Backstage update on LA Knight's increasing WWE popularity
LA Knight has been a major merchandise seller for WWE, but apparently, there has been a "point of contention" backstage as of late.
Knight has become one of the most popular superstars in the entire company after his arrival on the main roster last year. The veteran debuted as Max Dupri, the leader of the Maximum Male Models faction, but quickly abandoned the group to return to his LA Knight persona.
Since the character change, Knight has been consistently getting the best reaction of the night on SmackDown and showed up on RAW last week to begin a rivalry with The Miz. He continues to get incredible reactions from the crowd and won the Slim Jim Battle Royal at SummerSlam.
According to a new report from Fightful Select, a significant portion of merch sales for LA Knight come digitally through third-party outlets and is right up there with Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes on those lists. However, Fightful noted that the lists they see often don't factor in sales at live events, where Reigns and Rhodes sell a ton of merchandise.
The report added that there was a "point of contention" internally about the lack of Knight's merchandise available for purchase at certain live shows lately.
Former WWE manager Dutch Mantell on LA Knight's popularity
Wrestling legend Dutch Mantell believes fans will forget about LA Knight's lack of direction in the past if WWE continues to push him.
LA Knight has become a massive star by connecting with the WWE Universe despite not picking up major victories. The Megastar was not featured at WrestleMania 39 even though the show was in Los Angeles, lost the Men's MITB Ladder match, lost in the United States Championship Invitational tournament, and was not featured in a marquee rivalry heading into WWE SummerSlam 2023.
Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk, Mantell claimed that WWE now has the chance to book Knight better this time around and that casual fans will ultimately forget about what he was doing a year ago.
"They gotta know when they've hit a nerve. You can see now that LA Knight. They've hit a nerve with him. Now they're giving him a push. That's the way I look at it. See, the way you kinda diagram it, I'm not saying it's wrong, it's right. When you go back a year ago, I'm thinking what the hell is he talking about? I was here, I know what you're talking about, and I still don't remember." [From 32:35 to 33:06]
You can check out the full episode in the video below:
The crowd has simply refused to let the momentum for Knight go away and is fully behind him. It will be fascinating to see when WWE finally decides to push the veteran in the months ahead.
Would you like to see Knight capture a championship in 2023? Sound off in the comments section below.