show. So it's directing people from the floor. From a seated position. Correct. Yeah. And you can't teach that. No. like that sort of toughness and fortitude it just can't be taught i do think everyone's born a certain way and if you're born with a certain skill set you can hone it but if you're not born that way it's tough to ever develop that skill set yeah agreed well there's an inherent toughness that either exists in some people or it doesn't why do you think that is you think it's just a genetic thing?

1:09:46Well, so you talked about, um, a fictional story about someone overcoming. Um, my dad tells the story, uh, that he was oftentimes beaten by various boyfriends, et cetera. Um, that, that hit, you know, we're with his mom. He grew up in a, in a trailer, in a trailer park, and he would always stand up for his mom and he would take these beatings. And one time he tells the story that he was beaten with a lead pipe and left in a ditch to die. But his mindset was, if he could survive, he won. So just surviving was winning and still is winning for him today. And I don't know how you can ever beat someone at the end of the day if all they need to do is survive to win the first time i ever read that he had done an interview in the late 90s with a publication that had great interviews and playboy yeah he talked about that he talked about abuse he had suffered at the hands of one of his parents of his mother yes to recover to move on to go from trailer park to you know billion success there's not many people and created an empire a universe absolutely correct a universe so all credit to him i only have admiration for him you know as paul said triple h said in at the hall of fame speech family's complicated and you know obviously we don't need to get into any of that yeah we're not going any deeper on that but but in terms of business that guy's an empire builder absolutely he is nothing and no one can take that away from him nobody no matter what including himself who is probably his his biggest nemesis is himself i thought we weren't getting into that we're not but i want to go back to the rocks so yes i remember that arena in hawaii blaisdale arena still named the blaisdale arena and it was very small Small.

1:11:51Yep. Small. So we would go, so he and I are two years apart and my sister is, she's about a year and change older than me. So a year younger than him. So we met at the shows, we were kids at the show and we all loved wrestling. So we'd sit and talk about the show and he would sort of humbly say like, you know, that's my grandmother in the ring. And you know, when you're a little kid, you'd be like, is this kid lying? Like, yeah, that's my grandmother too. Yeah. And then one time you saw him get in the ring. And again, when you're on the outside, and I think most media executives and sports executives grow up on the outside looking in and sort of saying like, I want to be in that guy's spot.

1:12:33Like, how do I get on the field? Or how do I get near the wrestling ring? And I remember sort of seeing that and saying like, hey, instead of being like paying to come here, I'd like to sort of be involved in this sort of thing. and whether that ended up in the agenting business or the boxing business or the wrestling business. I always wanted to go from the outside to the inside and I always thought it would be a fun life, challenging professionally, like any other profession is challenging, but I always thought it would be fun and it is. What was the most challenging part of managing Manny Pacquiao?

1:13:08So there are two fighters, Manny Pacquiao and James Lights Out Tony. okay james tony was the greatest defensive fighter that i've ever seen he would also fluctuate in weight a lot manny pacquiao always stayed on weight was very disciplined about that but it was very the only thing he was disciplined about before he found god there are a lot of things there are a lot of things he was not disciplined about no offense look it was an incredible fighter incredible incredible fighter incredible guy yes but politician politician yep this was this was pre-text messaging okay and there's no real credit system in the philippines so everyone has a prepaid cell phone you don't like have a verizon plan or whatever it is right right so you know you call him you call him you call him you couldn't get in touch with him you couldn't text him so eventually you fly i'd fly from la to the philippines like you try to find him and you'd end up in a city called General Santo City.

1:14:07It was me. Yeah, you see him anywhere. And you'd talk to his guys, and there were people to protect him. They'd go, oh, I don't know where he is. So finally you'd find him, and it was a lot of fun, but I said to myself, I don't know, managing fighters, it's not the easiest thing in the world. So even when I became an agent, and I would represent sports broadcasters who were perceived as difficult, people would say, hey, it's so-and-so difficult. And I would say to myself, like, not compare to James Toney and Manny Pacquiao. This is easy. And even WWE is a client. Oh, is that difficult? It's been difficult.

1:14:40Nope. Not compare it to these other guys. Same old truth for every billionaire you've ever worked with? Because you have often mentioned to me how billionaires can have particular eccentricities that the average person wouldn't necessarily have. And how do you work with that? How do you manage that? Still, they don't compare to those two? They don't compare. With billionaires, you can say anything you want to them as long as it's in private and it's said respectfully. You were recently on the Bill Simmons podcast and you mentioned offhandedly about people who have a chip on their shoulder typically do well.

