Jonathan Coachman says his early years at ESPN came with one hell of an expensive lesson. According to the former WWE personality, his relationship with current WWE President Nick Khan somehow went sideways before the two had even met face-to-face — and Coach claims it ultimately cost him six figures.
During his appearance on Boots to Boots with Deonna Purrazzo and Steve Maclin, Coachman explained that Khan was still a major talent agent when another ESPN personality told him Khan was interested in representing him. Coach thought he had landed one of the biggest agents in the business, but things apparently went south pretty quickly.
According to Coachman, certain ESPN executives didn’t respect his WWE background and started badmouthing him to Khan. He claims Khan eventually negotiated his second ESPN contract, which came with a massive pay cut.
“I get a call from another big talent, and they said, ‘Hey, Nick Khan likes you.’ And Nick Khan was an agent at the time. He had all the bigwigs. And I think back and I go, ‘How could I have played it differently?’ But I didn’t do anything wrong.
“And what was happening was the executives that I told you about, they were badmouthing me to Nick. I’ve still never met Nick Khan in person, but he did negotiate my second contract at ESPN.
“And because of what these executives were telling him, ‘Oh, Coach is talking trash about you. Coach doesn’t believe in you,’ I get a call from Nick going, ‘Hey, I got an offer for you.’ It was a $60,000 pay cut.
“And I said, ‘Well, what are we going to do?’ He’s like, ‘It’s take it or leave it. What do you want to do?’ And my son, my second child, I have two, was due on the day my contract was up. Well, what are you going to do? I can’t go anywhere else. You have to take it.”
That put Coachman in a pretty brutal position. His contract was ending on the same day his second child was due, so walking away without another job lined up wasn’t exactly much of an option. Coachman eventually started wondering how things had gotten so weird with an agent who had originally been interested in representing him. He said he went to another one of Khan’s clients and finally heard what Khan had allegedly been told about him.
“I went to one of the guys that he represented. I said, ‘This is so strange.’ I said, ‘He reached out to me. He wanted to rep me.’ He even said this, guys. He goes, ‘Don’t pay me on the first contract. If you’re happy, you can pay me on the third one or the second one with me.’ So, I’m like, ‘It’s a win-win.’ He was one of the biggest agents in the world.
“So, he goes, ‘Well, he got word that you were insulting his way of doing business.’ I said, ‘I’m brand new here. Why would I ever do that?’ I said, ‘He’s one of the biggest agents in the world. This makes no sense. Why would he not call and ask me or talk to me?’ And so that was a $120,000 pay cut.”
Coachman seems to have made peace with the fact that he couldn’t control what was being said about him behind closed doors. But more than two decades later, it clearly still bothers him that a simple phone call could have cleared things up before his paycheck took the hit.
What do you make of Jonathan Coachman’s claims about Nick Khan and what allegedly happened behind the scenes at ESPN? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
