Nick Khan Reveals Reason for Bringing The Rock Onboard Under TKO Board Leadership

The Rock’s return to WWE has seen tremendous results in terms of viewership, attendance records, and multiple business avenues skyrocketing on the road to WrestleMania 40.

The Great One not only came back to WWE as a regular fixture on their television programming but also joined TKO Group Holdings as Board of Directors to take the company to unprecedented heights not seen in years.

During recent interview on The Town with Matthew Belloni, WWE President Nick Khan opened up about bringing The Rock on board following the WWE-UFC merger to form the TKO Group Holdings in January 2024.

Nick Khan stated that the idea of bringing The Rock was always a point of discussion for the top-tier management, considering his building multiple entrepreneurial ventures, high popularity, and rich family lineage. Moreover, he believed The Final Boss would be a better fit for the TKO Board than the one in place when WWE operated as a sole entity.

“It’s something that…the first bell-ringing day for TKO was September 12th. The conversation that Ari [Ari Emanuel], Mark [Mark Shapiro], Andrew [Andrew Schleimer], myself, others was ‘Dwayne Johnson would be really interesting for the board.’ Ari, Dwayne, and others, Brad Slater, who is an agent there, Ari and Brad have been across Dwayne’s business for a long period of time. The idea of Dwayne and having his input on TKO, which is part of WWE, was something we were desirous of. In having an on-going dialogue with Dwayne in the past two-plus years about, ‘when are you going to come back?’ It finally made sense to him. ‘The why,’ he would always say. ‘I need to figure out the Why.’ The interesting part for him is he’s developed all these other businesses. Now he sits on the board of a publicly traded company that has an incredibly strong valuation and that’s great for him and great for us that we can have him back on camera and in the ring.”

“I think when it was just WWE, the board operated in a different way. I think because TKO is growth-minded—that’s not to say WWE wasn’t—we wanted to be the best sports entertainment/wrestling company in the world, but with MMA in mind and what could be out there and with all of the great success the UFC had. Our fans love him. I think he loves our fans. Wrestling is in his blood.”

Apart from his corporate duties, The Rock is set to return to in-ring action after almost eight years this weekend at WrestleMania 40. He alongside Roman Reigns will battle the team of Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins on Night 1 of the show. So it will be interesting to see if The Great One can translate his success on the board into a victory inside the ring on the Grandest Stage of them all.

Do you think bringing The Rock as a Board member for TKO rather than the old WWE board was a better decision? Sound off in the comments!