1:15:19And I'm curious why and what you meant by that. I read this article in the 08 election in Time Magazine when Time Magazine was still Time Magazine. Is this favorited? this part is favorited okay yes good call back it said if you look at all of the presidents in the history of the united states they all either come from super successful fathers or fathers who are completely absent bill clinton never knew his father gerald ford met his father at 17 or 18 years old john kennedy's dad super successful w bush's dad super successful and the theme of the article was that everyone who becomes president either wants to show the world it's not either wants but everyone who becomes president wants to show the world look i'm not like my dad i'm not a nobody and i'm also you think my dad's rich and successful like i'm the president united states and i don't believe in the father-son competition in my household it didn't exist that way but there's something about wanting to prove yourself when you come from the outside so for example i went to unlv according to the wall street journal unlv is the 430th ranked school out of 500 colleges so by the way if your two daughters who aren't in college can't get into the top 429 call me okay you might have some connections or maybe they shouldn't go to college if they can't get in the oh what is your college philosophy though yeah my college philosophy is if you want to be a biologist like go to college go to the best school you can because you have to get that training outside of that i see it as a total waste of time and people will say uh well what about the college experience i'm like what do you mean like getting drunk and hooking up with people like you can do that anywhere you don't need college to do that they're like well football games i'm like you don't need to go to college to go to a football game like go to a football game i think it used to be certain people couldn't get into college so if you went to college it gave you this great advantage now that everyone can go to college i think it sets a lot of people up for expectations that their life's going to turn out a certain way with a degree and it just doesn't matter.

1:17:28Yeah I mean honestly just a reference I just interviewed John Cena who was talking about his degree in kinesiology and physiology and he couldn't find a job. Could not find a job. I was a political science major at UNLV and like I guess it was sort of interesting but I think I could have like listened to the classes on tape and been and interested rather than going and taking time. I don't know, it just felt like a prolonged adolescence to me where, hey, I'm on spring break and no one gives you a hard time when you're like, yeah, I'm in college, oh, that's great, I'm in law school, that's great.

1:18:03But like years are going by where if you were just working, I would always think like, so I was five years undergrad, I worked full time. Right, right, this is where you got the chip? Yeah, a little bit. Okay. By the way, I have bus tables, I waited tables. when you're a bus boy you're cleaning the bathrooms like again i i always have this philosophy like if no job is beneath you then no job is out of your reach whatever job i did that's a good quote we gotta get that one okay if no job is beneath you no job is out of your reach it just isn't and to me it's gonna sound silly but like i was the head bus boy then i became the head waiter i was and i was young i was you know 17 when i started college so i was young but i took my job seriously and when i realized like again this is 1992 1993 i can make a hundred dollars a day in tips well why don't i just work every day and if i work every day then i'll make more money than if i had only worked 75 of the days and i think that translated into my career as a professional like there's no day off it doesn't it just doesn't work like that for me so there's certain days where there's sundays there's less work than certainly you know mondays or tuesdays but i'm always working while as you've always said there is no work-life balance it's never totally balanced but my children are my priority my wife is my priority so once i feel like that's been satisfied then really the only other thing that interests me is work but what was your question i just go off topic yeah well no it was the chip on your shoulder like how does that make you successful when you can't buy certain things when you can't help people when you're sort of sitting there saying and this is not a woe was me thing this this made me mad and i deal better with anger than i do sadness so it was like i'm going to show the world that i can do it and i i feel like when you're starting here and other people are starting here so let's say unlv here and let's say harvard here like the only chance you have to sort of catch up is to outwork them and they're working it's not like they're staying stagnant but if I could work 18 hours a day and they were working 12 hours a day then hey there was more knowledge that I could deposit into you know my knowledge bank if you will and maybe at some point you know there'd be a withdrawal I could take on it and the the deposits would be there mcafee talked about um in uh fifth grade i think it was and i might have the year wrong but he was talking about they went around the room and asked you know what what do you want to be when you grow up and he said you know one kid's a firefighter and the oh that's so great that's coming one kid said i want to be a teacher like you oh that's so great and you get to pat and he says i want to be rich and he was very serious because he grew up with really not that much money.

1:20:58He told us a story about needing 50 cents to buy a grape drink. And that's another story, which is a great one that you're going to love that I don't know if you've heard. But he said how much not having money bothered him, that all he wanted to do was to be able to provide for himself and his family so that they didn't have to make the choices of whether or not to even ask for 50 cents for a grape juice drink. He articulated it perfectly. That's how I felt. Even when I went to law school, your first year of law school, as you know from friends, is very difficult, very challenging. So that first year, even though I worked full time, I decreased work a little bit so I could focus.

