After cutting one heck of a promo on The Miz during a rare appearance on RAW to authentically introduce himself to the WWE Universe as the hard-working, babyface hero capable of making good on their cheers and merch purchases, LA Knight stopped by RAW TALK to keep the party going with Byron Saxton.
While LA Knight hasn't totally lost his edge, as he's still the same “Megastar” who drunkenly talked about his “Shoes of a Champion” in NWA, he's ready to embrace becoming a main event star, and has put champions like Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns on blast as a result.
“All you got to worry about right now is let me talk to ya. The parallels of the careers, man, isn't that a fancy story? Isn't that a funny story? Because right now, yeah, The Miz has been through the ringer and The Miz has done it all at the same time, but here's the thing, man, yeah, I've been on the outside looking in, but I ain't complaining about it. All he does is complain and whine about all the bad treatment; brother, at least you were on the inside, but that's okay. I ain't complaining about it, man, I'm just here to finally claim my spot,” LA Knight told Byron Saxton.
“So whether I'm late, whether I'm on time, all that matters is I am here, and now it's my mountain to climb. So if I need him to be a stepping stone, which is something I think I mentioned before, then that's exactly what he'll be, yeah! Which means me stepping over him, walking right up to claim what is mine, which is the main event spot, which is the championship. Now is that the WWE Universal Championship? Is that the World Heavyweight Championship? I don't know! Nobody knows, but at some point, one way or another, one of those maybe both of those will be coming with me because there can be no other way. Whose game is it? You know; with everybody saying LA Knight, yeah!”
What does the future hold for LA Knight? Will he find himself just another name on Roman Reigns' beat sheet? Or does he instead have a better chance of becoming the second World Heavyweight Champion of this current lineage behind only the “Visionary?” For my money, “LA Knight: United States Champion” has one heck of a ring to it, but in the end, fans will have to wait and see what Paul “Triple H” Levesque has in store for the “Megastar,” yeah!
DDP believes LA Knight is in the right place at the right time.
While the discourse surrounding LA Knight's Attitude Era appreciation has largely died down, with The Miz throwing the “Megastar” a softball to his out of the park in his RAW promo, his age has remained an issue to some, with a few sources suggesting that WWE may be a bit hesitant to push the former Million Dollar Champion #ToTheMoon because he's already over 40.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, another WWE Superstar who got his start on national television later in life, Diamond Dallas Page, declared that he doesn't think LA Knight is too old for anything, as he believes the “Megastar” is in the “right place at the right time” to flourish in his career.
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“That guy, he ain’t too old for nothing. He is at the right time at the right place, and I pray for him that they see it, because he deserves it,” DDP said via Fightful. “I remember walking up to him, I wanna say it was Mania this year, and I said, ‘Dude, I just want you to know, I personally love what you’re doing and watching you from NXT coming up.’ [He has worked] with Bronson, who’s one of my boys, he’s worked out in that gym with me 50 times. I was like, ‘I love what you’re doing,’ and I said the same thing to Sami, that it’s your time dude, these people are gonna get with you, it’s gonna get bigger and bigger, and it did. Both of those guys are top guys to me, but they aren’t top of the top. Just give them that little push, and they both will deliver.”
Though DDP did do some work in professional wrestling before linking up with WCW, “Positively Page” didn't make his in-ring debut until 1991, when he was 35 years old. If DDP could go from first-time wrestler at 35 to World Champion at 43, then LA Knight is actually ahead of schedule, with a 20-year headstart to get the in-ring part right.