Top WWE Star Reveals He Took A Paycut To Sign For The Company
One of WWE's biggest and brightest to a financial hit to sign his contract. It paid off.
LA Knight has revealed that he took a pay cut to re-sign with WWE in 2021, though he was willing to bet on himself in the confidence that he'd be able to turn it into "much more" later down the line.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Knight claimed that the only reason he stayed with IMPACT Wrestling was because he was making "good money for the first time" after being broke for years. Eventually, he reached out to WWE and was told they could place him in the Performance Center - albeit without guaranteeing NXT television time.
Although Knight questioned this at first, he later understood that WWE wanted to gauge whether or not he was a team player, having previously left the company with heat in 2014.
On taking the pay cut, Knight said (h/t POST Wrestling):
So finally, when I did make the jump over there, there was a little bit of not necessarily negotiation, but it was just kind of like, I knew I was going to have to take a pay cut coming in. But I was willing to take the pay cut on the bet that I could turn it into much more. Because I had hit the ceiling basically in IMPACT. And I had an awesome time (in) NWA for that little bit that we were able to do before the pandemic hit…
Continuing, Knight documented how his WWE return came about after reaching out to Paul 'Triple H' Levesque personally:
But then when I was at the point where I’m like, ‘This ride is probably over.’ I was like, ‘Well, screw heat. I’m messaging.’ So I was like, ‘Hey, look, this is what I’ve been doing for the last year that ended. Here’s pictures, here’s videos,’ whatever. And then I just let Talent Relations know, ‘Hey, look, by the way, I sent this email,’ whatever. ‘Just giving a heads-up.’ And that’s where it was just kind of like, ‘Well, we got to talk about some things,’ whatever.
Knight will challenge for Roman Reigns' Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in a four-way match also featuring AJ Styles and Randy Orton at Royal Rumble 2024 (27 January).