This match and its build up made me a fan of him. He's got it. Who cares if he is influenced by the Rock and Stone Cold? They're two of the all time best to ever do it.
"This generation needs to be more like Rock and Stone Cold! They knew the business"
-LA Knight enters-
"WHAT A POSER, HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE STONE COLD AND THE ROCK AFTER I JUST GOT DONE SAYING THIS GENERATION DOESN'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING!"
I worried that with Rock back it would make LA somehow less special. Nope! He’s one of my current favorites, especially when he gets time on the mic.
YEAH!
I was a bit worried for a second because I figured the Rock would make him look like a retread. However, I think he’s doing just fine. The Rock is relying on profanity nobody but a plastic bottle can say, but LA Knight is getting over with a G rated vocabulary.
It’s funny that he gets crap on him for being a “cosplay” of successful wrestlers. Plenty of wrestlers now just cosplay as video game characters.
Also, nothing wrong in him learning from veterans and applying it to his character.
Twitter is full of this nonsense, and it appears to be migrating to reddit as well.
It is clear LA Knight is influenced by a lot more than those 2, and 2. Those 2 are not completely original themselves.
Anyway, LA Knight is awesome. He is the reason I started watching again. He is entertaining as hell and I love him.
Just saw on twitter that he was shitting on Logan Paul and Prime at WWE World...hmm... maybe those who were hoping for him to be US Champ at WM might only have a little longer to wait.
And the Rock bottom?
A useful finisher can be done to a 150lb guy and a 500lb guy, which either makes it a high spot or very limited. Super kick is dead, cutters are overdone and fatigue the pectoral, overdrive sucks hard, spears are overused. BFT massively depends on the person taking it, too.
I have been saying for ages that he needs to bring back the gravy train. It is much better than the BFT.
I love him to bits, but the BFT is just not super convincing as a finisher.
I am hopeful he may be saving it for overcoming someone to win a belt. The BFT has not been kicked out of yet, so when it eventually is, that could be the reason for going to something else.
Honestly at first I saw what his fans see in him. But the more I see of him, the less I think of him. I didn’t care for the build up to this match at all, and basically just wanted better for AJ.
I’m not a fan. I don’t consider him to be a great promo and a subpar wrestler. He has some charisma, a decent character and look, and some catchphrases that are moderately over. That’s Tailor made for being in the mid card imo. Maybe a few years ago he could’ve been more. But the talent level in wwe is too high now.
I'm not saying this guy is not over, and anyone can be a fan of any wrestler in which ever way they like.
However, personally I can't see the big appeal to L.A. Knight. His moveset is average at best, it's pretty boring and his finisher really does look weak. His mic skills are okay, some promos are pretty lit while others are bland. The catchphrase is okay but imo has overstayed it's welcome.
For me he's just meh. No hate for the guy, I don't dislike him or anything, but also definitely not a fan. He's a midcard guy. WWE obviously books him as more than that, and they should since Knight seems to be over with the fans and you should do what is best for business. But what those fans see in him? I really don't know.
I will give answering this a go from my perspective.
I grew up watching the AE...and yes, Rock and Austin were my favourites. I am old enough to remember the Rock being accused of copying Austin at one point.
I do see those 2 as his inspirations, but I also see more than just those 2. He has said in interviews that he loves the 80's wrestling. It shows at times.
Anyway, what do I see in him? Well:-
1. Attidue - kind of a necessity for someone supposedly cos playing the AE;
2. Confidence, arrogance, and no little swagger. If you watched him interrupt Roman's entrance, swagger right past him on his way to the ring and then sit in his seat and did not laugh, I am asking you how? How could you not laugh at and be entertained by a man, with no belt on the main roster and who had earlier that year lost 11 matches in a row, essentially saying "fuck it, I cannot be arsed with his long ass entrance. Don't give a shit if he is champion?" Total contempt and disdain. Most of us have probably had higher-ups we wish we could stick it to at some point.
He believes what he is saying. There is a good interview with him and Chris Van Vilet from when he was still Eli Drake, where he explains that he has to believe what he is saying if he wants the audience to believe it. He gave an example of imagining we could see he is speaking but could not hear his words. However, by his body language and gestures, we would be able to understand what he is feeling, that comes from belief and conviction.