1:21:46My food budget, my first year in law school per week was$27 a week. For the whole week? for the whole week and that's just the way that it was i had like i think like five thousand dollars saved i would make a certain amount of money but at 27 it was sort of easy for me it i never complained about it never it never made me sad it just made me not want to be in that position and by the way 27 a week there's a west coast store called food for less you go to that grocery store and it's kind of like i don't want to say it's like all the dented cans and all that stuff right but it's not the freshest right it's not day old correct yeah it's not erwan or what like whole foods was right there's not mold on the bread but it's not fresh like you better eat the bread that day that day yeah so you go to that store and you'd buy remember bag cereal before bag cereal was in you buy bag cereal i buy milk i buy rice i buy things that were really inexpensive I buy ramen all the time.

1:22:49All the time. And you get through it. And I think I went to public school my whole life like Pat did. I liked many things about it. One thing I didn't like was that exact question. What do you want to be when you grow up? Most people would say what Pat conveyed. Not what he said. I want to be a cop. I want to be a teacher. I want to be a firefighter. All noble things. People would even say, like, I want to be a marine biologist. I don't know what that is. But that's what people would say. no one could just say, I wanna start a record company and sell it for$3 billion. It almost felt like that was discouraged.

1:23:23Right. And all I wanted, and even Yvette and I, my wife and I, we didn't have children until I was 37. That was a conscious decision more driven by me because I wanted to know that if something ever happened to me, that we had enough in the bank already, that's 13 years ago, where my children would never have to live a different life than the life that I would give them had I been around. It was important to me that they weren't moving around like we did as children a lot, that they weren't in one home to another home. I didn't want that for them. And I wanted to have enough money in the bank where even, again, if something happened to me, Yvette, Sonny, Natalie, they'd be good for the rest of their lives.

1:24:03It was important to me. Another thing McAfee said that I've heard you say as well on the Simmons podcast was that, Which, by the way, was so fun to hear Bill mark out talking about creative and everything. Huge wrestling fan. Like, really. And I know that, but I haven't really seen his enthusiasm. And he was so excited talking to you about everything. It was great. How about his house? 24 bedrooms. Yeah. Eyeball test. Yes. You can see. At least 40 ,000 square feet, you said. Minimum. Yeah. Yeah. You could still hear the dogs, though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. They were close by. yeah but um and i even put it in a in a social post that pat had said this that life is wrestling so i think that means a lot and you you mentioned you and paul triple h talk about that all the time how life is wrestling how do you mean it so wwe is life life is wwe is what our version of what pat says so pat said to you i saw this clip that uh you know when someone's being a jerk to him he's like oh that guy's just a heel like that's just the way it is when someone's you know doing right by you oh he's a face like it is life i think the reason it resonates with millions of people globally is because it personifies life there's betrayal there's disappointment there's double cross there's also heroic endings there's cody finishing his story someone with a dream think about cody rhodes and you've known him since you guys were kids right cody rhodes comes to wwe this is Dusty Rhodes' son.

1:25:40And by the way, Dustin Rhodes' little brother. And okay, he's gonna become something. And then he's Stardust, and he's doing the hand thing and all this stuff. And he asks to be released from a guaranteed contract, and he goes on the independent circuit, and he helps to start up another company. And sometimes you gotta leave home to be considered an adult. And I think because he had grown up at WWE or around wrestling, WCW, NWA, WWE, like he had to leave and go to his own thing so he wouldn't just be dusty's son and when he came back you were there 2022 wrestlemania dallas like the crowd went fucking crazy for him and i thought at that moment man he made all the right moves and he took risk and his risk paid off and as you know he's one of our top guys right now he's a gem cm punk who we talked about earlier gem easy to work with easy roman easy hayman easy triple h easy and by the way everyone can run hot sometimes like as the non not being on the creative side just let people cool for a second and then you can usually get the message across to them that you want um i do want you to have the opportunity to talk about what you're most excited about coming up with wwe but also i wanted to ask your sort of thoughts and different people have asked you this in different ways about the media business in general and where it's headed.

1:27:09So Dana White was recalling when we were growing up, you know, that you in essence had like five to seven main channels, right? And at the time we had a dial, right? And he thinks he believes that that is going to be the same setup, but globally. So the world will have the same five to seven channels. And I don't mean to put words in his mouth if he means it'll be slightly more than that or less than that, what have you. We also didn't talk about whether they'll be subscription-based or not, but the fact that you will have these channels that are essentially live globally. WWE is, in essence, doing this already with Netflix.

