LA Knight On HUGE Crowd Reactions, MITB, Almost Getting Fired, Max Dupri, YEAH

LA Knight (@reallanight) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and is also known for his time in NWA and Impact Wrestling where he is a former World Champion and former Tag Team Champion with Scott Steiner. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about Money in the Bank, why he would want to cash in on Roman Reigns, how he was able to organically get so over, the moment he realized the crowd was on his side, will he ever bring back the "Dummy" catchphrase, the first time he ever said YEAH, what happened during his first run in WWE in 2013-2014, his favorite matches as Eli Drake in IMPACT Wrestling, fans thinking he sounds like The Rock and much more!

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I feel with Money in the Bank right around the corner, this pay-per-view is just set up for you to win that briefcase.

“Well, you know, somebody just reminded me, this is the second money themed ladder match I’ve been in, and we know how that one ended last time. So I don't know. Maybe I'm a shoo in.”

It's funny when you type your name into YouTube. I don't know if you're aware of this. Almost all of the top results are LA Knight, huge pop LA Knight massive crowd reaction.

"No, I don't know this. But now I feel like I'm gonna have to go check it out."

I'm curious. At what point did you start to realise like, Man, I knew the crowd was making some noise for me. But this is really loud now.

“I can tell you exactly. It was back in March, we were in DC, Sheamus and Drew were in the ring. And then all of a sudden, that music hit, and I walked out and I remember it just kind of hit me. And I was like, that's different. But I was just thinking to myself, I was like, ah, they probably know I’m from up the road. Hagerstown is like, an hour away. Maybe enough of them know. Then we went to Pittsburgh the next week, went to New York the week after that. And everywhere we went beyond there, it just continued to pick up more and more, and I'm just like, Okay, well, I guess it's not. I'm not from New York, not from Pittsburgh. So maybe it's not that. And since then, it's just kind of picked up. LA got to a fever pitch, obviously. Hell, Triple H is out there doing a presser in Saudi Arabia and he's getting interrupted. So something's happening. I don't know why, and maybe I don't even want to know why. But for some reason or another, the people are demanding me.”

When you saw that footage of the crowd chanting LA Knight at Triple H in Saudi Arabia. What was your reaction to that?

“Well, first of all, I was sitting in my hotel room in Saudi Arabia. So I wasn't even there. I wasn’t even at the actual press event. So somebody sent it to me on Instagram, I think, actually, first before they even sent it to me. I saw somebody else in my stories and they were chanting LA Knight’s name at the thing. I'm like, okay, yeah, sure what it was probably like three people doing it. Then I see the video, and I'm like, Oh, damn, all right. I was, it's right there. So that was pretty wild. But, you know, I'm also the worst at that really letting something like that get to me. Like I can acknowledge it, but that's like, Okay, that's cool. Now what? So, I love and hate that about myself. Because I'm like, sometimes it's like, Well, why don't we just take a second to appreciate this? But I, for whatever reason, whether it's a flaw or virtue or mix of the two, I just can't. And I'm just like, alright, that's cool. Now let's continue on and make this better and bigger.”

But look, man, I texted you this the other day, like anybody with ears can hear you are like mega over right now. And the great thing about this is it just keeps increasing every single week when you go out there just keeps getting louder and louder.

“Yeah, but you have to remember there's a lot of people out there without ears.”

I'm so curious because I've known you for a while. I've known you in the ring and out of the ring and you just have this magnetic personality. Just this charisma that just oozes out of you. What were you like as like a five year old?

“Oh man shy, shy, shy kid, but I always wanted to be out of my shell I always like so. You know is hand mixers and it has like the little silver thing you pull it off and, your mom mixes some cake batter you can lick it or whatever. I used to pretend to pretend those are microphones. And I would, my first tape I ever had was Thriller, Michael Jackson. So I would like stand there behind a door where I couldn't see anybody else. So in my head they also could not see me and they also could not hear me, and I would stand back there and sing and do all this stuff until they came around. And were like, what are you doing? And I was like, I would freeze up. Super, super shy kid. So, you know, a lot of this was, you know, get to high school and all of a sudden you start to see, I mean, I've been watching wrestling since I was a kid, but like now it was like the Attitude Era, started to pick up a little bit and you got The Rock and Steve Austin and, and like those two guys really kind of fed me a lot of my confidence in high school, and and a lot of it was fake. I was faking the hell out of it until eventually it kind of became more natural. And so came out of my shell a little more after that, but I'm still, I go into a room and I don't know people I'll stay to myself for the most part, less than a person or two, then maybe I'll go in and just talk some trash, who knows.”

There's a lot of people that say like, I do see a little bit of Rock, and we talked about this in our first interview.

“You're ruining my life. My God. Did I say it? I thought you said it? I don't believe this. This is bull. No, I. So when I'm talking in my like, I guess normal? I don't know. There's times where it kind of happens. But like, I don't know if I hear myself like, actually on TV. I don't think it's, I don't think it's there. But like, if you're talking to me now, maybe more now? I don't know. Right? Because that's when I was watching the hero 10 years ago, and I remember there's one particular scene where we're walking through this jungle, whatever, and go figure the Rock in a jungle. And so we're watching this and you see people walking through the jungle and there's a voice. And I was like, I think that's me. But it turned out to be him. Or it might have been the other way around. I can't remember. But whichever way it was, it wasn't just me, it was the other people in the room who thought that, like I was talking but it turned out to be him. But it's just when I'm talking like this, but when I'm actually doing my stuff on TV, I don't hear it at all. But that's just me. But yeah, so from those guys, those guys were like bread and butter for me back in high school, where it was just like that kind of took me out of this like, quiet, kind of meek, you know, whatever standard myself guy were like, actually, I started carrying myself differently and like had like a different sense of confidence and whatnot after that.”

