10 Wrestlers Who Became Everything They HATED
9. LA Knight Becomes Background Noise
McMahon didn't see much in LA Knight as an in-ring performer either. In fact, the old WWE boss planned to pluck one of NXT's brightest stars from the developmental brand and recast him as Max Dupri: 'Manager Extraordinaire'. Nobody was thinking of greats like Bobby Heenan or Paul Heyman whenever Dupri warbled through some dialogue, let's be honest.
Someday, ol' Max might find room in lists looking at managers you totally don't remember.
Knight didn't dig being a heel mouthpiece for some going-nowhere tag-team. That's not meant as a dismissal of Maximum Male Models, but come on - WWE's bigwigs never treated the unit with any respect creatively, and that was never going to change. McMahon stepping away and Triple H seizing control was the best thing that could've happened to LA.
The upheaval meant Knight was restored to his former glory and Trips just let him do his own thing. He's been thriving ever since dropping the lame Dupri character he couldn't get a feel for and becoming an active wrestler again. Today, LA is one of the company's brightest babyfaces, and his star continues to rise heading into 2025.