By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Good Karma Wrestling with guest LA Knight
Hosts: ESPN Chicago’s Jonathan Hood, ESPN Milwaukee’s Gabe Neitzel, and ESPN West Palm’s Brian Rowitz
Twitter: @gkw_wrestling
Interview available at YouTube.com
On the toughest part of his recent build: “The roster is so stacked and full and you want the premium live events to stand out as something different then what you see on TV, so you don’t want the exact same formula. So those spots on the premium live events are limited. At some point, look I’m getting the big reactions, you can’t deny that but at the same time some people would say, ‘He’s only been here 9 or 10 months or whatever.’ Some of that is also is just figuring out that a lot of this was unexpected, a lot of this came out of the blue. Sometimes plans have to change and that’s the way it goes.
“Here we are, now you’re looking at me being an integral part of SummerSlam coming in. We’ve got the Slim Jim Battle Royal, its 20 guys in that ring. I don’t know who anybody else is in that match except me and Sheamus at this point. So, all bets are off when it comes to that. Ford Field, battle royal, you’re looking for big things and there just might be this guy’s hand raised here. Yeah.”
On winning a championship: “I think if you’re in this and you don’t want to be a champion then what are you doing here? For me, that’s the vote of confidence that this is the guy. Aside from that, it’s an achievement of ‘Hey, man, I made this whole thing work to where I am now. The face, I am the top of this company, I am the guy.’ For me, that’s the pinnacle, that’s where you want to be.”
What the comparisons to The Rock and Steve Austin mean to him: “Whether it’s a compliment or a criticism, I hear everything, I see everything. I’ll give any criticisms an honest look but at the end of the day I’m going to keep doing what I do and what I do is LA Knight. And if you want to make me the Kobe to their Jordan, I’ll take it. At the end of the day for me, its rising above and beyond both of those guys and everyone else around.”
At what point did he realize he had to get back to the LA Knight character: “As far as that’s concerned, you come up and its like well, ‘I don’t know who this person who is, I don’t know what this thing is, but I’ll figure it out and I’ll make it work if it’s what I gotta do.’ Once there was an opening to get back to something that was more of me, you can bet your keister that I was jumping on that. So here we are only probably like 9/10 months later and what a ride it’s already been and I feel like it’s just getting started.”
Other topics include how WWE compares to past stops, the first time he realized things were clicking, and more.
“Comparison?” That’s a bit of an overstatement. He is clearly and very directly impersonating the two biggest stars of the past 25 years. The only difference is that I could and did watch them. I can’t and don’t watch him. Ugh