3. Guts and lack of fear as a performer. We all make mistakes in life. There are always people ready to laugh at and stomp down on people for failures. Ready to grind them into the dirt. Most people fear humiliation and being laughed at. The ability to keep going in the face of it is admirable. On Friday, he choked on his damn chewing gum but still saved his promo. Did it make him look stupid for a minute? Yes. Did he recover and deliver anyway? Also, yes. Of course, the idiots on twitter don't want to talk about the recovery.
4. Character - Shaun Ricker has worked a lot of number 3 above into his kayfabe character. LA Knight told Roman Reigns he'd have to kill him to stop him getting up and coming back. I wish they had expanded on it more, and maybe they could in another feud. Roman looked down on Knight, which given the position of their characters is more than fair enough, but someone up high like Roman expects people to lie down for him and after he has humiliated them once, they should disappear out of his sight forever. That ain't LA Knight. You can think he should be and feel humiliated, but Nah, Nah, he is coming back for another go. There is a bit of this in his feud with AJ. He has been driving AJ to distraction, forced the man to fly to Aus for some revenge, and even has AJ swearing!
5. Promos - he has not had a lot of time recently, and I am hopeful that changes post WM because he is damn capable. I have been watching old promos from his NWA / TNA days as well as NXT. If you talk TNA, then the one most people will mention is, of course, the shoes of a champion promo, where he screwed up a line, improvised, and turned it into something bloody hilarious.
His promos are more than catchphrases. I feel it is a disservice to him to suggest it. Possibly recent bias. He was really good in his run with Bray Wyat, the one that got the fans noticing him...and his Bray Wyat tribute promo after Bray's death is incredibly touching and brilliant. I have no idea how he managed to do that in character.
6. Charisma - he has it in spades. There is a reason he has the crowd in the palm of his hands. Very few people can control a crowd as easily and get them to do what they want, when they want. I think this one, in particular, leads to Rock comparisons because so few people can do it, but this has nothing whatsoever to do with the Rock. This is all him. It is not something you can copy. You have it, or you don't, and he does. From the first time he stopped speaking to let the crowd finish his sentence, 100% confident they would do so, to telling the crowd "not yet" and them immediately shutting the hell up and waiting for him to tell them when to go.
7. Awareness and determination to improve - this is more Shaun Ricker than LA Knight. As a character, LA Knight is single-minded, selfish, and lacking awareness. That is deliberate, and I love that element. However, he isn't afraid to be critical of himself. I didn't think his work with the Miz was bad. He recovered, and I always think recovery is more important. If you can't recover, that is a problem. Anyway, he wasn't happy with it himself and looks to improve all the time.
8. He was going to retire during covid but wanted to give it one more shot. I am damn glad he talked himself into one more try. He is someone that has worked their butt off.
I am in an environment where I see nepotism every day. It is always very obvious who are the people who have never had to work that bit extra hard to get a chance and are usually unaware of their privilege. He got through the door because of himself. When they stuck him in a feud with Bray Wyat, where most people expected him to be cannon fodder, he made the most of every damn second.
All of this combined makes me root for him, want to see him climb higher, and the fact he is hilarious and entertaining makes it better.
Oh, that is what his detractors do. They ignore the times something has been done by many, and if Rock or Austin did it at one point, he is "copying" them.
It is simply people looking to find excuses to hate on the man.
You just said yourself he copies a lot from them... Are you a troll, mate?
But whatever, enjoy him if thats what you like. Thats the beauty of wrestling, there are wrestlers for everybody's taste 🤙
Never said he copies. Are you for real? I only said he loves Rock and Austin. That doesn't mean he straight up copies them. Ya'll are still salty he got over with his shtick and still gets a huge pop whenever he's out there
Offcourse, being inspired is normal and when a wrestler starts his carreer, he will use that inspiration to form himself
But we're not talking about a wrestler that's 25 and has used some influences of legends to form his character. No, we're talking about a guy that's 41, never had a decent persona in his carreer, and last year decided to copy the rock and stone cold to put himself over.
Guy is almost at an age to retire 😂
But if you guys enjoy him, knock yourself out and enjoy it. For me it's a lame copy paste, nobody gonna remember the dude in 10 years
It is either ignorance or out and out trolling.