There's a lot of fans that say, Man, I love this LA Knight character. It's a throwback to like, I like a character that I watched in the Attitude Era. And I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's the way you cut the promos. I don't know if it's the swagger you have when you walk to the ring, but there certainly is some sort of a throwback to that.

“Sure. And I could speculate on many reasons why it is and I don't really know, I can't put my finger on it. But I think maybe there is just something different. Or maybe something that's been lacking for a long time, which has always been kind of my view, and why I guess I've never given up this whole damn time and just kept pushing for 20 damn years where it's like, I know, I've got something to give here. I know, I've got something to incorporate here and, and through all the no’s and well, you know, I just I don't know what else you're bringing to the table or blah, blah, blah, well, I guess we're finding out now. So whatever it is, whatever that quality is, I can't put my finger on it. But there's something.”

Not everybody gets a second chance. And I mean, a lot of people know, but not everybody knows that you were in WWE developmental. You were in the PC 10 years ago. It didn't work out. You got another chance. What do you think led up to you getting another chance in WWE?

“Well, because when I got let go the first time it wasn't because of talent issue. And that was made very clear to me. It was very much a professional issue. There was a perception with me and the head coach at the time and the way that things were going were not good. Because I was poking the bear because things that were happening and the way things were going. Well, eventually he was out, and then I was kind of floating around the ether here. And I had run into some people and they were like, hey, what do you think about coming back? I said I'd love to come back. And the only issue was, since leaving with heat, I was kind of given the same offer I had the first time around, and I was making more money where I was. So I was like I'm gonna stay here for a year to hang on to this. And so I did, and for the immediate future, that was probably the best move long term, not the best move. Because I quickly hit the ceiling financially, professionally, whatever where I was, and at some point it was like I'm gonna have to take this short term downgrade in pay, because even though I'm making more here, I'm stuck. But if I take this downgrade here, eventually I can be well above here.”

That's so ironic because you were the world champion in that other place.

“Yeah, well, that didn't mean anything. Because about three people were watching the show, apparently.”

But when we talk about second chances, you know, you were on fire with LA Knight, Max Dupri happened. And then LA Knight came back. And I'm curious what the conversation with Triple H look like, when LA Knight was allowed to come back as we know him now?

“Well, let me just go ahead and say this, I'm pretty sure I was fired. And it just hadn't officially happened yet. Without getting into too many details, some things happened. I don't remember what it was, but some things happened. And then I had gotten a FaceTime. Hey, you know, we want to keep you around. We want to do this, this, that whatever. And, okay, cool. Good. So somehow I had been saved from being thrown off the cliff. At least this is my interpretation of it. Maybe I'm incorrect, I don't know. And so eventually, just things kind of worked out. And I think that maybe again, maybe some of the testament to why things are working the way they are and the people reacting the way they are, is because one of these was not me, and I didn't know who it was. And one of these is very much just me, like, I don't have to think about LA Knight, I don't really have to dig in like, what is this? Who am I? What am I doing? I just go and do, because it's just me heightened. You and I have been to a party together, I think you've been to one of my parties. I am a heightened personality at the party. So like, to me, my personality on TV is an amalgamation of me at a party and me in an argument. And when those two together, you've got LA Knight.”

You're missing out on a huge opportunity by not having a YEAH shirt. When is this happening? 

“Well, it's actually in the works. I think we already came up with one and it should be coming out here in the next I'm gonna say a week or two if I'm not mistaken.”

Who's a match for you? Anybody? Any era, who's the dream match for LA Knight?

“Everybody always asks that and I really don't have an answer to it. I mean, I guess you could take anybody off my Mount Rushmore Hogan, Rock, Austin, Flair. I don't want to think about it. I know. Those are my four Hogan, Rock, Austin, Flair, any of them. You can throw Cena in there, but I mean, the aim has and has always been and still is to be the guy. And to do that, I gotta wrestle the champion. So for me the dream match is who's got the title? That's the dream match.”

So let's do a little speculating here. Money in the Bank, you grab that briefcase, you are now Mr Money in the Bank. How long do you think you want to wait before you cash in?

“Well, I mean, we gotta get there first. I don't know that there's so many options there. I mean, you got that brand new World Heavyweight Championship and that's a beautiful piece of gold. But at the same time, I mean, what's bigger and better than being the WWE Champion? And the guy who disrupted years of a title reign? Something to talk about there I don't know. I there's options. There's options we'll see. But I gotta get there.”

You were roommates with Jon Moxley What's life like with Jon Moxley, Dean Ambrose?

“I don't think I can get into too many details there. It was, it was a wild time. I mean for a little bit. For the first little bit he moved into my one bedroom apartment which was kind of a familiar thing. When I was in Ohio. I had lived in multiple one bedroom apartments with other guys because we just couldn't afford it. So like one guy would post up in the living room. The other one takes the bedroom. One one time, we had three guys in a single bedroom apartment where it was like I was in the bedroom, one dude was in in the living room and another guy was in what we call the space and it was legit just the space like you'd walk out of my bedroom, and then it walked into this kitchen and there was enough space for his twin mattress to stay. And you kind of had to step over the corner of the mattress to get to the kitchen. So that was kind of a familiar thing with Moxley. It was like I had a somewhat decent place at the time. So he had a little more space in the living room. Eventually, we ended up moving into a two bedroom. But there were a lot of fun nights, a lot of craziness happening in that apartment. We'd play like a flag football league we were in and we'd come back and have some beers and stuff and there's a good time.”

What is LA Knight grateful for:

“My two little puppies, my girlfriend and my health.”