AEW Star Kevin Knight Denies Being Disrespected By WWE
Kevin Knight has confirmed he had a try-out with WWE.
After taking on Jay White on the March 29 episode of Collision it was announced that Kevin Knight was now All Elite.
On the following edition of Dynamite, it was revealed that White was injured and would be withdrawn from the Owen Hart Cup. His spot was taken by Knight and he impressed in defeat to Will Ospreay in the first round match at Dynasty.
In the weeks before signing with AEW, it was reported Knight had a try-out with WWE, although it came to nothing. Some fans online have suggested it was disrespectful to offer a talent of Knight’s ability a try-out, but the man himself sees things differently.
Kevin Knight Discusses Approach To WWE Try-Out
In a new interview with Adrian Hernandez of Unlikely, Knight said he didn’t feel disrespected by WWE and found the try-out to be a great experience. He added that he treated it as a networking opportunity and a way of weighing up all of his options.
“I wouldn’t say disrespectful. I understand how the business works. WWE is a machine and sometimes there may be a bubble and they may not know exactly what’s out there. I didn’t take it as disrespect, if anything, I took it as a challenge just to show what I’m about. If they didn’t know me before, they definitely do now or they did when I walked through those doors.
I’m going to make a statement anywhere I go. That was a great experience as well. I’m glad I got to do that. I got to meet a lot of people in that company and it was great just being able to work with people so closely that you see on TV every week and see on the PLEs. For me, it was a great learning experience. I didn’t take any slight to it. I understand how the business works.
If anything, it was a networking opportunity and exhausting all of my options. I feel like I only grew from that, seeing how they work, what they’re looking for, and seeing the environment that’s there. It’s so different than me coming from the LA Dojo where there are only four of us in a class with Shibata and our teacher can’t speak English.
TNA and AEW don’t have a training facility, per se, so to see how they do it, it was a cool way to see how different they do things. It was a positive experience for me overall,”
During the same conversation, Kevin Knight revealed that he recently signed a new contract with NJPW, this is on top of his deal with AEW.
It’s been announced that Knight will be taking part in NJPW’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament which kicks off on May 9. The appearance will be Knight’s third consecutive run at the famous competition.
Before then, Knight’s set to team with KUSHIDA on April 11 at Windy City Riot to challenge the World Class Wrecking Crew for the Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship.
H/t to Fightful