Talk to us about your journey to WWE.
This isn't even your first go round within the WWE system, but
you have put in a ton of work in this business and sacrificed like so many have.
But we don't hear a lot about where LA Knight came from.
We know who you are.
Tell us about what made you the way you are?
>> I should have been gone a long time ago.
>> [LAUGH] >> I'll tell you that, I-
>> Listen, you thought you were out?
>> Right?
>> [LAUGH] >> I've been on the radar since 2004,
believe it or not.
If you remember the $1,000,000 Tough Enough, I was a runner-up.
I was chosen as an alternate, they chose eight people for that.
You remember that was the one that The Miz was on.
And so they chose eight men, two alternates.
I was one of those two alternates.
I was given a card from one of the high level people there and just said, hey,
keep in touch with us.
I'm a 22 year old kid.
I had been wrestling for about a year at that point.
I didn't know what the hell to do with that card.
I had no idea.
So I'm holding on to this card, and I'm just, just put that away.
And it just sat there for years and
nothing ever happened until somebody that I was
wrestling with in my own company when I started in Ohio
had gotten a Dark Match and I was, what the hell?
If he's got a Dark Match, I can get a Dark Match.
So I started ringing of the hook, I called WWE,
talent relations every hour on the hour until somebody picked up.
And I was just, how can I come and be an extra?
The one thing is I never knew how to ask for a job.
>> Right?
>> I didn't know how to ask straight up.
It was, I'd get the extra gig.
I do the Dark Match.
I'd have a match on heat way back when that was a thing.
>> Yeah. >> I had a Dark Match in the 2008 and
I shot myself in the foot after that.
I showed up late the second day.
>> They invited me back after my match.
They were very happy with it.
I came back the next day.
I had some stuff happening with a shoulder, but at the same time I was,
well, I can't go in there not pumped up.
I gotta go to the gym real quick.
That ended up going too long.
I got there an an hour late and I couldn't get a phone answered for two,
three years >> It's so wild that I just wanted to add
a little context to what you're talking about because that was sort of the same
time frame that I start started coming up and I experienced that's how you used to
get booked if you were on the independence and you wanted to step foot KP in the WWE.
There was no NXT, that was developmental, but it wasn't like the monster that it is
now, where it's the factory in Orlando or even [CROSSTALK].
>> Yeah.
>> You used to have to call a phone number and
hopefully whoever was working at talent relations would pick up.
And you would say, hey, I see you guys are gonna be in Pittsburgh and Cleveland and
Detroit and Chicago, do you have anything?
And they'd go, okay, yeah, we need you in Chicago, next week we have a spot.
And from Pittsburgh that's an eight hour drive.
It's costing me money but guess what?
I'm gonna get into that building and you feel like a pariah,
you don't know what's happening.
And we still do Kevin, if you notice backstage, we have the extra talent.
>> Yeah, of course.
>> That used to be us, all of us.
LA has done it.
I've done it, I mean, you ask everybody who's anybody from that time period.
It was the most nerve wracking thing in the world because you sit in this
locker room.
And you hope to at least- >> Whoa, whoa, whoa, what locker room?
It was usually- >> That's true, depending on the building.
>> [LAUGH] >> It was a hallway,
with some curtains- >> Yeah.
>> Or a broom closet.
>> Yeah, you're absolutely right.
I mean, we were the unwanted redheaded stepchildren of the day,
and- >> Yeah.
>> You'd usually you walk up and they pay you and
99% of the time you didn't do anything.
But sometimes, every once in a while, Val Venus needed somebody to get beat up.
>> Right. >> Mark Henry had to throw old SJK around
the ring like I've never experienced a human, but
that was how you got your foot in the door.
And it just, it's very different from how it works in this day and
age where you can submit photos and videos online and there's a website and
it's very, very organized.
It was kind of the Wild West back then.
So, sorry to make that sidebar.
I just want everybody to understand what it was.
For that time period.
>> That's so true and it was even to a point, the first couple of times I
went there, there were some people who weren't even necessarily invited.
But if you were a wrestler, you could kinda just show up.
And so when I was at Championship Wrestling with Hollywood for
about three years, Paul Bearer was my manager.
>> Okay.
>> As Percy Pringle.
>> And so he had told me one time in 2012 cuz like I said,
I couldn't get him to answer the phone for two three years because of me showing
up late that one time and he was, there gonna be an Anaheim just go show up.
You can go work out I'm like, okay, screw it.
Yeah, I'll do that.
I got there and after about 20 minutes, somebody came up to me.
They were, hey, I'm sorry.
I don't think you're on the list and I was, I'm not but
I was told by Paul Bearer just kind of show up whatever and he was,
yeah we're not doing that anymore whatever.
>> Man.
>> I had to get out of there.
So it wasn't until what, I think 2012 midway somewhere,
I think there was a change in talent relations.
And then it was, finally I got a response to an email and
I was, I got somebody on the hook.
[LAUGH] >> [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGH].
>> Yeah, and honestly, the first response was just, well, we have a lot of guys
that kinda fit your physical demographic, we're trying to broaden the pool.
And I was, he responded to me, no, hold on.
I was, I understand you've gotten a lot of guys that fit my physical blah blah I was,
but you don't have a lot of guys that fit my talent package.
I'm going on and he's, okay, you got my attention are you available these days?
And I'm, all right, here we go.
It's all one of his triumphs give me a straight up real tryout.
Let me ask for a jog because it was, finally, just as I'm approaching,
what was this?
2012 or 2013, finally I knew how to ask, before it was just,
if I go there I show up as an extra, I show up to do background work,
they're just gonna notice me and be, hey, do you want a job?
>> It's like people that move to Hollywood and they just expect that somebody's gonna
discover them while they're waiting tables without going to the audition.
You have to do the work.
>> I'm like Jean-Claude Van Damme just doing karate moves in my driveway
hoping someone notices me.
>> [LAUGH]
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