The Forbidden Lore Of WWE’s LA Knight
For a long time, LA Knight presented as a delusional case. You know the type: the aspiring performer whose talent was more like some cruel curse. They have just enough about them to convince promoters, and themselves, that they can make it - but nowhere near enough to justify their skyscraper ego, threatening to banish them to the laughing stock realm.
Knight was incredible at doing an impression of somebody with genuine star power, might be the best way of putting it. Clearly, he could talk, and with an especially pleasing cod ‘80s baritone. Clearly, he could charm a crowd. Clearly, he was funny. He was in rippling physical condition, too. So why did he scan as a bit of a punchline?
The wrestlers he patterned himself after didn’t help him. The cries of “Who does this guy think he is?” followed him everywhere. What also did not help Knight was that he very much wasn't one of the absolute best wrestlers in the world. He was only ever perfunctory in the ring. Nothing he did stood out. He wasn’t exciting, he couldn’t brawl like a maniac, and his matches didn’t elicit much in the way of emotion. LA Knight basically wrestled like and was plagued by the unearned ego of Alex Riley. He was the cocky contestant on the reality wrestling TV show: the guy you thought was brought in as a future star, but it turns out is the panto villain brought in to get ridiculed.
By 2019, as the rebranded Eli Drake, Knight had been working for Impact Wrestling for four years. He got over - his ‘namer of dummies’ routine was excellent patter that harnessed his entertaining d*ckhead persona brilliantly - but by 2017, that didn’t mean much, even if he captured the World title. He had a talk show. The worst company you had lost all faith in did talk shows: why did Impact even need to exist?
The company’s reputation and name value had plummeted. By virtue of working there, he felt adrift; Ring of Honor was drawing better houses for the big shows, and a Japanese promotion had become #2 in the States. What’s more, in 2019, the “banger” match was in vogue. AEW was in part launched on the idea and promise of superior match quality to WWE. New Japan Pro Wrestling broke into the U.S. on that same basis. Many hardcore fans preferred NXT to the main roster because the matches were better. Knight was a sports entertainer throwback, of sorts, when that role was at its least fashionable.
It was also a time when, for better or worse, a public figure had to be careful about what they said.
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