Kevin Knight Had WWE Tryout Before Signing With AEW (AEW News)
Kevin Knight had WWE interest before signing with AEW.
Having officially joined AEW after impressing on Collision on Saturday, there are now a few more details on Kevin Knight joining Tony Khan's promotion and becoming #AllElite.
As first reported by PWInsider, Knight actually had an "invited tryout" at the WWE Performance Center several weeks ago. Despite that, the hugely talented 28-year-old opted to instead sign with AEW.
Elaborating on this topic, Fightful Select reports that Kevin Knight's NJPW deal expired the week of Wrestle Kingdom 19 at the turn of the year. While New Japan was keen to keep Knight, he was keen to sign with a US-based promotion.
This Fightful story adds how the two-time former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion met with Tony Khan and Rocky Romero in early February when he came in to work an ROH match against AR Fox, and that Knight was also looking to hold talks with WWE at that point.
While Fightful was unable to confirm the nature of the "invited tryout" at WWE - whether this was a private tryout or whether he even attended - the outlet reached out to a WWE PC source who said, "I'm not sure what more they needed to see. He wrestled in New Japan, CMLL, AEW, Ring of Honor, MLW and TNA. There are looks at this guy on every other stage but ours. Glad we were at least trying though". Fightful goes on to confirm that WWE did indeed have interest in Kevin Knight, and that he likely would've started in NXT should he have signed with the market leader.
Who Is Kevin Knight?
For those maybe not too familiar with Kevin Knight, the Georgia native began his career in 2019 and did some training under Buddy Wayne - the father of AEW's Nick Wayne - before heading to Japan the following year. There, he trained as a Young Lion in the NJPW Dojo and served under the learning tree of Katsuyori Shibata.
As a Young Lion, Knight came up at the same time as the likes of Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin, and Karl Fredericks, with Fredericks these days better known as Eddy Thorpe in NXT. Eventually, Kevin Knight would become a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, winning those belts alongside KUSHIDA. As alluded to, Kevin has competed all across the world, appearing for the likes of TNA, MLW, GCW, CMLL, Progress, Defy, Maple Leaf Pro, and House of Glory.
When it comes to AEW, last weekend's match against Jay White was Kevin Knight's first singles bout with the promotion. Previously, he'd wrestled a handful of multi-man tag matches for the company over the past few years, but that loss to Switchblade was Knight's first one-on-one match for AEW. Of course, that match was soon followed by Tony Khan taking to X to run the classic #AllElite graphic for Kevin Knight, with him becoming AEW's latest new signing.