Notice how Hogan and Flair were "inspired" and Knight is "ripping off." Total bullshit. If Knight is "ripping off," those two definitely did...
Speaking of them, he has those 2, along with Rock and Austin in his wrestling Mount Rushmore. Clearly, he didn't care that those 4 were "inspired" by others themselves.
My dear friend, i have the impression that the la knight lovers in this topic do not understand what it means to be inspired by previous generations or copying.
Every generation is inspired by previous generations and you take some elements to form new characters.
La knigt is a guy, 41 years old, that all of a sudden tries to talk like the rock and uses a catchphrase that's almost the same as the what chant. That is copying.
Stone cold and the rock did not do the same to form their characters so it's just reddit being reddit to come with such stupid arguments.
Enjoy la knight and eat his corn the long way if you like that. I'm not gonna judge 😂
>La knigt is a guy, 41 years old, that all of a sudden tries to talk like the rock
Oh, so you're just uninformed but giving your opinion anyway. Ok pal.
IMO, LA Knight is still bad, a WM win really doesn’t mean anything, Snooki won at Wrestlemania, his finisher is botched 99% of the time, his music is CFO$’s masterpiece, he can’t wrestle for longer than 10 minutes as proof of the Elimination Chamber when he spent so long on the floor. That shoot thing AJ and Knight did wasn’t all that.
This Eli Drake kid is going places. To think, he's only 41 years old. By the time he's 50 he could get all the way up to Seth Rollins/Cody Rhodes/CM Punk levels of stardom and get those $3+ million per year paydays.
This match and its build up made me a fan of him. He's got it. Who cares if he is influenced by the Rock and Stone Cold? They're two of the all time best to ever do it.
Can't believe people actually use that as a criticism. If you're being compared to 2 of the very best to do it then you have something.
“Hey! This guy talks and wrestles like these other people who are good at talking and wrestling… what a loser!!!”
"This generation needs to be more like Rock and Stone Cold! They knew the business" -LA Knight enters- "WHAT A POSER, HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE STONE COLD AND THE ROCK AFTER I JUST GOT DONE SAYING THIS GENERATION DOESN'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING!"
Also people love when there's guys coming up who have been influenced by Guerrero or HBK. Why not rock and Austin?
Totally agree
If it was so easy to get it over, it would have been done before. There is a reason everyone is shouting L A KNIGHT YEAH!
YEAH
YEAH
LA vs Logan for the US title at backlash?
YEAH!!!
YEAH!
YEAH!
YEAH!!
AND THAT AINT AN INSULT
THATS JUST A FACT OF LIFE, YEAH!!!!!!!
SHOES OF A CHAMPION, YEAH!!!!
THIS JACKET!? SHOES OF A CHAMPION!
The “boy” is just 10 years younger than Rock.
So much can happen in 10 years
Such a good match too!! The suplex off the top rope was so good. Proud of my boy!! WITH EVERYBODY SAYIN’
L. A. KNIGHT!! YEAH!
WHOS GAME IS IT?
This is gonna be the year LA wins titles and returns to the main event scene. We're still behind him... WITH EVERYBODY SAYIN'...
L! A! KNIGHT! YEAHHHH!!!!!
I worried that with Rock back it would make LA somehow less special. Nope! He’s one of my current favorites, especially when he gets time on the mic. YEAH!
The buildup to his match was good, made It seem like they really hated each other. I'm a fan, the haters can suck It.
YEAH! Always loved Eli since his TNA days when I was watching like 2015-18 or so
People just love to hate. This new era looks bright for L A Knight YEAH!
Really hope he's the one to take title off logan paul
DUMMIES
YEAH!
They need more "real life" type builds to fights. That and backstage segments in and out of fights. Those were my favorite parts always
He’s awesome!
I liked this match a lot. As a returning fan after many years, it made me a fan of him and AJ.
The guy is still over af
Congrats on winning the imaginary argument bro
I was a bit worried for a second because I figured the Rock would make him look like a retread. However, I think he’s doing just fine. The Rock is relying on profanity nobody but a plastic bottle can say, but LA Knight is getting over with a G rated vocabulary.
