Backstage News On WWE Planning Big Push For LA Knight, Backstage Attitude
A new report suggests that WWE has big plans for LA Knight while also providing some insight into how he is perceived backstage by the company.
LA Knight was a part of the US Championship Invitational Fatal 4-Way match on Smackdown this past Friday. The rising star that is winning over fans with his charisma and promos full of catchphrases is somebody that the fans want to see more of.
The other wrestlers in the match were former World Champions Sheamus and Rey Mysterio along with Cameron Grimes, who is new on the main roster. Most people watching likely wanted Knight to win to put him one step closer to Austin Theory’s US Title. Instead, it was Rey pinning Grimes to get the win.
As for LA Knight, it doesn’t appear as though he’ll be a part of the upcoming SummerSlam lineup just like he wasn’t part of WrestleMania 39 earlier this year despite it being in LA, which is the first name of his character.
There is some good news because veteran wrestling journalist Wade Keller of PWTorch wrote that “sources indicate Vince McMahon has grown to be a fan of his, and Paul Levesque already was.”
When Knight was called up to the main roster last year, Vince McMahon changed his name to Max Dupri as the manager of the Maximum Male Models (remember them?). It was one year ago yesterday when Vince McMahon “retired” from WWE, which led to Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque taking over and one of the first things he did was get rid of Max Dupri and LA Knight was back. Since then, the momentum for Knight has continued to grow.
The report from Keller note that Knight is a candidate to receive a big push after SummerSlam, which is on August 5th in Detroit.
“Knight’s surging crowd reactions and social media popularity have landed him on the radar of Levesque and McMahon as being a candidate for a big push after Summerslam, PWTorch sources indicate.”
“By all indications, despite his average or below-average work in the ring that isn’t at the level of most WWE main eventers, he’s on course to get a push at a high level in spite of that because he has a special X-factor and connection with the crowd that hasn’t gone unnoticed by anyone.”
It was also noted by Keller that LA Knight, who is also known as a former TNA/IMPACT Wrestling World Champion known as Eli Drake, has some perceived locker room issues. At 40 years old, perhaps Knight has matured to where he doesn’t have those issues anymore.
“Knight has a long-running reputation for rubbing people the wrong way behind the scenes and just being “bad at backstage politics.” Those who know him well tend to like him and some of them have spoken up on his behalf when Knight gives a bad first impression.”
“If his push isn’t sustained, even if crowds still like him, it’ll likely be because he mishandled himself backstage in a way that caused him lose the support of key people who can influence his push.”
For fans frustrated by WWE not pushing LA Knight hard right now, perhaps we’ll see that rise to the top occur after SummerSlam as the report above suggests.