Exclusive: United States champion LA Knight on playing the long game to become top WWE star
When discussing the rising stars in WWE over the last few years, naturally you will be thinking up about up and coming talents in their twenties and early thirties.
But one of the hottest new things in the professional wrestling and sports entertainment juggernaut is actually a performer who is only five years younger than John Cena and two years off fellow veteran Randy Orton.
LA Knight’s journey to becoming a top guy in WWE in his forties has not been plain sailing and included plenty of bumps along the way - but he is now reaping the rewards of being true to himself after surpassing 100 days as the United States champion.
Yet given the ups and downs he experienced, was he always confident that he would get to where he is today?
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"I sound like a complete psychopath but there's like two of me in here,” Knight told SPORTbible.
“One was like, 'Yeah this is going to happen' and the other side was like, 'Are you sure?'.
"The aim was to be at the top of the card and even now I'd say I'm not quite exactly there, but I think I've definitely cemented my position as being in that bubble."
The likes of Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Jey Uso are recognised as the top superstars currently but as WWE prepares to bring its programming to Netflix in a $5 billion deal, Knight, real name Shaun Ricker, is well in the mix – drawing some of the biggest reactions and selling a whole lot of merchandise.
His stock in the company is further emphasised by the fact that he was able to restructure his contract back in August to reflect his value.
The lucrative new and improved deal was penned a decade on from when he released by WWE after issues with a former head coach who he butted heads with at the Performance Centre in Orlando.
He admitted: "For a long time I was pretty p***ed off and pretty bitter about the fact that I wasn't here a long time before but when I think about it, all the opportunities I've had outside of here and living in LA for all the time that I did - I'm very thankful for that.
"I signed here in 2013 but only lasted a year because there were professional, behind the scenes things.
"Here we are again and this time it was perfect timing for many reasons. But beyond that, I just don't have the same wear and tear on my body that I would have had, had I been here 10 years ago.
"Even when people want to point out the age and stuff like that, I'm in some damn good shape and part of that is the fact that I had an easier is schedule working at some of the smaller companies."
In his first stint with WWE, Knight was there for a just a year and made a handful of appearances on developmental brand NXT.
He returned to the independent scene and built himself back up again with other promotions, with the release acting as a blessing in disguise.
"For me it was losing my dream job but at the same time for a little while I was starting to think maybe it wasn't the dream,” Knight reflected on how he responded to getting the boot.
"I also knew there was no way I could stop. I couldn't just give up and disappear, I don't know how to do anything else if I'm honest!
"For me it was, 'I'm going to keep on doing this, better than I ever can' - make them regret that they ever got rid of me and at some point, they open the door.
"They opened the door pretty soon after, but I was not ready to come back, and we couldn't come to terms.
"Finally, when we did it was perfect timing and now everything has worked out swimmingly."
The wrestling business is as brutal and cut-throat as can be. Its fast-moving nature means even the top talents can be released out of nowhere, as evidence in some departures in the last couple of years.
With his age, he is said to have been at risk of a second release when he was back with WWE and performing for NXT but the legendary Shawn Michaels, now running the promotion, went to bat for him and remained a huge supporter of Knight’s.
Knight said: "I don't think I knew how much [Michaels supported] until more recently when he was talking about people before, who might have looked at a number next to my name which would have been my age and not known much else about me.
"Shawn would apparently stand up for me and be like, 'I got him doing this and that so we need to hold on to him for now.'
"I don't think in the moment I was aware of that. In the back of my head I thought I was on the chopping block but not for any talent reason - just simply that number."
He stands before us as a megastar and a “Yeah!” catchphrase that fans can’t adore anymore.
Yet his early days on the main roster were spent as ‘Max Dupri’, a manager for the Maximum Male Models tag team and it is not a time that Knight looks back on with fondness.
Rolling his eyes when asked how he looks back on that period, Knight commented: "I'd rather not reflect on it! That's my reflection on it. I enjoy the challenge of doing new things but to me, the uniqueness of wrestling is that it's not just going out there doing a movie role or TV role.
"I think with something like this where you're going to be this person, this avatar so to speak for possibly years and years - maybe decades - it needs to be something which is akin to you if you're really going to have it long-term.
"I don't know who the hell Max Dupri is. I didn't know who he was and quite honestly, I didn't care. LA Knight, now that's just me being me but taking it way up.
"The second I add the opportunity to revert back to that was not a second too soon."
His brash, trash-talking persona easily lent itself to being a bad guy and Knight worked with the late Bray Wyatt at the 2023 Royal Rumble event.
But the fans would soon gravitate towards him and the investment in him kept growing. Without really doing anything to turn from a bad guy into a guy, Knight started receiving huge reactions when his entrance music hit.
And one of his biggest came at London’s O2 Arena – where this very interview was conducted to hype up a stacked, eleven-city European tour which will include Smackdown and Raw tapings on the ‘Road to WrestleMania’.
"It was the beginning of March, we were in D.C and I came out,” Knight explained when the almighty shift happened.
“Sheamus and Drew [McIntyre] were in the ring and I came out to interrupt them. There was this loud pop, it was the loudest one I had. This was the first time I got a pop and I was like, 'Ooh that's different!'.
"I grew up an hour away from D.C so I thought maybe there were enough people who know me and are giving me that hometown pop but then it happened the next week and then the next week, in New York and in LA.
"It would just continue to build and build. By March I think we had something going and then we got all the way to the O2 at Money in the Bank. The roof blew off that place."
WWE could not ignore Knight’s soaring popularity and he soon found himself doing battle with Reigns for the undisputed WWE universal championship and getting the seal of approval from 16-time world champion Cena.
At this year's SummerSlam, he experienced a career highlight when he knocked off Logan Paul in front of 50,000 people to become the new United States champion.
His stellar work on the microphone has earned comparisons to icons like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock but Knight takes great pride in how he has achieved greatness by being authentic and sticking to his guns.
Knight added: "Sometimes I get myself in trouble because I like to work a little more off the cuff and sometimes they [WWE management] like a little structure.
“I try to meet them in the middle on that and for me, I want to listen and react instead of thinking of all this prefab. It didn't feel right to me.
"If I want to be as authentic as I can be and connect with everybody out there, I need to listen.
"Instead of going out there pre-planned, just being able to be authentically me has been a godsend.
"Sometimes I have to meet them in the middle but for the most part, they're like, 'We'll let you do your thing but just don't push it!'".
Netflix is the new home of WWE programming from January - including Raw, SmackDown, NXT and all WWE Premium Live Events. Don’t miss the premiere episode of WWE Raw on 6th January available to all Netflix subscribers in the UK.
Topics: WWE, Shawn Michaels, Spotlight
Josh Lawless