Michaels always believed in Knight.
It was February 2021 that L.A. Knight made his return to WWE as a part of the NXT brand. Later that year, Shawn Michaels took over as the brand’s overseer.
Michaels always believed in Knight and expressed that during him and Knight’s chat with ESPN. Michaels felt Knight was ‘the guy’ and never cared about his age.
I would tell them all the time that there is this guy (L.A. Knight). When people say a WWE guy or a Vince (McMahon) guy, he was f—ing it. I was trying to tell (them), lose the three-eight. He never looked to me like he had any mileage on him… To me, he was still brand fricking new.
While Knight was a part of NXT, there were several times when his name was on the cut list. Michaels would tell WWE they could not release him because he was needed for storylines. Michaels added that there was a focus on Knight’s age. Here’s the excerpt from the write-up:
Despite the action star look and charisma, Michaels said Knight was on a cut list “several times” while at the Performance Center. To save Knight’s job and give him more time in NXT to prove his capability, Michaels would say he couldn’t be released because he was in a storyline.
Michaels: I never lied, I did always have him in stuff. But there were a couple of people that I knew from this mythical age thing, wasn’t fitting their qualifications, but I always kept them in storylines. And so my excuse was, we can’t get rid of him now.
Elsewhere in the write-up, Michaels said he was trying to finesse a ‘certain someone’ but all that would get pointed out about Knight was his age. It eventually got to a point where Michaels got into an argument with said individual.
They never f—ing paid attention to us. I was trying to finesse a certain someone, but all he would see is the one number, the three-eight. Someone who’s damn near my age, and I’m having an argument with them. Were you old when you were 38?
Coming up at the Royal Rumble, Knight is getting his second opportunity to become Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
He’ll be in a Fatal 4-Way with Randy Orton, A.J. Styles and the champion Roman Reigns.
