LA Knight discusses success in WWE over last year

[Chris]

LA Knight says it took him over 20 years to become an overnight success.

Knight's popularity in WWE has skyrocketed of late. He was the top merchandise seller in the company for the month of September, according to Wrestlenomics. He sold more merchandise than even the recently returned John Cena, whom he'll team with Saturday at Fastlane.

Knight spoke with CBS Sports about his recent success as well as the journey he's been on to get where he is today.

"I have been at this for so long..." Knight said. "That's the craziest part about this. In a weird way, it's like an overnight success, but it was also 20 years in the making to get to an overnight success. It's such a juxtaposition in a strange way. I still have a habit of looking over my shoulder and waiting for somebody to pull the rug out from under me.

"I'm used to, 'No, no, no' and me having to push, 'Yeah, yeah!' It's me having to create my own opportunities. Even when I'm now put into bigger opportunities, it's still not a point where I can relax."

Just last year Knight was performing under the name Max Dupri and aligned with the Maximum Male Models. He was eventually replaced in the role by his storyline sister, Maxxine Dupri. Mace and Mansoor were both released from the company last month.

“In a weird way, I’ve got no business being here,” Knight continued. “Looking just a year ago at where I was and what I was doing, what a hell of a turnaround. It’s damn near unheard of."

"I'm not the best at letting myself really feel that. Maybe 10 years down the road when I look back. But right now in this situation, I'm just so -- I don't know if you'd say -- maniacally focused on making sure that everything hits the mark and that everything is the way I want it to be. It's tough for me to step back and be like, 'Wow, this is great!' Occasionally, I might have that thought but it's very fleeting."

Knight missed the September 22 edition of SmackDown after testing positive for COVID-19. However, he returned for last week's show and signed a contract to be Cena's partner at Fastlane. The segment with Cena averaged 2,337,000 viewers and 787,000 in the 18-49 demographic. A YouTube video of the segment has over 960,000 views.

Knight also returned to the ring for the first time since getting COVID at house shows last weekend in San Francisco, California, and Tahoe, Nevada, beating Austin Theory on both nights.

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/wwes-la-knight-it-took-20-years-to-become-an-overnight-success