Why LA Knight Can’t Explain His Popularity In WWE
LA Knight might be one of the most popular stars in WWE, but he doesn’t know why.
After losing to Bray Wyatt at the 2023 Royal Rumble, LA Knight appeared to lose his way on SmackDown. However, despite technically being a heel, fans began to cheer the star and were upset he wasn’t given a prominent role at WrestleMania.
This annoyance continued into Money In The Bank where he failed to capture the briefcase, but his rise to the main event was off and running.
By the end of the year Knight had challenged Roman Reigns for the World Championship at Crown Jewel, and cemented his status as a beloved babyface. Something that continued throughout 2024 as he claimed the United States Title at SummerSlam by beating Logan Paul.
LA Knight Surprised By Rise To Stardom
During an interview with WittyWhittier, Knight couldn’t explain why his popularity suddenly exploded outside of something he was doing connected with fans.
“Short answer, I don’t know. I really don’t know. because, I mean, if you look at everything that was going on at the time when that rise really started happening, the only thing I could really attribute it to was just taking advantage of some of the time that I had when I was doing the whole deal with Bray Wyatt. But at the time, still, it was kind of like, we don’t know about this guy.
But it seems like once I got out of that, I didn’t really have any direction. For months, there was nothing happening with me. But somehow in that time is when, oh, wait a minute. I think we kind of like this guy.
I don’t know what it was, but clearly I must have been making the most of my time. Because I wasn’t doing a damn thing. So something was hitting. I don’t know what it is, and I can’t attribute it to anything.”
LA Knight is set to challenge Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States Title on the January 10th edition of SmackDown. Knight lost the gold to Nakamura at Survivor Series and has spent the following weeks on a mission to get it back.
On the first SmackDown of 2025, Knight attacked Nakamura after the champion defeated Andrade in a non-title match. After telling the world that he was prepared to do whatever it took to get revenge, Knight was granted his rematch.
H/t to Fightful