Booker T Refutes Kevin Nash’s Comments About LA Knight Being A “Ripoff”
Over the past six months, LA Knight has rapidly and firmly established himself as one of the most popular stars in the wrestling industry. Known for his charisma and mic skills, he has also proven to be solid in-ring worker. However, Knight’s inflection, gestures, catchphrases and in-ring style has often drawn comparisons to The Rock and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
While comparisons to the two biggest stars in the hottest period in professional wrestling history would ordinarily be something to relish, not everyone has been feeling the ‘kavorka’ of LA Knight. On a recent episode of his “Kliq This” podcast, Kevin Nash branded Knight “an absolute rip off of The Rock.”
Fellow WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, speaking on his podcast, refuted Nash’s views. While acknowledging that Knight does seemingly share the aforementioned traits with Rock & Austin, Booker said that drawing inspiration from iconic wrestlers in the past and making it your own thing has always been a core element in wrestling. Citing himself as an example, Booker said,
“I mean, you could look at it from a couple of different ways, I guess. You could say, ‘Well, he’s ripped a lot of Stone Cold Steve Austin off. He’s got a lot of Rock’s cadence.’ Yeah, I can see that but I don’t look at that as being a ripoff or anything like that. Because you know, I look at myself for instance, and [I] definitely took a lot of things from a lot of different wrestlers and, and kinda like meshed it into everything that I did and I called it my own. And I think that’s just what wrestlers do, especially the good ones.”
Further praising him as a callback superstar, Booker T shared how the likes of Hulk Hogan also drew inspiration from “Superstar” Billy Graham & Jesse The Body, while tons of wrestlers have modeled themselves after Ric Flair. He said,
“Can you imagine if, just say for instance LA Knight went out and modeled the act of Brady Boone? Okay, nobody didn’t know who it was. No, I’m serious. Barry Horowitz. I love Barry Horowitz, but just imagine if LA Knight came out giving himself a pat on the back, you know what I mean? They would think, ‘Well, that’s Barry. He never got over.’ So, if I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do something that the guy got over doing. So, I mean, I think that’s just normal. I think that’s just natural. I could be wrong here, but I think that’s just the way — you know, the blueprint is already there…. Just look at Hulk Hogan, okay. Before Hulk Hogan, there was Jesse The Body. Before Jesse The Body, there was Superstar Billy Graham, all those guys are the same guys. Ric Flair: do you know how many guys tried? Terry Taylor tried being Ric Flair at one time. There was a guy by the name of ‘Nature Boy’ Buddy Lindell who tried to look exactly like Ric Flair. So, I think that’s what wrestling is, and it’s always gonna be that way. Yeah, I mean, I got a young kid in my school right now doing the sidekick, you know?”
In response to comparison between himself and Rock & Austin, LA Knight has said that while copying them has never been his intention, the two are his favorite wrestlers and the ones he grew up idolizing. As such, it is not a surprise that he has picked up some of their traits. However, if he is viewed as “the Kobe to their Jordan,” he would be honored to have that distinction.
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