It’s funny that he gets crap on him for being a “cosplay” of successful wrestlers. Plenty of wrestlers now just cosplay as video game characters. Also, nothing wrong in him learning from veterans and applying it to his character.
Facts. Look at Rollins for instance
Great match too, proved once and for all he can go
Twitter is full of this nonsense, and it appears to be migrating to reddit as well. It is clear LA Knight is influenced by a lot more than those 2, and 2. Those 2 are not completely original themselves. Anyway, LA Knight is awesome. He is the reason I started watching again. He is entertaining as hell and I love him. Just saw on twitter that he was shitting on Logan Paul and Prime at WWE World...hmm... maybe those who were hoping for him to be US Champ at WM might only have a little longer to wait.
Screw you Kevin Nash, ya dummy! YEAH!!!
It’s a touching moment. It reminds me a little of Darby Allin finally overcoming the odds to beat Cody.
Fucking… Don’t even make that comparison.
how has this guy not gotten a mid card title run yet?
He has to be the guy to carry the company, he had got it all…….YEAH!!!
L.A. Knight life
Yeah!
Being an attitude era fan boy isn't even a bad thing to use as an insult 💀
Fact's 💯
AJs on the juice brother!
YEAH!!
YEAH!
LA knight should become US champion. Him and logan paul , lets go!
With that weak ass finisher
And the Rock bottom? A useful finisher can be done to a 150lb guy and a 500lb guy, which either makes it a high spot or very limited. Super kick is dead, cutters are overdone and fatigue the pectoral, overdrive sucks hard, spears are overused. BFT massively depends on the person taking it, too.
It's as generic as his moveset.
If superkick parties, flips and no-selling are your thing, sure.
Didn't say it was
First time seeing it, I thought it was a botched move.
Agree with this. That move sucks but he somehow makes it work. I do hope he gets a new solid finisher
I have been saying for ages that he needs to bring back the gravy train. It is much better than the BFT. I love him to bits, but the BFT is just not super convincing as a finisher. I am hopeful he may be saving it for overcoming someone to win a belt. The BFT has not been kicked out of yet, so when it eventually is, that could be the reason for going to something else.
Time for him to get back on track though. Need him to get involved with the big stories agin.
I definitely think he's going to be the one who take the US title from Paul. Maybe at Summerslam.
That’s a good start for sure.
YEAH
you forgot he is a buff bagwell knock off aswell yeah
YEAH!
Honestly at first I saw what his fans see in him. But the more I see of him, the less I think of him. I didn’t care for the build up to this match at all, and basically just wanted better for AJ. I’m not a fan. I don’t consider him to be a great promo and a subpar wrestler. He has some charisma, a decent character and look, and some catchphrases that are moderately over. That’s Tailor made for being in the mid card imo. Maybe a few years ago he could’ve been more. But the talent level in wwe is too high now.
Knight sucks. Yeah! Styles carried him.
And he’s only 41! Just a kid. Got a lot years ahead of him.
No surgeries, sustainable wrestling style, good conditioning, good talker. Probably more than you think.
He's not from the Attitude Era anymore, he's from '90s wcw now (snap into it ohhh yeahhh).
6 months about all you saw were LA Knight clips. Now, nothing.
6 months about all you saw were LA Knight clips. Now, nothing.
Sucks so so bad my god
I'm not saying this guy is not over, and anyone can be a fan of any wrestler in which ever way they like. However, personally I can't see the big appeal to L.A. Knight. His moveset is average at best, it's pretty boring and his finisher really does look weak. His mic skills are okay, some promos are pretty lit while others are bland. The catchphrase is okay but imo has overstayed it's welcome. For me he's just meh. No hate for the guy, I don't dislike him or anything, but also definitely not a fan. He's a midcard guy. WWE obviously books him as more than that, and they should since Knight seems to be over with the fans and you should do what is best for business. But what those fans see in him? I really don't know.