1:27:49In terms of our premium live events, domestically they still stream on Peacock, but WrestleMania was available all over the world at the same time live. Do you subscribe to the world getting smaller in terms of five to seven global brands media brands or channels? Do you think it's going to be you know, what how do you see things? So two things one unrelated just quickly and then one related you mentioned earlier about PBR Just so we're clear. I don't run PBR. There's a gentleman named Sean Gleason who's the CEO of PBR who's doing a phenomenal job I just wanted to clarify that. But don't you, it comes under your purview.

1:28:32I helped to oversee it. The success of it. The success of it. Or failure. It comes under you. Who work every day on it is their success. Okay. Either way, Dana has a unique ability. Are you going to ride a bull? Dana has. Dana has. Thank you. By the way, Penta was watching some TikTok from, I sent this to Braeband, I believe, our head of digital who does a phenomenal job here. Is that your official title, head of digital? Okay, good. All right. Whatever you say, Nick. Yeah, exactly. He's emailing HR right now. The interviewer is asking our wrestlers, if you were in any other sport other than wrestling, what would it be?

1:29:11And Penta says, do you know PBR? Really? He's like, that's what I would want to do. I would want to ride the bull. So there's a young lady named Carla Montiel, who you know, who's an executive at WWE. She connects me with Penta. I said, please, no writing. Not why you're here. We love it in terms of expanding PBR's brand, but we need you safe. We need you healthy. Dana has a unique ability to see around the corner. I'll give you a couple of examples. He was way ahead of everyone in saying the mainstream media is not the way to go. It's not about distrust and all of that stuff. I don't want us to get into that.

1:29:52It's all about the podcast world and the digital space. He was saying this five years ago. When you look at how he's continued to grow the UFC, and you see him on Theo Vaughn's show, and on Aiden Ross's show, and doing all of these things, the Nelk boys, years in advance of people even knowing who these folks were, way ahead of the game. I think he's ahead of the game again on those five, seven, 10 global channels. So when you look at Netflix, and I didn't know this stuff until the WWE deal was done. When I'm in Saudi on business, when I'm in London on business, it's the same exact interface. It's my avatar, it's my wife, my children.

1:30:35It's the same setup, which makes it so easy compared to when you go to other countries and you're saying like, I think there's an NFL game on, I don't know what channel it's on, how do I find this thing? It actually makes a global property like WWE global. So even if you look at our expansion in our premium live events into international markets and the gates that we're doing on that. Number one, it all starts with the product, which is Paul and his creative team, our creative team. But number two is going into those marketplaces, having boots on the ground, promoting locally, finding the right date that works for the locals there, and boom, then your product becomes bigger, not only for that moment, but for that entire year.

1:31:16And then you've got to do it again the year after. Yep, you have to come back to the markets. every day in business you got to earn your keep and in life right in life you got to earn it and re-earn it so i can tell you about oh look at this record gate we did in leon france a year ago nobody cares what they care about what i care about is what are we doing today what are we doing tomorrow which is always our focus here it's the same when i say i don't relitigate the past in relationships like i look to the future if you believe what does the media landscape look like in the future i I believe it looks like what Dana says.

1:31:50You do, you agree. Five, seven, 10 global channels. What about, he's putting Slap Fight, I believe is that what it's called? Power Slap. Power Slap, thank you. On V-Chain. And he was talking a little bit about blockchain and how he, again, I think he's slightly ahead of the curve putting content on this platform and he said I wanted to reach as many people as possible. What are your thoughts on V-Chain, on blockchain, and the importance of that for the media business moving forward? I love everything that he's doing, certainly in the UFC and with Power Slap, and everything that I believe we're going to do in boxing, which is how do you get the broadest, widest audience possible to watch your sport?

1:32:37so it was no different than when wwe 25 years ago whatever it was was on upn and the nashville network which became the national network which became tnn which became spike which is now paramount it's smaller platforms and then all of a sudden you fast forward to wwe's on nbcu and netflix like pretty good work by all the people who were here well in advance of me to get the product to where it is now. If you look at UFC, they went from Spike to Fox and from Fox to Disney, where something that was called human cockfighting at one point, he, the brothers, and then Ari Emanuel, Mark Shapiro, once that transaction happened, brought in the appeal of the sport, where if you ask somebody, did you see the UFC fight last night?

1:33:26They certainly know what you're talking about most watch many watch but they know what you're talking about wwe you saw the same thing vince yourself bruce paul many other people throughout the years it's the same thing with slap you're seeing it start to penetrate the zeitgeist and i think boxing which once had that went so far obscure in their titles and sanctioning bodies and you know where to watch and when to watch, that if we can make slight adjustments to that and you have a great product, which is the hardest thing to do, maybe you see a bit of a renaissance in boxing. Well, plus you're building stars.

