While LA Knight was popular in NXT, it appears his future as a lower mid-card talent on WWE's main roster was all but guaranteed when Vince McMahon made him "Max Dupri."
Thankfully, the WWE Chairman being ousted from the company meant Knight was given a second chance by Triple H and his star has only risen in the months since. Now, he's among the company's most popular Superstars and his push has finally begun.
There are those who doubt Knight's future potential, claiming he's simply imitating The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. However, seeing as WWE is in desperate need of wrestlers with that much charisma, is that such a bad thing?
"It doesn't matter," Knight responded when asked about the comparisons by Inside the Ropes. "I've heard that since the very beginning. I've heard that since I started in 2003. You know, when I first started, people would say, 'Oh, he sounds like The Rock or he sounds like Austin, or even my very first set of gear, I think it was like my second set of gear when I was in Ohio, I had red and yellow, 'Oh, he’s being Hulk Hogan.'"
"Everybody’s always going to make a comparison of some sort. I'm 100% influenced by those guys, absolutely. I'm influenced by Flair. I'm influenced by Savage. I'm influenced by Jake the Snake. I’m influenced by other entities outside of wrestling," he continues. "I'm influenced by musical artists and by actors. So I mean, yeah, all that stuff's in there."
"At the end of the day, you put all that together, you get that conglomeration, you got yourself LA Knight."
Knight concluded by pointing out that every gimmick in wrestling comes back around, adding: "I'm watching people do gimmicks from 20 years ago just straight up, hand signals and exact catchphrases and dressing just like the guys and all this kind of stuff to where it's like, wait a minute, I'm getting called out?"
It's a great point and the way fans have responded to Knight lately says it all. With any luck, WWE won't drop the ball when it comes to the push which started at SummerSlam as it feels like the former Maximum Male Models manager has the potential to go right to the top of the card.
The Yeah Movement has begun!