LA Knight wants to capitalize on his current momentum.
Knight has become one of WWE‘s hottest stars in recent months, and he has been getting some of the loudest pops of the night.
Speaking on WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick, Knight was asked whether he feels his current wave of momentum needs to lead to a title.
“At this point, I don’t know. There’s so many different ways to go work it,” LA Knight said. “But I do think that you can’t let this stagnate. So whatever happens, it needs to be an upward and onward trajectory, whether that’s championships or whatever it is. For sure, you can’t just let this sit. That’s something on me, that’s something on everybody to where it’s gotta stay, you can’t just rely and rest on your laurels and just be like, ‘Alright, well this is just gonna be here, and all I have to do is just go out there and it’s just gonna be there for me.’ There has to be an evolution, there has to be something that continues to progress.”
Knight also shared his thoughts as to whether he was worried he would cool off after he potentially won a title.
“No, and I’ll tell you why,” LA Knight said. “I’ve had that comparison made where people are like, ‘Oh, you know, this is kinda like this person, and they got really popular, and this person, and they got really popular.’ I don’t mean to take anything away from them, but I don’t think the comparisons fit. The reason I say that is because everybody they make those comparisons to, they had runs. They had runs as champion. Maybe they got to be a US Champion, Intercontinental Champion, whatever it was, and I’ve had none of that.’ I’ve been on the SmackDown roster for nine, ten months. I don’t mean to say this with any arrogance or whatever, but let’s just face facts. I don’t think there’s been anybody, ever, who’s had in nine or ten months this kind of reaction, with honestly, not a lot to do. This hasn’t been manufactured, it hasn’t been the machine. This is just straight-up groundswell, and in such a short amount of time. It was never told to the audience, ‘This is the guy.’
“So with that being the case, I don’t think that you can make the comparisons to the other people. With that in mind, do I think that reaching the pinnacle as far as being a champion would be a hindrance? Not at all, and I’ll tell you why. I made it here, it’s WWE, it’s the biggest company in the world. A lot of people would be like, ‘You finally made it.’ No, I haven’t. Everybody’s like, ‘You finally did it.’ No. Even when I was the champion, no. You gotta keep going. There’s always still something to push at. Whether that’s new contenders and still fighting from underneath, having disadvantages, that comes from maybe different creative outlets or whatever. Just finding ways to make it fresh, keep it fresh, keep me fresh, keep everything around it fresh. But also just being that hungry SOB that I am where it’s just like I’m never satisfied. Sometimes, that’s a flaw of mine, but it’s also maybe a virtue of mine where it’s like I just am never satisfied. In that regard, even if you put that championship on me, now it’s like okay, I’ve gotten that. But now, I don’t want to just be a champion. I want to take this to a level where it’s like I’m looked at as maybe one of the best ever. So now I have even more work to do get that done.”
LA Knight Addresses Comparisons
When discussing other popular stars who fell off after they won the title, Knight stated that the comparisons didn’t apply to him. He described how his personality has gotten him to this point, he would be the same person, even if he won a title.
“The thing that made me, the thing that carried me is the talking, the trash-talk, the personality, the swagger, all that stuff. I don’t think that the other people they made the comparisons to had that same thing going for them. A lot of it was, ‘Oh, this guy’s the underdog.’ Well, if you take the underdog and you finally get him the thing, he’s no longer the underdog, so you have nothing to cheer for. But if the thing that they’re cheering for with me is the trash-talking, stomping, romping guy, and now you give him the championship, nothing’s changed. I’m still that same trash-talking, romping, stomping guy. Now I’m just continuing it while I’m holding a championship. Now it’s just we continue it, but now I still have hurdles to jump. I still have speed bumps. I still have walks to break through.”
Knight will face Sheamus on the August 4 episode of WWE SmackDown. WrestleZone will have coverage of the show as it airs.
At WWE SummerSlam, Knight will compete in the Slim Jim Battle Royal.
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