Exclusive: LA Knight on “frustrating” journey to WWE: “I should have been here a long time ago"
LA Knight is preparing for the biggest match of his WWE career so far, as one of the seven participant in this year's Men's Money in the Bank match with Ricochet, Shinsuke Nakamura, Santos Escobar, Butch, Damian Priest, and Logan Paul.
In recent months, Knight's popularity has grown with fans and he's now the favourite to win the match at London's O2 Arena. But while Knight has only been a familiar face to WWE fans since his NXT debut in February 2021, his wrestling career spans two decades across multiple promotions.
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Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy ahead of Money in the Bank, Knight opened up about his journey in the wrestling business, admitting he has mixed feelings about his path to WWE.
"I look back on the journey very fondly in a lot of ways," Knight said. "At the same time, I look back at it with a lot of frustration and a lot of anger because I should have been here a long time ago.
"I should have been doing this and and having this match and all this stuff a long, long time ago. Although, at the same time, I appreciate what I've done and the way I've had to go about it and the fact that I've just gotten to live the life that I've gotten to live, particularly over the last 10 years."
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Knight said that during his 20s there were periods when he was, 'broke and struggling', but added: "Right around the time I turned 30, everything just kind of took an upswing.
"Living in LA for the time that I did was just amazing and I got to see the world through wrestling in different companies. I went to India for the first time, Australia for the first time, Canada, Mexico, Japan.
"It's very mixed feelings because there's a lot of me that's just a frustrated, angry guy that this has not happened much sooner, but at the same time that peaceful side of me is just like, 'Hey, it's been a good run, it's been good journey'. And there's still so much more to come."
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While the fans have been getting behind him, Knight says he still has a lot to prove in WWE and Money in the Bank is the perfect place to do it.
"I rolled in here about two years ago or so and I had a lot of goals in mind," he said. "I had a lot of things that I wanted to do.
"Then there's some goals that popped up that I haven't even considered, that I didn't even know were possible. The Million Dollar Championship, that happened, I was on top of the ladder."
"So now we roll into 2023, another ladder match. So with all those goals in mind, I've got a lot to do still," he added. "I've got a lot to prove both to myself and the world and so the O2 is a good time to make that happen."
WWE brings Money In The Bank to The O2 in London on Saturday 1st July. For tickets visit: https://www.wwe.com/event/money-in-the-bank. Catch up on Raw, Smackdown, NXT and all the big WWE action via the WWE Network or BT Sport. US viewers can access the WWE Network via Peacock.
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