During his recent feature on the “SHAK Wrestling” podcast, LA Knight opened up about the significant impact his rivalry with Roman Reigns had on his professional wrestling career in WWE.
Knight had unsuccessfully battled Reigns for the coveted WWE Championship at Crown Jewel 2023. A similar outcome was witnessed when he competed against Reigns for the title in a Fatal 4-Way match at the Royal Rumble in 2024, featuring AJ Styles and Randy Orton. Reigns managed to clinch victory once more.
Knight stated, “I think it did a little bit of all that. I think it took me in a few different directions. I think it optically in a way elevated me and I think also optically in a way it also kind of set me back a little bit to where I had to do a little bit of a rebuild back in the winter and spring time of last year. I think that’s just by virtue of the way it was all kind of set up and the way it was done. Ultimately, Crown Jewel was a nice payoff, so that was pretty good. Yeah, yeah.”
In a recent episode of the “Kliq This” podcast, WWE icon and Hall of Famer Kevin Nash commented on John Cena’s controversial transition to a heel character at the WWE Elimination Chamber: Toronto. As Cena’s wrestling career approaches its end with just nine months remaining, Nash advises that Cena retire as a villainous character.
Nash commented, “The thing about the Cena situation is, I read something today on a comment somewhere, was you know the Cena run has an expiration date. That changes everything. The one person said, ‘Wouldn’t it be Shakespearean if Cena rode off as a heel and basically the story was that he’s been that this whole time and you dumb fcks bought it for 20 years, that he was a good guy?’ I said, there’s a hell of a way to go. You’re never gonna take away from his legacy. You’re never going to take away from the fact that he’s done more Make-a-Wishes than probably the entire rest of the athletes on the planet.”
Addressing the possibility of a return to his hero persona, Nash further stated, “If he wants it. When John comes back, if I’m in charge and John comes to me and he says, ‘I want to do a retirement thing,’ I don’t know if it was pitched, if Paul said, ‘Hey, what do you think about a heel turn before you go out the back door,’ and John says, ‘Yeah, as long as we rectify it.’ When it comes down to it, it can always be a situation where it’s that last night, and something’s going down, and it’s the old Popeye. ‘It’s all I can stand because I stand no more,’ and he comes back to his senses. But people are a lot smarter than they used to be when it comes to wrestling. They’re gonna want this tied up in a bow. If you turn him and he’s been effective…””.