LA Knight recently feuded with Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, and while he did come up short, that was always going to be the case. It was a positive for Knight that the company protected him with the finish, and there is still hope that the rising star can win the gold one day.
Clearly, Knight didn’t get into a position where he could feud with the historically great Reigns by accident. In fact, WWE didn’t initially have big plans for him when they called him to the main roster. They even doubted his ability to wrestle because of his age. So the success Knight is having in the company is entirely down to his quality and his ability to prove even the bookers dead wrong about him.
So let’s take a look at what makes LA Knight so good and the factors responsible for his seemingly unceasing popularity among WWE fans.
How did LA Knight get over?
Not many wrestlers in all of professional wrestling get reactions quite like LA Knight. If we restrict the conversation to just babyfaces, Cody Rhodes is the only more “over” babyface. Recall that Cody once told Stone Cold Steve Austin that the word “over” gets thrown around too loosely and that you have to be someone moving the needle in terms of crowd attendance and merchandise in order to truly deserve that term. Cody is obviously doing that as the top babyface in WWE and the likely future man to dethrone Roman Reigns, but LA Knight is also fitting that description.
Here is a fact to back that up. LA Knight reportedly sold more merchandise than any other wrestler in September, even beating out feel-good veteran John Cena on his supposed retirement run.
Knight is white-hot, and even after The Miz relayed some skepticism from above about him being a flash-in-the-pan in a promo during their feud, Knight is arguably even more popular than he was months ago when fans were practically begging for him to win Money in the Bank.
Although Knight gets criticized for “copying” Austin and The Rock, those claims are difficult to substantiate. Firstly, the only similarities The Rock and Stone Cold share are that they were very charismatic wrestlers from the same era who could derive a close connection with the audience by not overcomplicating things. If Knight is taking anything from them, it’s that ability to use simple catchphrases and moves that mean something and connect.
Maybe that’s what makes Knight so popular. He is a throwback to a simpler time when a babyface could step out in front of the crowd, confidently serve a heel a dose of their own medicine on the mic, and get the crowd involved by yelling a few words. Knight understands the basics of pro wrestling.
Believe what you are saying 1000 percent, make sure the crowd knows when to chime in, and stick to the basics. It’s funny seeing some old-timers tear him apart, because he’s doing exactly what they have said a babyface needs to do, as opposed to having too many bells and whistles or flips and kicks in the ring.
Strengths
Back when he was known as Eli Drake in Impact Wrestling, LA Knight was already one of the best talkers and characters in pro wrestling. Again, what made him so successful was his ability to understand the basics, but he also has that natural ability to be verbose and commit to a heel character.
WWE initially saddled Knight with a bizarre gimmick. He was known as Max Dupri, the CEO of Maximum Male Models. It was a ridiculous idea, but, even then, Knight shined and somewhat made it work with his ability to commit to a character.
The way he arrogantly close-talked Adam Pearce was hilarious. Knight was obviously too good for that gimmick, which WWE thankfully figured out soon enough, but he was still entertaining in that doomed role.
Inside the ring, nobody will confuse LA Knight for Seth Rollins or even Roman Reigns, but he’s still good. And he’s good because, like The Miz, he keeps things simple. He has his power moves, his strikes, his taunts, and his basic transition moves. Everything he does fits his character and, maybe more importantly, keeps him in the game.
Avoiding injuries is a key part of being a top star in pro wrestling, and at the age of 41, Knight can’t afford to take unnecessary risks. When he does in a match, he does so sparingly and that helps reinforce the importance of that match or moment in that match.
Will WWE believe in him?
That’s the major question every WWE fan has whenever someone comes from out of nowhere and gets popular. Recall how “over” Rusev was and how much merch he was pushing, only for WWE to basically sabotage him because Vince McMahon couldn’t picture him as a major babyface in his promotion. With Triple H, there is hope that wrestlers not hand-picked by the booker can organically rise up the card and get their moment.
LA Knight has a lot of things going for him in that respect. He has experience, he’s incredible on the microphone, he has one of the best physiques in modern pro wrestling, and he has already proven the office very wrong once.
On top of that, Knight’s momentum and investment from the audience remains as high as ever despite a disappointment in his Money in the Bank defeat. Sometimes, when a wrestler is hot with the crowd, they cool off after the crowd is disappointed in them not winning a big match. They see that as a sign WWE won’t push that wrestler, so the back another horse.
Not so with Knight. If anything, that defeat lit a fire under the fans and under the performer himself. So while WWE had other plans with another very credible MITB winner in Raw’s Damian Priest, they did show trust in the former Impact star by having him feud with Roman Reigns months later.
WWE may be skeptical about Knight’s gimmick and ability to stay on top, but that’s the thing about Knight. He’s a bit like, yes, The Rock (or Chris Jericho, whichever you prefer, likely Dwayne) in the sense that he can reinvent his character or make tweaks to stay relevant.
So many great wrestlers and charismatic performers are capable of doing this. Why can’t Knight? It’s a bit arrogant for someone on the outside looking in to put a limit on Knight or state that he’s not capable of making a change when he, in fact, has done this multiple times since joining WWE in NXT or back before he even set foot in the company.
The real answer to the question isn’t about WWE believing in him, but it’s really about whether the fans will believe in him. How many losses can he take? How long can he go without getting a major win? And how can he continue to keep his character fresh? There should be more optimism than pessimism, but, as always, a performer is forced to prove themselves every week when they aren’t a “chosen one” by the WWE machine, whether it is Vince in charge or someone more reasonable.
Kevin was an editor at Daily DDT, covering professional wrestling, and is now doing the same here at Let Them Wrestle.