Subhojeet Mukherjee on June 22, 2023
LA Knight made a huge splash after his debut at NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day on February 14th, 2021. Prior to his NXT debut, LA Knight made a name for himself in other promotions. Now it appears Knight claimed that he nearly signed with WWE several times before 2021.
LA Knight was known as Eli Drake in Impact Wrestling, where he became a massive star thanks to his excellent promo skills and in-ring work. All of this led to WWE eventually signing him a couple of years ago.
Before this, LA Knight was used as NXT enhancement talent back in 2013. While speaking with the Daily Mail, LA Knight revealed that he nearly signed with WWE on multiple occasions before 2021.
“I won’t get super long-winded on this but I was originally going to come back in 2016. “ was in talks to come back in 2016 but the company that I was at (IMPACT) was offering me a very, very nice raise and WWE at the time was offering me an entry-level “this is what we’re gonna do”.
I get it, so I say, you know, I gotta stay and take this money right now. The next year, we come back and talk again, it’s the same offer but I have a programmed raise where I was. “So I stayed because I’ve never seen this money before. Finally I’m making money. So I figure year three, we’ll talk again – they give me the same offer, and I’m like, “god, guys, come on, you can’t give a little something extra?!
‘I said I couldn’t do it but I kicked myself for not doing it at that point because I realised that where I was, I had already reached the ceiling as far as money was concerned. “What they were offering me was way less and it would have been a downgrade but I knew my ceiling was much greater in WWE. “But it was just that I had been broke for so long that I needed to take that money at that point in time. ‘For three years in a row, we talked. It didn’t work out, 2019, we were just kind of like ships passing in the night. We never really got in touch.
In 2020, I thought with the pandemic there was no way, everything is shut down, my career is probably over, so I’m just gonna make whatever little bit of money I can with these smaller companies. “At some point, it was, “well, let’s make one more run for it.” I got in touch with Triple H and his team and we put things together and finally made it happen.”
Some also believe that LA Knight’s commentary skills have held him back in WWE.
John Cena also recently showed love to LA Knight. We will have to wait and see whether LA Knight will end up winning the Money In The Bank ladder match, as fans feel he deserves it.
What do you think of this story? Do you think Knight will eventually get a proper push? Let us know in the comments!
June 22, 2023 10:46 am
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