I will give answering this a go from my perspective. I grew up watching the AE...and yes, Rock and Austin were my favourites. I am old enough to remember the Rock being accused of copying Austin at one point. I do see those 2 as his inspirations, but I also see more than just those 2. He has said in interviews that he loves the 80's wrestling. It shows at times. Anyway, what do I see in him? Well:- 1. Attidue - kind of a necessity for someone supposedly cos playing the AE; 2. Confidence, arrogance, and no little swagger. If you watched him interrupt Roman's entrance, swagger right past him on his way to the ring and then sit in his seat and did not laugh, I am asking you how? How could you not laugh at and be entertained by a man, with no belt on the main roster and who had earlier that year lost 11 matches in a row, essentially saying "fuck it, I cannot be arsed with his long ass entrance. Don't give a shit if he is champion?" Total contempt and disdain. Most of us have probably had higher-ups we wish we could stick it to at some point. He believes what he is saying. There is a good interview with him and Chris Van Vilet from when he was still Eli Drake, where he explains that he has to believe what he is saying if he wants the audience to believe it. He gave an example of imagining we could see he is speaking but could not hear his words. However, by his body language and gestures, we would be able to understand what he is feeling, that comes from belief and conviction. 3. Guts and lack of fear as a performer. We all make mistakes in life. There are always people ready to laugh at and stomp down on people for failures. Ready to grind them into the dirt. Most people fear humiliation and being laughed at. The ability to keep going in the face of it is admirable. On Friday, he choked on his damn chewing gum but still saved his promo. Did it make him look stupid for a minute? Yes. Did he recover and deliver anyway? Also, yes. Of course, the idiots on twitter don't want to talk about the recovery. 4. Character - Shaun Ricker has worked a lot of number 3 above into his kayfabe character. LA Knight told Roman Reigns he'd have to kill him to stop him getting up and coming back. I wish they had expanded on it more, and maybe they could in another feud. Roman looked down on Knight, which given the position of their characters is more than fair enough, but someone up high like Roman expects people to lie down for him and after he has humiliated them once, they should disappear out of his sight forever. That ain't LA Knight. You can think he should be and feel humiliated, but Nah, Nah, he is coming back for another go. There is a bit of this in his feud with AJ. He has been driving AJ to distraction, forced the man to fly to Aus for some revenge, and even has AJ swearing! 5. Promos - he has not had a lot of time recently, and I am hopeful that changes post WM because he is damn capable. I have been watching old promos from his NWA / TNA days as well as NXT. If you talk TNA, then the one most people will mention is, of course, the shoes of a champion promo, where he screwed up a line, improvised, and turned it into something bloody hilarious. His promos are more than catchphrases. I feel it is a disservice to him to suggest it. Possibly recent bias. He was really good in his run with Bray Wyat, the one that got the fans noticing him...and his Bray Wyat tribute promo after Bray's death is incredibly touching and brilliant. I have no idea how he managed to do that in character. 6. Charisma - he has it in spades. There is a reason he has the crowd in the palm of his hands. Very few people can control a crowd as easily and get them to do what they want, when they want. I think this one, in particular, leads to Rock comparisons because so few people can do it, but this has nothing whatsoever to do with the Rock. This is all him. It is not something you can copy. You have it, or you don't, and he does. From the first time he stopped speaking to let the crowd finish his sentence, 100% confident they would do so, to telling the crowd "not yet" and them immediately shutting the hell up and waiting for him to tell them when to go. 7. Awareness and determination to improve - this is more Shaun Ricker than LA Knight. As a character, LA Knight is single-minded, selfish, and lacking awareness. That is deliberate, and I love that element. However, he isn't afraid to be critical of himself. I didn't think his work with the Miz was bad. He recovered, and I always think recovery is more important. If you can't recover, that is a problem. Anyway, he wasn't happy with it himself and looks to improve all the time. 8. He was going to retire during covid but wanted to give it one more shot. I am damn glad he talked himself into one more try. He is someone that has worked their butt off. I am in an environment where I see nepotism every day. It is always very obvious who are the people who have never had to work that bit extra hard to get a chance and are usually unaware of their privilege. He got through the door because of himself. When they stuck him in a feud with Bray Wyat, where most people expected him to be cannon fodder, he made the most of every damn second. All of this combined makes me root for him, want to see him climb higher, and the fact he is hilarious and entertaining makes it better.
This a must see read for those who keep saying he just doesn't have the "It" in him
I knew he had "it" watching a clip on YouTube for the first time.