1:34:05Of course. I mean, it's all about the star power. Look, at WWE, we have two philosophies when we don't know what to do. Copy the NFL or do the opposite of boxing. And if you do those things, you'll have a good chance of succeeding. So is there a name of the new entity? the name is still being discussed a lot of the names that we've loved have already been marked by other people so it's finding the name we love that's available as soon as we get it figured out shaking down the people who own it i don't i don't prescribe that would be you and your business philosophy i'm kidding yeah well at least how about ben brown with betraying me and giving you that picture i don't feel like that was betrayal and she didn't fully confirm where it came from i Well, when she did the eyebrow raise, I wanted to know who you were going to say next.

1:34:56There's only three humans who have that picture. So it was one of those three. Can we put it back up? I look very pasty in the picture. No, you're a kid. Also, no gel in my hair in that picture. My hair is naturally very puffy. You are a child in this picture. It wasn't the look. No one wants to put that back up. No, it's... What are the octopus legs around these other people? Well, they're most all around. So whatever that. Julie Little remains a friend of mine. Really? Yeah. No way. Moved from Hawaii to Las Vegas a year before I did and was very kind and gracious to me when I moved to Las Vegas.

1:35:35See, it made it worthwhile for you to relook at this picture. What are these hands? These like jazz hands over here. Are they most involved maybe? I don't. Hey there. It doesn't have their thing. It says hi, hi. Maybe they're friendliest. But I feel like the publication could have been a little higher end. It feels like drawing. 86 Haas. Just most popular. What does Haas mean? Like, what's up, Haas? This you should know. I assumed it was your school. I don't. No. I don't have. It was a Hawaiian name. Kamilowiki Elementary School. See, I just have a picture. Yeah, that's not Haas. Yeah. Yeah. Was that Garfield over the young lady's shoulder next to me?

1:36:07It looks like Garfield. Okay. Just drawn in. Yeah. All right. See, you're enjoying this. I mean, it's just, you know, just a throwback. Look at my hair on all different. By the way, I used to go to Supercuts as a kid. Yes. Okay. I would go there with that puffy hair and say, just cut it and part it to the left. And they'd be like, that's not happening for you, dude. Your hair doesn't work that way. There's no parting. We just cut it shorter and you let it throw out. That's just the way it is. That's what it was. Yep. Anything else that we need to go over? No, but I just have to say they were right.

1:36:43I mean, most likely to succeed. And here you are, Nick. And again, I just have to end the interview the way I started because not only are you an incredibly successful businessman who I'm sure is going to go on to continue to do incredible things that you'd never want recognition for, that you always want to be behind the scenes on, but that you're actually at the forefront of driving and make happen. But it's because of who you are as a human being. and you are just true to who you are. You never try to be anybody else. You always are the best possible version of yourself you can be. You work so hard.

1:37:26You're so determined. You are so fiercely loyal. You do believe in giving people chances and opportunities that other people don't see, quite frankly, and you invest in people and you bring out the best in who they are. and I just think you know I said it in my post when I left the company that you're the best executive I've ever worked with you've called yourself a non-traditional executive I think that's true too and I think the two go hand in glove and I just couldn't be more grateful for the time that I have had with you and continue to have with you so thank you very much for for being on this podcast and again sharing your story too kind of you I'm just a mid-level wrestling executive who's also a mid-level bull riding executive who's a mid-level boxing executive but you know what i think of you i love you i appreciate you i'm so happy that you're doing this with us by the way the downloads have been incredible i don't know if you're getting no i haven't heard any metrics yet on the podcast we're going over it after this incredible stephanie's places you may have heard this outside of peyton and eli is the most viewed places in the history of any of the series and just so there's no confusion out there there's like dozens of different places it's not just Peyton Eli and Stephanie dozens of them the most viewed so that's because of the skill set look success is the totality of the circumstance right it's WWE it's guests but it's also that host so when Jamie Horowitz Peyton Manning and i discussed this show for wwe and they said who who do you think should host it it was stephanie mcmahon that's what i said both of them were like perfect let's go there was no like well what do you think you know why don't we get this person or that it was that simple and that easy i'm so happy you agreed to do it and you've been crushing it just like you have everything else in life well i'm just very grateful for the opportunity i really am don't try to renegotiate already we're only like six episodes i just negotiate with you that's it thank you for having me on thank you for having me on yes all right destroy that picture nope it's all there