LA Knight Discusses Process Of Producing WWE Merchandise
Despite his meteoric rise in WWE, LA Knight has talked about the reluctance to produce merchandise for him at first and the process that was followed.
After an established career, LA Knight looked like his rise to fame in WWE would be stunted when he became Max Dupri. However, a switch back to the original name and the start of a successful run saw fans chanting “Yeah” even on events he wasn’t part of.
It still took some time for the former Eli Drake to get more featured matches, and also to get merchandise produced which only happened in the middle of 2023.
In a discussion with Chris Van Vliet, LA Knight talked about the process and concerns that were shown in sorting his merchandise.
It’s a process, getting all that stuff done. Because I have ideas for things and it’s like so you might try and run it through somebody. Okay, well, yeah, we might do that. And I think there was also just scepticism at first, like, is this really a thing? Is this just gonna be a flash in the pan? Is this just gonna be a flavour of the month?
And that was kind of even a thing that we had talked about and was even talked about with me, it was like, Well, we don’t want to give it to him too soon, because then they might get over it.
LA Knight: “When I Fail I Get Better”
Continuing on, LA Knight discussed how he wanted the opportunity whether it worked out or not.
And it’s like, look, fine. If that’s the case, and I’m not good enough to carry that, cool, let’s go with that. But I understand the idea of also wanting to protect me at some point as well. But I have the belief in myself that I can pivot and move and adapt to whatever the situation is.
So if the thought is, well, if we give it to him too soon, you don’t wanna give it to him too soon, but if you just try not to give it to him at all, come on, man. I feel like I’m better than that.
I don’t mean that in like a boisterous way, but just, I’m confident in what I do. I’m confident in my skills. And at the same time, I want to be able to fail. Because when I fail I get better.
His popularity in WWE led to LA Knight receiving the key to his hometown city last year.
With thanks to Inside The Ropes for the transcription.