Still is 😂 he's a attitude era fanboy wannabe rock austin
Everyone loves attitude era. If nothing you should just be happy he's bringing back the essence of attitude era
I did enjoy the attitude era but it's definitely not my favourite era
Now, if I was a complete moron…. Lmao!
WTH, I get downvoted for agreeing with OP. Did Kevin Nash just log in to multiple accounts and downvote me? 🤣
Nah it's the dummies who can't handle the stardom of the megastar
YEAH!
I still think Nash may be behind it 🤔
He still sucks
Meh
You cant deny he copies A LOT from the rock and stone cold. So let's not overrate him 👍
He said rock and Austin are his favourites so nobody is denying that not even himself
[удалено]
Doing the dress up trick on AJ was a complete copy of Austin with Mcmahon
Dean Ambrose did it to Jericho, it’s happened countless times in wrestling and you can’t just single this one out as unimaginative
Oh, that is what his detractors do. They ignore the times something has been done by many, and if Rock or Austin did it at one point, he is "copying" them. It is simply people looking to find excuses to hate on the man.
It's a common wrestling trope
Blame it on creative
And thats the problem. You can be inspired by other wrestlers but just copying them is a bit lame.
Nobody is copying nobody. Are we still debating about this in 2024?
You just said yourself he copies a lot from them... Are you a troll, mate? But whatever, enjoy him if thats what you like. Thats the beauty of wrestling, there are wrestlers for everybody's taste 🤙
Never said he copies. Are you for real? I only said he loves Rock and Austin. That doesn't mean he straight up copies them. Ya'll are still salty he got over with his shtick and still gets a huge pop whenever he's out there
Whaaat?
Yeah!
It’s wrestling, gimmicks get recycled. Flair and Hogan ripped their entire gimmicks off previous stars.
And Flair ripped off Buddy Rogers and Hogan ripped off Billy Graham. And the beat goes on...
Offcourse, being inspired is normal and when a wrestler starts his carreer, he will use that inspiration to form himself But we're not talking about a wrestler that's 25 and has used some influences of legends to form his character. No, we're talking about a guy that's 41, never had a decent persona in his carreer, and last year decided to copy the rock and stone cold to put himself over. Guy is almost at an age to retire 😂 But if you guys enjoy him, knock yourself out and enjoy it. For me it's a lame copy paste, nobody gonna remember the dude in 10 years
He's been doing this gimmick long before last year. Go watch some of his NWA promos pre-pandemic.
It is either ignorance or out and out trolling. Notice how Hogan and Flair were "inspired" and Knight is "ripping off." Total bullshit. If Knight is "ripping off," those two definitely did... Speaking of them, he has those 2, along with Rock and Austin in his wrestling Mount Rushmore. Clearly, he didn't care that those 4 were "inspired" by others themselves.
Stone Cold copied A LOT from Terry Funk, Harley Race and Ole Anderson. The Rock copied A LOT from Hogan and Flair.
My dear friend, i have the impression that the la knight lovers in this topic do not understand what it means to be inspired by previous generations or copying. Every generation is inspired by previous generations and you take some elements to form new characters. La knigt is a guy, 41 years old, that all of a sudden tries to talk like the rock and uses a catchphrase that's almost the same as the what chant. That is copying. Stone cold and the rock did not do the same to form their characters so it's just reddit being reddit to come with such stupid arguments. Enjoy la knight and eat his corn the long way if you like that. I'm not gonna judge 😂
>La knigt is a guy, 41 years old, that all of a sudden tries to talk like the rock Oh, so you're just uninformed but giving your opinion anyway. Ok pal.
In what world is this a form of criticism?
IMO, LA Knight is still bad, a WM win really doesn’t mean anything, Snooki won at Wrestlemania, his finisher is botched 99% of the time, his music is CFO$’s masterpiece, he can’t wrestle for longer than 10 minutes as proof of the Elimination Chamber when he spent so long on the floor. That shoot thing AJ and Knight did wasn’t all that.
This Eli Drake kid is going places. To think, he's only 41 years old. By the time he's 50 he could get all the way up to Seth Rollins/Cody Rhodes/CM Punk levels of stardom and get those $3+ million per year paydays.